CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

26a
26
Two painted pottery hu vessels
a. Height 19.2 (7 Viz)
b. Height 28.2(11 Vs)
Neolithic Period, Taosi Longshan Culture
(c. 2500-2000 BCE)
From Taosi, Xiangfen, Shanxi Province
The Institute of Archaeology, CASS, Beijing
The spiraling designs on the shoulder of the first
of these two vessels (a) 1 carry echoes of the monochrome
designs of a much earlier period (compare
cat. 7). Yet by comparison the effect of the designs
is quite different, conditioned by the warm pastel
hues of pink and ocher now added to the design
and by the softer appearance of the unpolished
surface, as well as the slowed and more graceful
tempo of their clockwise progression around the
surface.
Black lines, fluctuating in width as they descend
from the top of one configuration to join the next
from below, and the S-curved bands in ocher, which
float free at the bottom, create the appearance of
scarves blown lightly back, suspended in air as the
progression of spirals moves steadily forward. Together,
they bring to the overall design a new sense
of buoyancy. With a similar subtlety, faint black
lines in the guise of additional spiral arms extend
upward at the front of each spiral. These seem to
define the contours of the S-shaped bands in red,
equal in width to those in ocher. In this way, an
element of ambiguity is introduced into the design,
111 TAOSI LONCSHAN CULTURE