Julu Xian Ewer

According to historical records, the Yellow River flooded the region of Julu county in southern Hebei province on September 10, 1108. Like the ancient city of Pompeii, which was buried in 79 C.E. by ash after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the Julu marketplace was buried until the 1930s, when farmers discovered it while digging a well. The site was rich in Cizhouware ceramics used as daily vessels by the burgeoning Song merchant class. White Cizhou wares imitated the more luxurious ivory-white Ding ware used by elite Confucian bureaucrats. A distinctive feature of Juluxian ceramics is the pale red-brown crackle covering part of the interior of the neck and exterior of this vessel, evidence of burial in the iron-rich silt from the Yellow River.