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Pottery jiao vessel
Height 18 (7 Vs)
Early Bronze Age, Lower Xiajiadian Culture
(c. 2000-1500 BCE)
From Dadianzi, Aohanqi, Inner Mongolia
The Institute of Archaeology, CASS, Beijing

1
This small pouring vessel stands delicately poised
on three legs tapering to pointed tips. Its body,
smooth and undecorated, rises from the low bulg-
ing section as a slender flute that widens at the rim.
The rim sweeps upward at the front and back to a
pointed apex. A long tubular spout extends forward
in a slight curve from the vessel's midsection. Seen
in combination, the spout and the tops of the rim
fan out in space, forming an elegant configuration
across the top of the vessel. The broad strap handle
on the vessel's left side curves outward from a point
above the spout and rejoins the bulging lower sec-
tion of the vessel above one of the legs. The several
sections of the vessel were fashioned separately and
luted together. The grayish buff ware is covered by
a thin coat of black pigment. Unlike the larger gui,
this vessel is elliptical in cross section.
The jiao, like the gui, finds its prototype among
2
examples recovered from Erlitou Period II. Rare
instances of this vessel type cast in bronze are also
3
known from approximately the same time. The jiao,
however, is much less common at Erlitou in both
media than the jue, which has a long open pour-
ing channel instead of a spout, and lacks its high
neck. LF-H

1 Excavated in 1977 (M 612:10); published: Zhongguo 1993,
132, fig. 104:1; Zhongguo 1996, 204, fig. 94:5. The excava-
tion report identifies the vessel as a jue.
2 Zhongguo Erlitou 1992, 297, fig. 4:9; Henan 1996, 65,
fig- 3:5-
3 Guo Baojun 1981, pi. 8:2.

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