A Qijia Pottery Bird

Qijia Culture, China, 2200–1600 BCERare terracotta vessel in the form of a stylized bird, possibly an ostrich, reflecting the imaginative ceramic traditions of Neolithic China. Decorated with faint cross-hatching representing feathers, it stands on an abstract cylindrical base. Examples of this type were likely used for ritual or ceremonial purposes, including religious rites. Their expressive animal forms reveal an early symbolic visual language within prehistoric Chinese art, which appears almost modern.