Asian Civilizations Museum: China Gallery

Our group decided on the China gallery, and we will be focusing on this civilization. China's contributions to social, cultural and technological changes is very important, not only in Asia, but also the world. For example, paper was invented in China; it has drastically changed the way humans communicate, proving to be a social change. It is also a cultural change as literature is only introduced after the invention of paper.

Our group recorded three artefacts from the gallery.

Artefact #1

A picture of the jia and jue.

The name of the artefact is jia. It was used for warming and drinking wine. It was usually accompanied by a gu beaker and another tripod drinking goblet, jue. These three vessels constituted a basic set of wine drinking utensils. They are usually made of bronze. However, their ceramic prototypes appeared as early as the Erlitou period, reflecting the beginnings of wine drinking in China.

The modern day version of this artefact is the wine glass. They look very little alike, but their purpose is still similar; for wine drinking. (Difference 1:) The wine glass is made of glass, whilst the jia was made of bronze or ceramic. (Difference 2:) The jia was accompanied with a gu and jue, but the wine glass is not accompanied with anything. (Difference 3:) The shape of the wine drinking cups are different. The wine glass is smaller at the top, whilst the jia is bigger at the top.

Artefact #2

Artefact #3