Elephant-shaped lime pot

This elephant-shaped lime pot with lid has incised and applied features and is covered in dark brown glaze.Elephants were an important part of Khmer life. They were used as means of domestic and military transport. Elephant fights were also a form of entertainment.Khmer ceramics are glazed with two main types of glaze; one is a thin pale green, translucent and finely crazed while the other varies from mottled chestnut brown to black. Both glazes were also used to decorate a single vessel.Excavations have shown the earliest glazed wares were introduced by the end of the ninth century but gradually diminished after abundant product in the 12th century. By the 14th century, they seem to have disappeared altogether. Khmer pottery was produced mainly for local use rather than as export wares. However, pieces have been retrieved from Cambodia and former Khmer-influenced regions including Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and the Malay peninsula.