Bi 璧 (ritual disk),

ca. 3000 BCE

In the Neolithic period, the many settled agricultural communities that flourished along river systems across China needed durable vessels in which they could store, cook, and serve food and drink. Neolithic craftspeople answered this need by producing a startling variety of technologically advanced pottery. The Dawenkou culture, named for the site where it was first discovered in Shandong province, is known for a remarkable type of thin-walled white ware. Ranging in color from white to yellow to pink, these ceramics contained high amounts of kaolin, the same clay mineral used to make porcelain, and they were fired to a temperature of about 900°C. Elaborately shaped pouring vessels of this type, which first appeared near the beginning of the third millennium BCE, were undoubtedly objects of high status, possibly designed for special ritual purposes not satisfied by more mundane daily ware.