Short-necked Storage Jar (600s–300s BCE): Art, History and Details

Short-necked Storage Jar (600s–300s BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A large quantity of pottery such as this earthenware jar was produced during the Bronze Age in Korea, as farming became more commonly practiced. Large jars made of fine clay were used to stored grains and later were buried in in tombs to accompany the tomb owner. It was during this time that a substantial number of Korean farmers migrated to the western Japanese archipelago and introduced advanced rice farming and pottery-making techniques.

Object facts

• Title: Short-necked Storage Jar
• Date: 600s–300s BCE
• Culture: Korea, Bronze Age (1000–300 BCE)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: earthenware
• Dimensions: Outer diameter: 25.1 cm (9 7/8 in.); Overall: 25.1 cm (9 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1986.82

A detail from the museum

A large quantity of clay pottery to store food such as this work excavated from ancient sites indicate the advanced development of agriculture in the Korean peninsula during the Bronze Age.

Collection credit

James Parmelee Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Pottery from Ancient Korea: Clay Art for Life and Death [한국고대의토기 : 흙・예술・삶과 죽음]. Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 1997.
• Seo, Yeong-suu and Hui-chan Kim. "Misongnihyeong togiwa cheongdonggisidae yumure daehayeo [미송리형 토기와 청동기시대 유물에 대하여]." Goguryeobalhaeyeongu 5 (June 1998): 65–104.
• Rhee, Song-nai, C. Melvin Aikens, Sung-Rak Choi, and Hyuk-Jin Ro. "Korean Contributions to Agriculture, Technology, and State Formation in Japan: Archaeology and History of an Epochal Thousand Years, 400 B.C.–A.D. 600." Asian Perspectives 46, no. 2 (2007): 404–59.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.