Measurements: Height 35 cm, Mouth Dia. 31.5 cm
Period: Shang dynasty (1600--1046 BCE)
Provenance: unearthed at the Erligang site, Zhengzhou in 1954

Made of terracotta, with a large flaring mouth, contracted neck, angular shoulder, deep body, and round base. A ridge which was adorned with a band of appliqued pattern was molded on the shoulder, and the lower part was carved with cord pattern, which could have been punched on with a rope-wrapped object, and it was firstly discovered on the potteries of the Neolithic Age, mostly on the lower part.

Emerged in the Xia dynasty culture, the large-mouth vessel zun, was one of the dominant artifacts from the Shang ruin of Zhengzhou. The vessel zun, features a smaller mouth diameter against the shoulder diameter, which is typical of the middle Shang dynasty. Based on the different types and the carved numeral marks on the rims, some scholars claimed that the large-mouth vessel zun was a pottery measuring vessel for measuring grains in Shang dynasty.