Page 24 - Symbols_of_Identity_Korean_Ceramics_from the Chang Collection

3. ith a wide, flaring mouth and neck, the globular body
Jar Wof this gray stoneware jar with rounded bottom rests
5th–6th century, Three Kingdoms (Silla) on an integral stand pierced with five equidistant, rectangu-
TL results: fired between 900 & 1,500 years ago lar openings. It is simply decorated with a series of raised
Stoneware with natural ash gloss parallel latitudinal lines on the neck and middle of the body,
H: 34.3 cm, W: 25.3 cm separated by wavy combed patterns. Parts of the jar are
glossed with a thin layer of unintentional glaze caused by ash
that settled on the jar in the kiln during firing. There are fir-
ing blisters throughout the body.

This jar likely held grain or a consumable liquid that was bur-
ied with the deceased. It may have originally had an associ-
ated lid. The pierced stand and raised line ornamentation on
this jar suggest it was based on an original made from metal.
Gold and silver vessels with similar attached stands have
been discovered in Silla tombs in Gyeongju city and are now
housed in the Gyeongju National Museum. Some Bronze
1
Age nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppe also produced
bronze vessels with integral pierced stands of similar design.
This could possibly be evidence of a link between the com-
mon origin of the proto-Koreans and other Altaic-language-
speaking migrants from south-central Siberia who spread
south and westward. Ceremonial vessels raised on stands or
pedestals were common to other Neolithic and Bronze Age
(or roughly equivalent) cultures throughout East and main-
land Southeast Asia.

1 Catalogue numbers 000305/000, 000309/000, 000310/000, 000317/000, and 000318/000.
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