CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

6
Painted pottery pen basin
Height 14.1 (5 Via), diam. at mouth 28 (n)
Neolithic Period, Majiayao Culture
(c. 3900-3500 BCE)
From Shangsunjiazhai, Datong, Qinghai Province
The National Museum of Chinese History, Beijing
The interior of the basin is decorated with a frieze
organized in three panels, each containing a line of
dancing figures holding hands with one another. 1
The figures are described in minimal detail, with
round heads, oval bodies and sticklike limbs. Short
braids hang from the top of their heads. Despite the
simplicity of their treatment, a degree of motion is
conveyed by the slightly different positions of the
legs, while the figures at the end of the line seem to
sway, or pull away from the three in the middle. The
figures are bordered above by a line along the inner
edge of the rim, and by a series of circumferential
lines below. The sides of the panels framing the figures
are formed by clusters of parallel vertical lines,
whose bowed shapes owe to the curvature of the
vessel wall. The spaces separating the panels are
divided diagonally by a band of even width or by
one that tapers to both sides. The rounded, slightly
everted rim is edged with fine diagonal lines, interspersed
with clusters oriented radially. The outer
wall of the vessel is encircled by three parallel lines
gathered together on one side into a single hooklike
flourish.
Recent excavations at Zongri, a second site in
eastern Qinghai province, located to the southwest
of Datong, near Tongde, provide new insight as
to the meaning of the vessel's decoration and
also point to a need for a revised assessment of
the chronology of the Gansu Majiayao pottery
tradition. 2
The representations of human figures on two
basins unearthed from separate burials at Zongri
have direct bearing on the vessel exhibited here
from Shangsunjiazhai. The example from M 157
shows a row of comparable stick figures — thirteen
in all — holding hands in the same manner. The
chief difference is that these figures have round
abdomens, suggesting that they represent pregnant
females. If the decoration on this Shangsunjiazhai
vessel and the one from Zongri M 157 (see page 69)
are indeed related in meaning, then the figures that
decorate it are probably those of ithyphallic males.
On the vessel from M 192, the figural panels are
narrower and contain only two figures, shown fac-
72 LATE PREHISTORIC CHINA