Existing comment:
Steatite Bowl, about 2000 BCE
Steatite, or soapstone, could be easily carved to make cooking bowls.
Soapstone was a highly prized material because it absorbed, stored, and radiated heat. It was used to make cooking vessels. Its use suggests that people were more settled, because the bowls were heavy and difficult to move.
It was not too heavy, however, to trade. Fragments have been discovered hundreds of miles from where the soapstone was quarried -- evidence of contact between peoples in the mountains and the coast. |