⑪ pottery tripod cooking vessel

Among the artifacts unearthed at Sanxingdui, there is one utensil that has attracted particular attention.

This utensil, scientifically known as a pottery tripod cooking vessel, is 44 cm in height, 19.7 cm in caliber, and 38.5 cm in disc diameter. Its large shape is extremely rare in the world of cooking utensils.

Its three legs form a tripod structure, supporting the upper part of the vessel.The vessel might have been used centuries ago to make a fire beneath its three legs for heating food.

In the ancient Shu State, when dining tables and chairs hadn't yet been created, people would often sit on the ground while eating, so the utensils have "legs".

The three legs of the pottery tripod cooking vessel are hollow and connected to the mouth, thereby increasing the capacity.

Designed with a double-layer structure, just like the rim of the pickle jar in Sichuan today, the wide plate between the innermost layer and the outermost layer might have been used to hold water or store food. Aesthetic and practical, such a design ingenuity is not worse at all than modern implements.

It is generally believed that this vessel is an utensil for people in Sanxingdui to cook food. In addition, because of the shape of the upper plate, which is a small circle within a large circle, some people call it "the earliest Sichuan hot pot" and speculate that it is the source of Sichuan hot pot, and the ancient Shu people may have eaten while boiling food when using the tripod cooking vessel as we eat hot pot today.

The pottery tripod cooking vessel has many white marks, which are the traces left by the restoration of cultural relics. When it was excavated, time had caused the vessel break into pieces of pottery. Cultural relics restoration experts restored its original appearance through reinforcement, bonding, patching and other repair methods. It is because of the skillful hands of the restoration staff that the pottery tripod cooking vessel can come to light and tell us about its days and nights in the furnace three thousand years ago.