The long neck of this vessel is incised with a spiralling line and covered with an olive-green glaze. In contrast, its globular body is unglazed and smooth on the bottom, which indicates the use of this stoneware as a pestle. The hollow neck of the vessel could also have been used to contain liquids. This allowed the user of the pestle to add small amounts of water, wine or other liquids to the herbs or other substances that he/she was grinding.Stone pestles and mortars have been used to prepare food and medicines in China since the Neolithic period (around 8,000 BC - 2,000 BC). Over time, wooden, ceramic and metallic pestles were also made and used in China. This pestle is a rare find as very few Chinese ceramic examples have survived from the pre-Qing period.
