Jar
Chinese
Description
Subject Matter:
A mortuary urn or guan (罐) jar of the Neolithic Machang phase (2300–2000 BCE) of Majiayao Culture from Machang, Gansu of the Yellow River Valley in northwestern China. Discovered by Johan Gunnar Andersson in 1921, by the 1980s approximately 60,000 items and 400 kilns had been discovered at Majiayao sites (He Li 1996, 22). They were found in subterranean graves with conical bases placed into the local loess soil, and because the decoration is consistently only on the top portion of the jar, it can be assumed they were meant to be viewed from above. While it is impossible to know the meaning behind this decoration, researchers suggest perhaps the four squared spiral represents the cosmos, four directions, or fishing nets used in the nearby Yellow River which was a major source of food. The two lug handles were probably used to tie down a wooden, or other decomposable material, lid.
This type of guan is extraordinarily thin and lightweight. Constructed by using the coiling method, they were then paddled and scraped thin, covered in a fine slip, and then painted with mineral pigments before being fired in small, simple updraft kilns. The mineral pigments consisted of iron and manganese oxides to give red, brown and black hues. These jars were all made with similar proportions which suggests the use of a mathematical module, standardization, assembly line style mass production, and the possible division of labor during the Neolithic period (Poor 1995, 166).
References:
He, Li. Chinese Ceramics: a New Comprehensive Survey From the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. New York: Rizzoli, 1996.
Poor, Robert. "The Circle and the Square: Measure and Ritual in Ancient China" Monument Serica 43 (1995), 159-210.
Physical Description:
A light reddish-buff earthenware guan (罐) jar, with a wide globular upper body and conical lower body on a flat base, and a tall narrow neck with an everted rim. There are two diametrically opposed lug handles at the waist. The upper half of the body is painted with black pigment to depict four, six squared spirals made up of lines containing small circles, divided by thick vertical lines, confined between solid band borders with a lobed line border below. Around the shoulder, contained by two solid black lines, is a band of black squares divided by a central black vertical line, alternating in their position to touch the top or bottom solid black lines containing them. Surrounding the neck are four bold vertical lines made up of wide and densly spaced zigzags.
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