The Pointed Bottom Bottle: An Ancient Instrument for Monitoring Earth-air

Hongshou Li; Fei Li; Shunren Wang

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12

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The Pointed Bottom Bottle: An Ancient Instrument for Monitoring Earth-air

Hongshou Li, Fei Li, Shunren Wang

Published in International Journal of Archaeology (Volume 11, Issue 2)

Received: 31 August 2023 Accepted: 18 September 2023 Published: 27 September 2023

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Abstract

The pointed bottom bottle (PBB) is a specific type of pottery with a pointed bottom widely produced in the Yangshao culture (7000–5000 BP) of prehistoric China. Since its discovery, opinions vary regarding its usage and purpose of design. Monitoring the air pressure enclosed in the PBB, this paper potentially reveals its usage and a possible reason for such a unique shape: it is an instrument of monitoring the earth-air by the general public as a practice of hou-qi. Ancient Chinese buried the PBB under the earthen floor in a sheltered room. Due to a moderate size of the room, daily temperature fluctuation of the earthen floor was limited, and the height of PBB was consistent with the depth of the earthen layer with a daily temperature change. However, using PBB to define solar terms on a yearly basis could have been interfered by the daily temperature variation of soil. Ancient people took advantage of the large daily temperature variation in the top layer of the soil and the small fluctuations with a hysteresis of ~12 hours in the lower layer, so that the temperature changes in upper and lower levels of soil exist in different directions. This counterbalances the interference of daily temperature response on pressure through spatial and temporal differences of temperature fluctuations in upper and lower parts inside PBB. The PBB can further eliminate the influence of daily fluctuation peaks of the atmospheric pressure, making changes in air pressure inside the bottle completely following the yearly temperature, functioning as farming seasonal guidance.

Published in	International Journal of Archaeology (Volume 11, Issue 2)
DOI	10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12
Page(s)	22-36
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Pointed Bottom Bottle, Earth-Air, Yangshao Culture, Hou-Qi

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APA Style

Hongshou Li, Fei Li, Shunren Wang. (2023). The Pointed Bottom Bottle: An Ancient Instrument for Monitoring Earth-air. International Journal of Archaeology, 11(2), 22-36. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12

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ACS Style

Hongshou Li; Fei Li; Shunren Wang. The Pointed Bottom Bottle: An Ancient Instrument for Monitoring Earth-air. Int. J. Archaeol. 2023, 11(2), 22-36. doi: 10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12

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AMA Style

Hongshou Li, Fei Li, Shunren Wang. The Pointed Bottom Bottle: An Ancient Instrument for Monitoring Earth-air. Int J Archaeol. 2023;11(2):22-36. doi: 10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12,
  author = {Hongshou Li and Fei Li and Shunren Wang},
  title = {The Pointed Bottom Bottle: An Ancient Instrument for Monitoring Earth-air},
  journal = {International Journal of Archaeology},
  volume = {11},
  number = {2},
  pages = {22-36},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ija.20231102.12},
  abstract = {The pointed bottom bottle (PBB) is a specific type of pottery with a pointed bottom widely produced in the Yangshao culture (7000–5000 BP) of prehistoric China. Since its discovery, opinions vary regarding its usage and purpose of design. Monitoring the air pressure enclosed in the PBB, this paper potentially reveals its usage and a possible reason for such a unique shape: it is an instrument of monitoring the earth-air by the general public as a practice of hou-qi. Ancient Chinese buried the PBB under the earthen floor in a sheltered room. Due to a moderate size of the room, daily temperature fluctuation of the earthen floor was limited, and the height of PBB was consistent with the depth of the earthen layer with a daily temperature change. However, using PBB to define solar terms on a yearly basis could have been interfered by the daily temperature variation of soil. Ancient people took advantage of the large daily temperature variation in the top layer of the soil and the small fluctuations with a hysteresis of ~12 hours in the lower layer, so that the temperature changes in upper and lower levels of soil exist in different directions. This counterbalances the interference of daily temperature response on pressure through spatial and temporal differences of temperature fluctuations in upper and lower parts inside PBB. The PBB can further eliminate the influence of daily fluctuation peaks of the atmospheric pressure, making changes in air pressure inside the bottle completely following the yearly temperature, functioning as farming seasonal guidance.},
 year = {2023}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Pointed Bottom Bottle: An Ancient Instrument for Monitoring Earth-air
AU  - Hongshou Li
AU  - Fei Li
AU  - Shunren Wang
Y1  - 2023/09/27
PY  - 2023
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12
T2  - International Journal of Archaeology
JF  - International Journal of Archaeology
JO  - International Journal of Archaeology
SP  - 22
EP  - 36
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-7595
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12
AB  - The pointed bottom bottle (PBB) is a specific type of pottery with a pointed bottom widely produced in the Yangshao culture (7000–5000 BP) of prehistoric China. Since its discovery, opinions vary regarding its usage and purpose of design. Monitoring the air pressure enclosed in the PBB, this paper potentially reveals its usage and a possible reason for such a unique shape: it is an instrument of monitoring the earth-air by the general public as a practice of hou-qi. Ancient Chinese buried the PBB under the earthen floor in a sheltered room. Due to a moderate size of the room, daily temperature fluctuation of the earthen floor was limited, and the height of PBB was consistent with the depth of the earthen layer with a daily temperature change. However, using PBB to define solar terms on a yearly basis could have been interfered by the daily temperature variation of soil. Ancient people took advantage of the large daily temperature variation in the top layer of the soil and the small fluctuations with a hysteresis of ~12 hours in the lower layer, so that the temperature changes in upper and lower levels of soil exist in different directions. This counterbalances the interference of daily temperature response on pressure through spatial and temporal differences of temperature fluctuations in upper and lower parts inside PBB. The PBB can further eliminate the influence of daily fluctuation peaks of the atmospheric pressure, making changes in air pressure inside the bottle completely following the yearly temperature, functioning as farming seasonal guidance.
VL  - 11
IS  - 2
ER  -

