A 4,500-Year-Old Black Ceramic Wine Cup

A 4,500-year-old ultra-thin “egg-shell” black ceramic wine cup, unearthed from Rizhao, Shandong province.

Tang Dynasty (618-907) Porcelain

A glazed ceramic pot, Tang Dynasty (618 – 907)

The heyday of glazed ceramics was the Tang Dynasty between the 7the and the 10th centuries. The articles were usually coated with three colours, such as green, yellow and white, or blue, red and brown, etc., which is why they are referred to as Tang Trio Ceramics.

The body of ceramics was made of white clay and fired twice. First was at a temperature between 1,000 and 1,100-degree Celsius. Then they were painted with three colours and fired again at a low temperature around 850.

A 1,000-year-old glazed porcelain teapot, unearthed from Shaanxi province in 1968.

The pot measures 18.3cm in height with the spout in the shape of a lion’s open mouth and the handle featuring a flying phoenix. Collection of Shaanxi Museum.

Song Dynasty (960–1279) Porcelain

The tripod is one of 1224 relics unearthed 20 years ago by nine Chinese peasants in Sichuan digging a grave for a deceased villager.

Tripod was a symbol of supreme authority in ancient China. During Zhou, Spring & Autumn Period and Warring States Era, the emperor and the kings all had a bronze tripod placed before their regal seats.

By then China was disintegrated into a number of semi-independent states, each having its own royalty, own laws, own army, own language and own currency until First Emperor Qin who reunited China under a centralised government with one written language (for cultural unification), one currency (for economic integration) and one road system (for communication).