Ceramics has an extremely long and varied history.  Neanderthal hunting and gathering groups who roamed across Eurasia 70,000 to 35,000 years ago had fire and may have made clay vessels hardened in fire, but the first evidence of true carving and artistic use of clay does not appear until the development of homo sapiens about 35,000 years ago during the last Ice Age.  A prehistoric drawing found at an excavation site in China leads archeologists to believe that, at least in this area, twig baskets, mudded with clay to make them hold water or food were one day put on a fire - the the discovery that the basket burned out, leaving a hardened clay vessel.

In about 30,000 BCE clay animals and figures emerged, modeled in the round as well as carved in clay walls and floors.  Ruins of prehistoric kilns have also been found from this period.  It has been discovered that the North American Indians were burning clay pots in bonfires 25,000 years ago; to this day, they do not use kilns.  All early cultures that fired clay had knowledge of different clay pigments, of metallic oxides that would resist temperatures of red heat and could be used for decoration, and of methods of hand fabrication and structure. H.1.2

. . . from The Craft and Art of Clay by Susan Peterson (page 238)