Period: Longshan culture period (c. 2500--2000 BCE)
Measurements: Mouth Dia. 18.1 cm, H. 21.8 cm, Girth 65 cm
Provenance: Unearthed at Galawang, Zhengzhou, 1956

With black earthenware texture, the vessel looks like a deep jar, with some circular perforations on the base and the walls, patterns of woven strip covering the walls.

Zeng was a steaming utensil in ancient China, just like the modern steamer tray, the cookware for steaming food with vapor. Zeng was normally discovered along with Ding, Li(tripod cauldron), Fu(pot), it is rare to be unearthed alone. The early pottery example known to date was unearthed at the Wuyang Jiahu site of the Peiligang culture period, which indicates that human being had began to use vapor for steaming food at least 7,500 years ago.

Longshan culture in the Central Plains is one of the cultural categories of the late Neolithic culture in China, the Galawang site, dating from the phase, yielded various potteries, with the gray wares were dominant, and few black ones, which provide the study of the evolvement of material and culture of human being with physical reference.