Timeline: Native American pottery and ceramics history

25,000 BCE

Native American settlement

There is evidence of early human settlement on this continent dating from at least 25,000 B.C., long before recorded history began. Most scholars believe that Indians entered the continental United States from Asia, traveling across the Bering Strait and through Canada, between 25,000 to 8,000 B.C.

5500 BCE

Earliest ceramics or pottery in America

The earliest ceramics or pottery known from the Americas have been found in the lower Amazon Basin. Ceramics from the Caverna de Pedra Pintada, near Santarém, Brazil, have been dated to 7,500 to 5,000 years ago.

4530 BCE

Pottery found in Colombia

Ceramics of the San Jacinto culture in Colombia have been dated to about 4530 BCE,

4000 BCE

Pottery from Taperinha, also near Santarém, have been dated to 6,000 years ago

These first ceramics-making cultures were fishers and shellfish-gatherers.

3200 BCE

Pottery appeared in the Valdivia culture in Ecuador

2492 BCE

First traces of pottery in North America

The oldest pottery unearthed in North America was found on Stallings Island in the Savannah River near Augusta, Georgia. These artifacts date back to 4,500 years ago.

2460 BCE

Ceramics and Pottery of the Orange and Norwood cultures

in northern Florida to around 2460 BCE

2140 BCE

The spread of ceramics in Central America came later.

Ceramics from Monagrillo in Panama been dated to around 2140 BCE,

1890 BCE

Tronadora in Costa Rica

1805 BCE

Pottery in Mexico

The Purrón tradition in southcentral Mexico have been dated to around 1805 BCE.

1682 BCE

Barra in Guatemala to around 1682 BCE.

1487 BCE

The earliest ceramics in Canada

The earliest ceramics in Canada were made in the northern Yukon more than 3,500 years ago, within sight of the Arctic Ocean.That Siberian-inspired Palaeoeskimo pottery tradition, however, did not spread to more southern regions