By Jennifer Lilonsky (staff@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Apr 11, 2013 08:28 AM EDT

Archeologists have uncovered pottery dating back more than 20,000 years ago, indicating that ceramic pots were used as cooking vessels way before it was previously thought.

The commonly accepted theory was that ceramic pots were used when farming emerged about 10,000 years ago and were used as food storage.

But the new discovery completely debunks that notion.

Charred fragments and food remnants were observed on the pieces of pottery uncovered by the archeologists, meaning that they were used for more than just storage.

But scientists are uncertain why nomadic people would feel the need to create a cumbersome cooking vessel like the pieces that were uncovered.

"Foragers first used pottery as a revolutionary new strategy for the processing of marine and freshwater fish," said Dr. Olive Craig who led the study and is an archeologist and director of the BioArCh research institution at The University of York.

"Perhaps most interesting is that this fundamental adaptation emerged over a period of severe climate change."

Craig plans to determine the inner workings of how the technique spread between different hunter-gatherer societies and learn more about their dietary habits by studying different pieces of pottery throughout the world.

The study's findings were published in the journal Nature. 

(SOURCE)