Archaeologists from Geneva University have discovered what they claim is Africa's oldest ceramic, dated at around 9,400BC, in eastern Mali.
"It's a tiny, ornate fragment that was made with great skill and the use of fire," said ethno-archaeologist Anne Mayor in Bamako, the Malian capital.
What seems very likely is that if this "ornate fragment made with great skill" dates to 9,400 BC then the earlier, primitive and less ornate and skilled ancestors of this pottery must a) still be there and b) go back even earlier.