This amphora is the oldest object in the museum’s collection and at the same time one of the earliest examples in the history of ceramics to have survived in its entirety. In addition to its beautiful shape, the functionality of the object is remarkable. Lowered into a well to fetch water, the vessel’s opening would initially face downward thanks to its heavy spout and the ropes attached to the handles placed approximately halfway up the body. Once it had partially filled with water and thus changed its center of gravity, the amphora turned upright again and could be pulled upward about half full.

The vessel’s only decoration consists of parallel diagonal grooves in the middle and upper section of the wall. The pressing in of dense surface patterns like these ensured that the body was compressed before firing, which prevented the formation of bubbles that would have led to firing defects.

The amphora is attributed to the Yangshao culture, one of the most extensively documented Neolithic cultures in what is now China. It flourished along the Yellow River in the north of the country between 5000 and 3000 BC. The so-called Banpo phase is named after a village near Xi’an in Shaanxi province, where amphorae such as this one were found during archaeological excavations. A thermoluminescence test, which measures the exposure of the pottery shards to naturally occurring radioactivity and was carried out by the Rathgen laboratory in Berlin, has confirmed the dating of the amphora to 5000 to 4500 BC.