Art of East Asia: Neolithic & Bronze Age China
The Gu (Ku) was one of the other of the most common types of vessels.
Often translated as beaker, early gu were apparently wind goblets of some
sort. It is well established that the drinking of wine was a very important
feature of ancestor rituals and that the impersonator (who portrayed the
deceased ancestor during the rituals) was supposed to get very drunk. The
form of the gu is rooted in the elegent shapes of the Long Shan culture's
ceramics and, for most of the Shang the Tao Tieh motifs are reduced to minor
bands. Cleveland Museum of Art 60.43.
