CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

1
Painted pottery hu vessel
Height 15.6 (6), width 24.8 (9 Yz)
Neolithic Period, Banpo Culture
(c. 4500-4000 BCE)
From Beishouling, Baoji, Shaanxi Province
The National Museum of Chinese History, Beijing
Like many of the Neolithic vessels included in this
exhibition, which are exceptional either in shape
or decoration, this water container is a rare and
atypical form. 1 Water containers characteristic
of the Banpo culture are normally shaped as jars
with a narrow neck and flat base, or as tall, slender
vessels that come to a point at the bottom. The
present version is found at only a few Banpo sites
in western Shaanxi province dating from an early
phase in the culture's development. 2 While its
cup-shaped mouth is in keeping with those on
other water containers, the overall appearance of
the vessel suggests that it was modeled on a sacklike
container made of animal skin that was tied
off at the two corners. Cords passing through
the rounded lugs attached to the vessel's sloping
shoulders enabled it to be lowered into the water
and to be more easily transported.
The burnished reddish tan surface is decorated
at the center by a rectangular field of intersecting
diagonal lines painted in a brownish black pigment.
Each of the lateral edges is bordered by a row
58 | LATE PREHISTORIC CHINA