Cleveland Museum of Art

Li, Hollow-Legged Tripod

Date

1200–800 BCE

Medium

dark gray earthenware

Culture

China, Inner Mongolia, lower stratum of the Xiajiadian culture (2200–1600 BCE)

Department

Chinese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

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 contemporary with the Shang dynasty in central China where bronze production had already been highly developed—pottery li tripod was popular in the northeast during the Bronze Age and was widely spread from the Liaodong to the Liaoxi regions, including Inner Mongolia. This vessel not only reveals an interesting relationship between ceramic and bronze shapes but also the cultural impact of central China on the border regions.

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