Unknown Artist
- Title
- Storage jar
- Place of origin
-
Yangshao →
China
- Period
- Neolithic period 10,000 - circa 2100 BCE → China
- Media category
- Ceramic
- Materials used
- earthenware with mineral pigments
- Dimensions
-
39.8 x 35.0cm; 13.5cm irreg. (diam. of mouth); 11.8cm irreg.(diam. of base)
- Credit
- Gift of Peter Muller 2008
- Accession number
- 317.2008
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
This earthenware storage jar is made of a reddish brown clay. As with most Yangshao storage jars from Gansu the surface decoration is confined to the top two-thirds of the vessel. Across the shoulder of the jar four evenly placed large circular shapes with red bands are filled in the centre with a crisscross design. The design is thought to be a development of the ‘four large vortices’ of the Majiayao phrase (3300-2050 BCE), but here, during the Machang phase (2310-2050 BCE), the ‘vortices’ degenerated into a more static but nevertheless highly symmetrical pattern.
Asian Art Department, AGNSW, August 2008.
