Red Pottery Tripod Vessel
Maker Unknown
Date: Neolithic, about 4500 BC - 2000 BC
Place Made: China
Materials & Techniques: Earthenware Fired Ceramic
Dimensions: Height 30.7cm
Accession Number: Compton Verney, CVCSC: 0263.A
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This tripod Chinese cooking vessel or Li is 5000 years old! It dates from the Neolithic period (4500 BC - 2000 BC). It has three hollow legs, each standing on a small ceramic support. The bulbous body would have held liquid or food to be heated over an open fire. Its large surface area would have ensured that the heat reached all parts of the food inside it.
The Li is made of clay that was fired in a kiln to harden and strengthen it. The red colour comes from the original clay used but the black marks may be from the kiln or someone cooking their dinner 5000 years ago! This kind of pottery inspired many of the bronze vessels used in religious ceremonies during the later Chinese Shang and Zhou Dynasties. You can see one of these featured in this website if you click here: Bronze ritual vessel or You.
Teachers' Information
The three legs of this Neolithic cooking Li are an excellent piece of design and engineering that make the vessel extremely stable. This design was very popular in many Neolithic cultures but this piece is particularly remarkable for its large size. It could have been made in a variety of ways but most likely it was coil built or Slab built.
Clay is rolled into long sausage like shapes and then coiled around to create the desired design. Alternatively, slabs of clay may be molded together to produce the vessel. The Li would then be fired in a wood burning kiln where the temperature can fluctuate and so produce imperfections, such as the black marks on the legs of the vessel. However in is possible that the marks were made by a Neolithic Chinese cooking fire!
Activities
1. Pupils could create a coil-built ceramic or air-drying clay tripod with simple combed pattern. They could then create a similar piece using the slab-built method. Discuss the two methods and which the pupils preferred.
2. Your class could find out what life was like in Neolithic times. What was happening in China and Europe 5000 years ago?
3. Ask your class to experiment with finding the most stable design for a cooking pot. Try two, three and four legs on different surfaces.