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Author Information

Hongshou Li

The Dunhuang Grottoes Monitoring Center of Dunhuang Academy, Dunhuang, China
Fei Li

The Dunhuang Grottoes Monitoring Center of Dunhuang Academy, Dunhuang, China
Shunren Wang

The Dunhuang Grottoes Monitoring Center of Dunhuang Academy, Dunhuang, China

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Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Hongshou Li, Fei Li, Shunren Wang. (2023). The Pointed Bottom Bottle: An Ancient Instrument for Monitoring Earth-air. International Journal of Archaeology, 11(2), 22-36. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12

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ACS Style

Hongshou Li; Fei Li; Shunren Wang. The Pointed Bottom Bottle: An Ancient Instrument for Monitoring Earth-air. Int. J. Archaeol. 2023, 11(2), 22-36. doi: 10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12

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AMA Style

Hongshou Li, Fei Li, Shunren Wang. The Pointed Bottom Bottle: An Ancient Instrument for Monitoring Earth-air. Int J Archaeol. 2023;11(2):22-36. doi: 10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12,
  author = {Hongshou Li and Fei Li and Shunren Wang},
  title = {The Pointed Bottom Bottle: An Ancient Instrument for Monitoring Earth-air},
  journal = {International Journal of Archaeology},
  volume = {11},
  number = {2},
  pages = {22-36},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ija.20231102.12},
  abstract = {The pointed bottom bottle (PBB) is a specific type of pottery with a pointed bottom widely produced in the Yangshao culture (7000–5000 BP) of prehistoric China. Since its discovery, opinions vary regarding its usage and purpose of design. Monitoring the air pressure enclosed in the PBB, this paper potentially reveals its usage and a possible reason for such a unique shape: it is an instrument of monitoring the earth-air by the general public as a practice of hou-qi. Ancient Chinese buried the PBB under the earthen floor in a sheltered room. Due to a moderate size of the room, daily temperature fluctuation of the earthen floor was limited, and the height of PBB was consistent with the depth of the earthen layer with a daily temperature change. However, using PBB to define solar terms on a yearly basis could have been interfered by the daily temperature variation of soil. Ancient people took advantage of the large daily temperature variation in the top layer of the soil and the small fluctuations with a hysteresis of ~12 hours in the lower layer, so that the temperature changes in upper and lower levels of soil exist in different directions. This counterbalances the interference of daily temperature response on pressure through spatial and temporal differences of temperature fluctuations in upper and lower parts inside PBB. The PBB can further eliminate the influence of daily fluctuation peaks of the atmospheric pressure, making changes in air pressure inside the bottle completely following the yearly temperature, functioning as farming seasonal guidance.},
 year = {2023}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Pointed Bottom Bottle: An Ancient Instrument for Monitoring Earth-air
AU  - Hongshou Li
AU  - Fei Li
AU  - Shunren Wang
Y1  - 2023/09/27
PY  - 2023
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12
T2  - International Journal of Archaeology
JF  - International Journal of Archaeology
JO  - International Journal of Archaeology
SP  - 22
EP  - 36
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-7595
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20231102.12
AB  - The pointed bottom bottle (PBB) is a specific type of pottery with a pointed bottom widely produced in the Yangshao culture (7000–5000 BP) of prehistoric China. Since its discovery, opinions vary regarding its usage and purpose of design. Monitoring the air pressure enclosed in the PBB, this paper potentially reveals its usage and a possible reason for such a unique shape: it is an instrument of monitoring the earth-air by the general public as a practice of hou-qi. Ancient Chinese buried the PBB under the earthen floor in a sheltered room. Due to a moderate size of the room, daily temperature fluctuation of the earthen floor was limited, and the height of PBB was consistent with the depth of the earthen layer with a daily temperature change. However, using PBB to define solar terms on a yearly basis could have been interfered by the daily temperature variation of soil. Ancient people took advantage of the large daily temperature variation in the top layer of the soil and the small fluctuations with a hysteresis of ~12 hours in the lower layer, so that the temperature changes in upper and lower levels of soil exist in different directions. This counterbalances the interference of daily temperature response on pressure through spatial and temporal differences of temperature fluctuations in upper and lower parts inside PBB. The PBB can further eliminate the influence of daily fluctuation peaks of the atmospheric pressure, making changes in air pressure inside the bottle completely following the yearly temperature, functioning as farming seasonal guidance.
VL  - 11
IS  - 2
ER  -

Copy | Download