Li, Hollow-Legged Tripod
Unknown Artist
1200–800 BCE
Medium
dark gray earthenware
Dimensions
22.9 × 17 cm
Classification
Ceramic
Department
Chinese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas French
Accession Number
2005.20
About this artwork
This pottery li tripod—which was originally used as a cooking vessel—belongs to the lower stratum of the Xiajiadian culture that flourished in northeast China. Comparable examples with similar shape and proportion have been excavated in Inner Mongolia. A ceramic shape invented and borrowed from central China, li tripod appeared at a later date in the northeast, with limited examples from the late Neolithic period. As an artifact representative of the lower Xiajiadian culture—which was contempora...