Cultural Relic: Boat-shaped Painted Clay Pot

Copyright: A Journey into China’s Antiquity– Chinese History in Cultural Relics, Blossom Press

This painted clay pot, like a shoe-shaped gold ingot, is unearthed at Beishouling, Baoji, Shaanxi province.

In the Neolithic Age, fishing, hunting and gathering continued to be an important supplement for food procurement, and remarkable improvements were made in fishing and hunting tools and techniques.

In this cultural heritage, fishing nets were painted on both sides of the pot. It is about 24.8cm by 15.6 cm. Scholars believe this shows that primitive humans already knew how to catch fish by casting nets from a boat.

Numerous stone weights used on nets have been discovered at sites of Yangshao culture, providing further proof of the use of fishing nets in those days.

Based on analyses made of fish bones, most of the fish caught by Yangshao fishermen belonged to the carp family.