Ancient tinder storage vessel discovered in Luoyang

Ancient tinder storage vessel discovered in Luoyang
www.chinanews.cn 2007-08-07 09:11:11







Chinanews, Beijing, Aug 7 – For people living in modern society, fire is a common thing in daily life. Whenever we need fire, we can simply use a lighter or a match to get it. However, for our ancestors who lived about 5,000-6,000 years ago, getting fire was not an easy thing to do. Thus, how to keep the kindling materials became very important. Recently, archeologists made some new discoveries in Luoyang city, Henan Province, which might help modern people to unveil the mystery in this respect, CCTV international channel reported.

Recently, archeologists unearthed a thick red pottery in the basement of a building which was assumed to be built in the Yangshao Culture Period some 5,600 years ago. After doing assessment work, archeologists confirmed that the pottery was used to store kindling in ancient times.

We found the pottery by a cooking stove, which showed that the pottery had something to do with cooking. It might be a cooker, said Li Defang, a researcher at the Luoyang Municipal Cultural Heritage Working Team.

The tinder storage vessel is the earliest of its kind found so far. The vessel is easy to use and keep. With it, ancient people could not only prevent fire disasters effectively, they could also bring the fire wherever they wanted, experts say.

The vessel has an important scientific value in that it can help modern people to better understand how ancient people used fires and how they created and improved the fire stoves, Li said.