Final answer:
The Ta-p'en-k'eng culture is known for its pottery with five mouths and elaborate animal decorations, including a variety of birds. Advanced technology with rapid potter's wheels and updraft kilns enabled the mass production of sophisticated wares, such as the thin and highly polished eggshell pottery.
Step-by-step explanation:
A common feature of pottery in the Ta-p'en-k'eng culture, which is part of ancient Chinese society, includes jars with multiple decorations and distinctive shapes. A notable characteristic is the presence of five mouths, which is a custom that developed in the Han times. The pottery often features elaborate decoration with motifs of supernatural and natural animals, including dragons, the single-hearted double bird, the qilin, dogs, sheep, turtles, monkeys, and an extensive variety of birds. Significantly, these animal motifs, particularly the abundance of birds, which may represent the human soul in burial objects, also appear on pottery not specifically made for funerary contexts, hence their interpretation is complex.
Moreover, the Ta-p'en-k'eng culture showed exceptional pottery craftsmanship with the use of advanced technology for their time, including rapid potter's wheels and multiple updraft kilns. This allowed them to produce sophisticated wares, like the finely crafted, highly polished eggshell pottery, noted for its thinness and elaborate forms, exemplary of their advanced ceramic techniques.