During the May Day holiday, set aside an hour or two to visit a new exhibition at the Shenzhen Museum’s History and Folk Culture Division, where 267 dazzling ceramic artifacts from the Mediterranean coast, West Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia are on display.

Visitors admire artifacts at the Shenzhen Museum. Photos by Cao Zhen

The “Shaping Clay Into Myriad Forms: Ceramic Art Across Ancient Eastern and Western Civilizations” exhibition showcases 6,000 years of ceramics from key sites along the ancient Silk Road. Visitors can explore a variety of offerings, including tableware, cooking utensils, containers, decorative items, figurines, lighting fixtures, and architectural components.

“With diverse forms, vibrant decorative patterns, and distinctive firing techniques, these works exemplify the artistic styles and cultural features of different eras and regions, standing as invaluable treasures in humanity’s artistic heritage,” said Huang Chen, director of the Shenzhen Museum.

A unicorn-shaped rhyton (10th-8th century B.C.) from Iran-South Caucasus.

He added, “We can observe the balance between practical use and aesthetics that ancient artisans achieved in pieces such as a Syrian camel-shaped vessel. Meanwhile, the whirlpool pattern on a large jar from Thailand’s Ban Ching culture poetically captures nature, reflecting the worldview of ancient Southeast Asian people. These artifacts offer visitors both visual pleasure and spiritual enrichment.”

“From Egyptian faience [made by combining ground quartz or sand crystal] to the painted pottery of the Aegean, and from the glazed tiles of ancient West Asian civilizations to Persian three-color ceramics, these objects not only reflect extraordinary craftsmanship but also serve as enduring witnesses to cultural exchanges across time and space. They reveal the mutual inspiration and blending of artistic traditions among cultures,” Huang said.

An anthropomorphic urn (2nd millennium B.C.) from Pakistan.

The exhibition also features distinctive pieces such as a human-faced urn from Pakistan, and lustreware vases from Iran. While visitors may have seen rhytons (a type of ancient drinking vessel) shaped like bull or horse heads in previous Shenzhen exhibitions, this exhibition introduces rhytons in more unusual shapes, including zebu, unicorns, and human faces.

During the exhibition, workshops on ceramic repair and painting, as well as lectures and classes, will be held. For updates and details, follow the Shenzhen Museum’s official WeChat account (ID: iszbwg).

This exhibition is a collaboration between the Shenzhen Museum and the Hirayama Ikuo Silk Road Museum in Japan. It marks the fourth joint exhibition in their cultural exchange series, following previous showcases of the Hirayama Ikuo museum’s collection in 2019, ancient Silk Road glassware in 2022, and ancient Asian metallurgy art in 2023.

Dates: Through Aug. 31

Venue: The Shenzhen Museum’s History and Folk Culture Division, Futian District

Metro: Line 2 or 4 to Civic Center Station, Exit B