CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

ing one another and holding between them a large
round object. This object, taken in conjunction
with the representations on the other two basins,
may be a child. If the interpretation of these representations
is correct, then the decor of the three
vessels counts as one of the few cases during the
Chinese Neolithic in which the subject of human
fertility makes itself known.
Calibrated radiocarbon dates for the two Zongri
burials around 3900-3500 BCE indicate that all
three pen with figural decoration are earlier than
would previously have been believed. The dating
suggests that an initial phase of the ceramic tradition,
which is represented in these burials by other
vessels as well, may be considerably older than the
period of the late fourth and early third millennium
to which it has been ascribed on the basis of the
Gansu sites, such as the middle and late phase at
Dadianzi and Shizhaocun V, where Majiayao ware
has been found in greater abundance. 3 LF-H
1 Excavated in 1978; published: Qinghai 1980, color pi. 6;
pi. 11; Li 1982, fig. 16; Zhang 1983, 49,
fig. 3: 6; Chang 19833,152, fig. 117; Yang 1991, no. 20;
Murowchick 19943, 62, lower right; Wu 1996, pi. 21.
2 Qinghai 1998, i -14, 35; pis. 1-5; Chen 1998,15 - 26.
3 Radiocarbon dates for M 157 and M 192 3re provided in
Cheni 1998,19, table i. For diagrams of the M 157 3nd M
198 burials and the vessels found in them, see Qinghai
1998, 3, figs. 6-7. The presence in these two burials of
decorated amphora-shaped storage vessels unrelated to
the Majisyso style vessels found with them would seem to
indicate the commingling of two separate cultures 3t the
Zongri sites (see Qinghai 1998, 3, fig. 6:4-5; fig. 7:3; pi.
2:3 - 6; pi. 3:1 -2,5-6; color pi. 4; Chen 1998,17, fig. 2).
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