Ceramics is one of the most ancient industries going back thousands of years.
Once humans discovered that clay could be found in abundance and formed into objects by first mixing with water
and then firing, a key industry was born.
The oldest known ceramic artifact is dated as early as 28,000 BCE (BCE = Before Common Era),
during the late Paleolithic period.
It is a statuette of a woman, named the Venus of Dolní Věstonice,
from a small prehistoric settlement near Brno, in the Czech Republic.
In this location, hundreds of clay figurines representing
Ice Age animals were also uncovered near the remains of a horseshoe-shaped kiln.