Those Ancient Chinese Tomb Ducks Weren’t Spoons. They Were Drinking Insults.
Ancient Chinese tombs have yielded mysterious duck-shaped artifacts labeled ‘purpose unknown’ for decades. But the evidence points to something far more human than a spoon or decoration: these were floating wine-level markers designed to publicly shame slow drinkers — the 1,500-year-old ancestor of the modern ‘you keeping fish in there?’ joke.