GoKawiil
Tech News
A researcher has proposed the 'natural kiln hypothesis,' suggesting that early humans discovered fire-hardened clay through exposure to intense wildfires rather than through deliberate experimentation with hearths. Observing clay baked solid by these natural blazes may have shown ancient people that heat could transform soft earth into a durable, useful material, eventually leading to intentional pottery-making.
Researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, led by Yoav Vaknin, developed a method to authenticate ancient pottery by analyzing two magnetic signals locked into fired clay: thermal remanent magnetization from firing and a weaker viscous remanent magnetization acquired over centuries. Because Earth's magnetic pole shifts position over time, comparing these signals can reveal whether a ceramic object is genuinely ancient or a modern forgery. The findings were published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.