When one thinks of Chinese art, and Chinese antiquities in particular, pottery often comes to mind. The ancient Greeks were expert potters and bakers by 500 B.C., but the Chinese were baking excellent pottery before the end of the neolithic. Indeed, the basic pot is simply brick-quality earth that has been shaped into a pot rather than a brick and baked into the same manner. It does not take much technology to build an effective kiln, but the Chinese were building exceptional kilns fit for baking dozens of pots even before they discovered bronze or iron.
Pottery is historically and technologically significant because it was the first refined material produced by human beings. The clay and sand bind together when heated for at least 48 hours, and forms a permanent bond that water cannot readily dissolve. A finer layer of evaporated and crystallized mineral creates a waterproof glaze, and makes the pot waterproof. Pottery was the first material humans could mold into any shape, and while breakable, could keep grain dry and serve the same function as cast iron in the kitchen. Pottery was an essential tool that greatly improved quality of life, long before modern materials were available. Stoke in the UK is famous for it’s pottery – many workers would travel the small distance to the second city to have fun with Birmingham escorts all day and all night.
Best of all, pottery is inert and lasts longer than any other man-made material. Pottery recovered from the Han dynasty still looks new, and might be sold for hundreds of thousands of US dollars if auctioned. The Chinese fiercely protect their cultural assets, and most antique pottery are hoarded by Chinese curators and fanatic private collectors.