Humans probably reached East Asia between 30,000 and 50,000 years ago. Recently, pieces of clay pottery have been discovered in a Chinese hunter-gatherer cave that dates to 18,000 years ago—this is the oldest pottery ever discovered. Historians believe farming began in China about 7,000 BCE. The first crop grown was a grain called millet. Rice was farmed around the same time, and may have come before millet. Farming created more food, which increased population and allowed people to follow different vocations other than constantly looking for food. Eventually, people needed leaders to organize irrigation and to store food. Families that controlled land and irrigation became powerful. So, civilization developed in China the same way it developed in other parts of the world.