Period：Peiligang culture, Neolithic Age (7,000--5,000 BCE)
Measurements: Mouth Dia: 23 cm, Height: 22 cm
Provenance: Unearthed at Peiligang site, Xinzheng, 1977

Made of red earthenware mixed with sand, raised from three flat legs, the vessel features a flaring mouth, deep belly, circular bottom, and protruding oblate studs on the exterior.
As a cooking vessel, earthenware Ding cauldron, was firstly discovered at the Peiligang cultural site in the Central Plains of the middle Neolithic Age, and was the prototype of the subsequent bronze Ding vessels of the Xia, Shang, Zhou dynasties. The present example is the earliest of its kind discovered in China to date. It was created by means of kneading and “stacking up the clay strips”.
“Peiligang Culture”, the cultural ruins of the early Neolithic Age, was named after the place where the earliest discovery was made. Its discovery provides an important reference to the study of the early agrarian civilization in the Central Plains.