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What evidence suggests that Longshan potters imitated valuable copper vessels?

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Neolithic Banshan pottery: funerary urn — Chinese pottery Painted Pottery funerary urn, Neolithic Banshan phase, c. 3000 bce, from Yangshao, Henan province, China; in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm. Height 13.2 inches (33.5 cm).

Evidence that Longshan culture potters imitated valuable copper vessels is found in the specific physical characteristics of their high-quality, wheel-made black pottery.

The finest specimens of this ware feature a dark gray or black body that is burnished to a hard, smooth surface, which gives the ceramic a distinct metallic appearance. Furthermore, the deliberate use of open-worked designs and the simulation of structural details—such as lugs and folded plating—strongly suggest that these artisans were intentionally replicating the forms of contemporary copper wares that are no longer extant today. This stylistic mimicry highlights the transition from a lithic to a metallic culture and marks the period when the superior caliber of Chinese ceramics was first achieved.1