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[[underline]] Chapter IX. [[/underline]]  171.

the Bronze Age and perhaps later still.
For an interesting discussion of the [[underline]] li [[/underline]] tripod, see Dr. J. G. Andersson, "Preliminary Report on Archaeological Research in Kansu", [[underline]] Mems. Geol. Survey of China [[/underline]], Ser. A, no. 5, Peking, 1925, pp. 46-48.
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in the mound as a whole they must have existed by the hundreds if not thousands.  We found however only one even partially complete tripod (pl. [[strikethrough]] LXXXIX, [[/strikethrough]] ^[[33, fig. 3,]] center), some 3 feet underground in our northwestern trench; it was quite plain, its surface bearing nothing whatever in the way of ornamentation.  Aside from this solitary and imperfect specimen, we found only legs, broken off as a rule at or just above their junction with the hollow interior of the vessel.  Generally of a dark gray ware (nearly black in fracture) which often contained coarse sand tempering, their exteriors, when not plain, bore either "cord" or "textile" impressions.  I saw no instance in which both of these appeared on the same fragment; though whether this fact indicated a chronological difference between the two styles of ornamentation we were unable to say, owing to the total absence of stratigraphical indications.  In perhaps the majority of these tripod-legs, their distal ends were flatly truncated, sometimes even actually flaring a little; while others terminated in blunt points.  In the fineness of their manufacture, too, they varied considerably.
  Strewn about over the surface of the ground and embedded in the earth all through it were likewise large numbers of potsherds; these occurred mainly in the loam but also, scatteringly, in the yellowish-gray clay.  They belonged in some instances to vessels obviously made by the "coiling" process; while others---the majority, in fact---seemed to have been shaped and built up by hand.  None showed clear indications of having been "thrown" on a potter's wheel; although in the case of those thinner and finer examples mentioned a little farther on, a [[underline]] tournette [[/underline]] or something like it may well have been employed. [[superscript]] (164) [[/superscript]]
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[[superscript]] (164) [[/superscript]] Still used in China, along with forms of the potter's wheel