Black Pottery Made in Chiping, China: A Magic Art that Spans Thousands of Years

The craft of pottery is a major marker of human civilization.

Over the last three decades, Chinese archaeologists have undertaken four excavations at the Longshan Culture Site in Jiaochangpu, Chiping, where a variety of almost 1,000 pieces of pottery, stone and bone relics have been unearthed. Among them, the three pottery kilns excavated in 2001 remain the most complete cluster of Longshan Culture in China, constituting a valuable source of cultural relics for research into the socio-economic patterns of that period.

Research by archaeologists has found that the abundant black potteries treasured in the Chiping District Museum in Liaocheng City, Shandong Province, were produced some 4,000 to 5,000 years ago during the Longshan Culture Period. They are elegant in shape, simple in pattern and mysterious in origin.

The raw material of Chiping Black Pottery is the pure and delicate red clay soil beneath the unique riverbed of the Yellow River. Chiping Black Pottery is fired in an age-old Sealing-Smoking-Carburizing process after first undergoing numerous steps including manual washing, jiggering, drying, trimming, calendering, engraving and polishing. As the color black has a mysterious and elegant meaning, Chiping Black Pottery is aesthetically pleasing.

To inherit and develop such a Chinese treasure as black pottery, Chiping Black Pottery makers have, since the mid-1990s, dedicated themselves to examining the techniques of the black pottery craft, enabling the establishment of the Liaocheng Black Pottery Academy followed by the Chiping Taoyuan Black Pottery Art Co., Ltd. The distinctive Chiping Black Pottery is known for its hollowed-out high relief. Ingeniously designed and finely crafted, featuring graceful shapes and a universal pattern language, it is of great value in the eyes of artists and collectors.

Source: Information Office of the Chiping County People’s Government