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A Commentary on the Recent Finds of Neolithic Painted Pottery from Ta-ti-wan, Kansu

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2015

Louisa G. Fitzgerald Huber
Louisa G. Fitzgerald Huber*
Affiliation:
Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
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Abstract

The present article on the recently excavated neolithic painted pottery fron Ta-ti-wan, Kansu, is intended as a follow-up to a comprehensive treatment of neolithic pottery published in the BMFEA 1981 and is written in light of a re-assessment by some Chinese scholars of the relationships between the Kansu and Central Plains styles. According to the view offered here, the Miao-ti-kou style is seen in its nascent phase at Ta-ti-wan and is explained as having developed from a combination of elements from the Pan-p'o and Wei River styles. The Wei River style is perceived to derive from Ma-chia-yao, although the later stages of Ma-chia-yao may have been coeval with the florescence of Miao-ti-kou.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
Early China , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , 1985 , pp. 1 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Study of Early China 1983 

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References

Notes

1. Wenwu 1983.11:1–30 Google Scholar.

2. Cf., note 39 in reference to Pan-p'o and Miao-ti-kou sherds found in southern Kansu. For the sheng-wen finds at Ta-ti-wan and their relationship to other corded ware sites, also see Wenwu 1981.4:1–8, 9–15, 86 Google Scholar.

3. Wenwu 1983.11:21–22 Google Scholar.

4. Ibid., p. 39; the date 5040 B.P.±180 provided on p. 19 is presumably an error.

5. Ibid., pp. 31-39.

6. K'ao-ku t'ung-hsün 1958.9:36–41 Google Scholar.

7. Ibid., p. 41; BMFEA 53 (1981):46 Google Scholar, note 10.

8. K'ao-ku t'ung-hsün 1958.9:41 Google Scholar.

9. Wenwu 1976.3:24–30 Google Scholar.

10. Ibid., p. 29, fig. 9.

11. Ibid., p. 29, fig. 10.

12. Ibid., pp. 26-27.

13. Ibid., p. 26.

14. Kaogu 1977.4:229–230 Google Scholar.

15. Kansu ts'ai-t'ao (Peking: Wenwu Press, 1979)Google Scholar.

16. Wenwu 1981.4:21–27 Google Scholar.

17. Wenwu 1983.11:37 Google Scholar.

18. Ibid.

19. Ibid., pp. 37-38.

20. Ibid., p. 38.

21. Ibid.

22. Ibid., p. 37.

23. That a distinction is being made between these two classes of wares is implied by the original captions for figures 1 and 2, which appear in Wenwu 1983.11:27 Google Scholar, fig. 18 and p. 36, fig. 3.

24. For illustrations of characteristic Ma-chia-yao pottery, see Kansu ts'ai-t'ao, nos. 13- 20-32; BMFEA 53 (1981)Google Scholar:pls. 32-47.

25. Two examples of the ‘Kansu Region Late Yangshao Stage’ ware are available as the colorplates for nos. 5 and 8 in Kansu ts'ai-t'ao (where they are labeled respectively, ‘Mi ao-ti - kou type’ and ‘Shih-ling-hsia type’. These may be contrasted with the illustrations of Ma-chia-yao vessels in the same publication, color-plates for nos. 13, 30-32. Much less frequently one also finds Ma-chia-yao sherds which have similarly discolored to blue (compare BMFEA 53 [1981]:47 Google Scholar, note 23 and pl. 41, fig. 106).

26. BMFEA 53 (1981):43–44 Google Scholar.

27. Wenwu 1983.11:22 Google Scholar.

28. Ibid., pp. 22-25.

29. Kaogu 1979.2:97–106, 118 Google Scholar.

30. The corded ware vessels with painted rims at Ta-ti-wan include a bowl and a tripod ( Wenwu 1983.11:22 Google Scholar, figs. 3-4).

31. Ibid., pp. 25-26. A bowl from H 227, painted with a formalized fish design, is classified as belonging to the Middle Period (ibid., p. 26, figo 17:1). The pit, carbon-dated (WB 80-31) to 5965±120 B.P., is elsewhere (mistakenly?) listed under the Early Period (Ibid., p. 29).

32. Miao-ti-kou yü San-li-ch'iao (Peking: Science Press, 1959)Google Scholar. pls. 4-27, 31-32.

33. See note 31 above and Kaogu 1977.4:229 Google Scholar.

34. A color illustration of the Shanghai hu (figure 7) is published in d'Argencé, René-Yvon Lefebvre, ed., Treasures of the Shanghai Museum: 6000 Years of Chinese Art, (San Francisco, Asian Art Museum, 1983)Google Scholar, no. 5, pl. II.

35. On the kuan (figure 5) the surfaces of the large ovals are painted black, with the exception of a vertical strip through their centers, while the segmental triangles on either side of them are left as unpalnted shapes. Likewise, the painted lines separating the different registers on the p'ing (figure 3) are replaced on the kuan by unpainted bands as divisions between the upper two registers. While the curious decoration on the kuan ought to be recognized as no more than a patently fumbling adaptation of the given pattern, it nevertheless points with special clarity to these painters' insistent concern with positive and negative designs and their inclination to experiment with them, and in this case to interchange them.

36. My proposal that the Miao-ti-kou style deri ves form the Wei River style, and ultimately from Ma-chia-yao, rests mainly on a detailed analysis of the spiral patterns which serve as the basis for all three styles (cf., BMFEA 53 [1981]:27–57 Google Scholar). The published finds from Ta-ti-wan contribute no new information to this topic.

