Bottle

A picture of a Chitan carrying a bottle of this type on his back, depicted in a fresco of a Liao tomb, indicates how such bottles were used. The tall proportions and vertically placed loop lugs accommodated its shape to its use, as it was held in place on the user's back with rope or leather straps threaded through the lugs. Standing on a footring or a flat base and glazed in green or white, bottles of this sort were shaped with a concave depression or a raised stick, as seen in this piece, between the loops to imitate the leather straps. Discoveries of similar bottles in Liaoning (WW 1981.8: pl. 8; KG 1984.11: 994) and Inner Mongolia (KGX Jikan 1981.1: 236) add to our understanding of the type (cat. no. 206).