Cleveland Museum of Art

Lidded Vessel with Loop Handles (lid)

Date

300–1 BCE

Medium

earthenware, with impressed, paddled, and incised decoration and red slip

Culture

Korea, Iron Age (c. 300–57 BCE)

Department

Korean Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This small storage jar was hand built from coils of clay before it was finished on a potter's wheel. The thick, vertical ridges covering the surface were impressed into the wet clay using a carved wooden paddle. This network of raised lines was then intersected by four incised lines coursing around the bulbous form and separating the body into lower and upper areas with deft visual simplicity. Such direct, effective design solutions to ceramic decoration appear frequently in early Korean ceramics. The two perforations in the upper body were no doubt used to help secure the lid to the body with a cord. Closed kilns built on hills became widely used for producing this type of pottery vessel in Korea during the Three Kingdoms period.

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