37. BMFEA 53 (1981)Google Scholar: pls. 58-60 may be consulted for typical examples of the early (figs. 150-153), middle (figs. 154-157), and late (fig. 158) Pan-p'o designs.

38. Why the Pan-p'o craftsmen, evidently established in the Ch'in-an area for an extended period of time, appear to have so long resisted the artistic influence of their proximate Kansu neighbors remains puzzling, although their gradual departure from discrete motifs (such as the fish) and an increasing degree of formalism may have been among the factors that helped prepare the way for their eventual incorporation of the Wei River designs.

39. A number of sherds that we now recognize as being of the Miao- tl-kou type were collected by J. G. Andersson as early as 1924 from Li-hsien" T'1en-shui and Ch'ing-shui-hsien. These fragments were consistently found in association with Pan-p'o sherds, as they were at Ta-ti-wan ( BMFEA 15 [1943]:99–104 Google Scholar; pls. 58-62). More recently, the two types of sherds have been uncovered together during surveys conducted in the same general region ( Kaogu 1983.12:1066–1075 Google Scholar). These scattered finds do not, however, suggest that either style was sustained in southern Kansu for any appreciable length of time.

40. The identity of the group of people who practiced the Wei River style continues to be elusive, but they were probably in some degree a mixture of Pan-p'o and Ma-chia-yao folk.

41. The beautifully painted and exceptionally large p'en (diameter, 41.3 cm) illustrated in figure 9, of unknown provenance, and previously difficult to place in time (cf., BMFEA 53 [1981]:85 Google Scholar, note 27), can now definitely be assigned to the period of the late Pan-p'o and earliest Miao-ti-kou stages (equivalent to the Middle Period at Ta-ti-wan). The distinctive motif formed as a crescent joined at the tips to a segment in horizontal position, which is visible at the lower right of the decorated zone in the present illustration, is identical to the motif seen at the far right on the late Pan-p'o bowl from Ta-ti-wan (figure 10). This motif derives from the shape of the gill of the fish on Pan-p'o pottery (compare Wenwu 1983.11:30 Google Scholar, fig. 19), and is probably a Pan-p'o creation. On the Buffalo bowl the motif is embraced by a pair of segmental triangles which recall Wei River and Ma-chia-yao conventions. The motif is repeated once more at the upper left; in this case it is embraced by unpainted segmental triangles reminiscent of those visible on the widest register of the tall jar from Ta-ti-wan (figure 5). The painting technique itself suggests the hand of an artist experienced in the late Ma-chia-yao style.

Although the place of manufacture of the Buffalo p'en cannot be determined with certainty, the evidence points toward Shensi, rather than Kansu. It may be noted that the design of the two large circles, each containing a dot touching the inner perimeter near the top, is found on a pair of sherds from Pan-p'o ( Hsi-an Pan-p'o [Peking, Wen-wu Press, 1963]Google Scholar, pl. 155:1-2). The motif at the lower left on the Buffalo p'en of a circle with two dots near opposite sides of the inner perimeter is repeated on a sherd recovered from a site near Shang-hsien, southeast of Hsi-an ( Kaogu yu Wenwu 1981.3:29, fig. 3:8Google Scholar) and on another from Nan-tien-ts'un, near Hsi-an ( Shiqian yanjiu 1984.1:pl. 6:1Google Scholar). It is seen again, accompanied by the ‘gill’ motif, on a p'en from the vicinity of Hua-yin, Shensi ( Kaogu 1984.6:484, fig. 7:22Google Scholar; pl. 2:1).

42. The late Pan-p'o phase represented by figures 10 and 11 was ap- parently widespread. A sherd decorated in the pattern seen on figure 10 was unearthed in the area of Hsi-ho-hsien, south of T'ien-shui, Kansu ( Kaogu 1983.12:1071, figure 8:1Google Scholar), while another with a similar design was found near Hua-yin, Shensi ( Kaogu 1984.6:484, fig. 8:1Google Scholar). A vessel almost identical in shape and décor to figure 10 was recovered from Wu-kung-hsien in Shensi ( Kaogu 1975.2:pl. 3:4Google Scholar). A comparable specimen has been found as far east as Jul-ch'eng-hsien, Shansi ( Kaogu xuebao 1973.1:pl. 4:1Google Scholar). Two water containers with remarkable painted decoration belong to the same stage: one comes from the Wu-kung-hs1en site noted above ( Kaogu 1977.2:pl. 3:3Google Scholar); the other is from Lin-t'ung, also Shensi, but somewhat farther to the east (see Brinker, Helmut and Goepper, Roger, Kunstschätze aus China [Zürich: Kunsthaus, 1980]Google Scholar, colorplate, p. 11).

43. See note 36.

44. A description of the development of the Ma-chia-yao style is found In BMFEA 53 (1981):27–47 Google Scholar. Plates 47 and 48, fig. 125 offer Illustrations of its latest stage.

45. The evidence demonstrating the cross-influence of the late Ma-chia-yao and the Wei River styles would require an involved and lengthy investigation not germane to the present discussion.

46. Compare, for example, the late Ma-chia-yao p'en reproduced in BMFEA 53 (1981):pl. 44Google Scholar, fig. 115 with the Miao-ti-kou p'en shown as-pl. 64, fig. 162.