jar BM-1929-0613.1

Period:Unknown Production date:4000BC-2000BC (circa)
Materials:earthenware
Technique:painted

Dimensions:Height: 34 centimetres Width: 47 centimetres Depth: 43.50 centimetres

Description:
Earthenware jar, with black and red painted decoration. The bold linear decoration is executed with a soft brush. It has two loop handles by the middle of the body. Diamond lozenge design with swags.
IMG


Comments:Rawson 1992:Earthenware vessels were modelled by hand until some time in the middle of the Neolithic period and, in most regions, probably for some time after that. The earliest vessels appear to have been constructed from pads of clay, pressed together to build up a pot by creating patchwork in vessel form. The next modelling process to be established was coiling, used in Henan, Gansu, Shaanxi and Qinghai provinces in central and northwestern China to form some of the best-known early ceramics – the large painted urns of the Yangshao culture. The method was simple: thick ropes of clay were rolled out and then coiled round on top of one another in order to give the vessel the desired profile; the joins of the coils were then smoothed so that no ridges remain between the original layers. The smoothed vessel was beaten into its final shape with a paddle and anvil, that is, a support held against the inside of the vessel, while the exterior was beaten smooth. Close inspection of Yangshao earthenwares shows neither ridges nor paddle marks, and examination under xeroradiography has shown that the paddle-beating was impressively neat and regular, following the pot upwards diagonally from the base to the rim. The vessels were then finished by scraping and burnishing, ocasionally followed by painting and further burnishing.Wave and net designs are typical of Neolithic painted decoration in northwest China where, at that time, most communities settled near and were dependent on rivers and fish. Vessels of this type are light, despite their large size.