Neolithic Pottery

Longshan, 3d millennium BC
Shandong Provincial Museum, Jinan

A variety of pottery forms are displayed in this case: stemware, goblets, beakers, and even what looks for all the world like a teapot and some coffee mugs. The fine greyware, with its distinctive lightness, shape, and openwork stem, is a precursor of Longshan's "eggshell" black. (Treasures From A Swallow Garden, cat. #25-32, pp. 78-85; Thorp and Vinograd, pp. 42-46.)