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Yangshao Culture 仰韶文化

The Yangshao Culture 仰韶文化 was a matriarchal Neolithic culture from the central Yellow River basin that dates from about 5,000 to 3,000 BCE. They were a very prolific pottery producing people and we know them mostly through their distinctive painted pottery, frequently including rose patterns. Yangshao was first discovered in 1921 in Mianchi County, Henan Province. Most decorative patterns are black and / or red. From their distinctive pottery the Yangshao culture has been identified with Gansu, Shaanxi, Henan at the center and also present in Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Qinghai, and Hubei.

彩陶弦纹壶 仰韶文化半坡类型（约公元前4500〜前4000年） 上海博物馆 Painted Pottery Pot with a String Pattern Banpo style from Yangshao Culture (4,800—3,600 BCE) Shanghai Museum

We call the kind of pottery made by Yangshao Culture people painted pottery 彩陶. The painted designs were applied before firing. The firing process fuses the painted design with the clay making it quite resistant to fading and degredation. This is one of the reasons that a large amount of painted pottery has survived. The designs were mostly painted with black or red paint and included geometric patterns, plants, and animals. The main pigment in the red paint is iron and the main pigments in the black paint are iron and manganese.

彩陶瓶 水器， 仰韶文化半坡类型（约公元前4500〜前4000年） 首都博物馆 Painted Pottery Vase Water Vessel, Banpo style from Yangshao Culture (4,500—4,000 BCE) Capital Museum, Beijing

In the early period of pottery making the artifacts were fired in open fires. Temperature was hard to control but gradually people learned to control breakage by slowing the temperature at which the pottery cooled by covering it with ash and other materials. Pinching is the most basic way of making a pottery artifact. To do it you just mould a piece of clay by hand. This method is too crude to produce much of value. The next most sophisicated method is to stack strands of clay. This was one of the first ways of making practical utensils but the pottery was thick and hefty. A further development is to coil strands of clay around a mould. After they have been wrapped around the mould the clay can be smoothed out with a paddle. Some minority groups still make pottery this way.

彩陶盆 仰韶文化庙底沟类型（约公元前4000〜前3500年） 河南省陕县庙底沟遗址出土 首都博物馆 Painted Pottery Vessel Miaodigou Style from the Yangshao Culture (c. 4,000—3,500 BCE) Excavated at the Miaodigou Site, Hunan. Capital Museum, Beijing

Miaodigou 庙底沟 (c. 4,000—3,000 BCE) was a phase of the Yangshao Culture and successor to Banpo. The pictures above and below show painted pottery vessels from the Miaodigou phase. Discovered in 1956 in Shan County, Henan, Miaodigou, is a significant archaeological site. It is a part of the Yangshao Culture that remained after the transition to the Longshan Culture. In addition to pottery, the people of the Miaodigou phase used stone ware and bone utensils. Many of the pottery artifacts were used in rituals.

饮食器 仰韶文化庙底沟类型（约公元前4000〜前3500年） 河南省陕县庙底沟遗址出土 首都博物馆 Painted Pottery Food and Drink Vessel Miaodigou Style from the Yangshao Culture (c. 4,000—3,500 BCE) Excavated at the Miaodigou Site, Hunan. Capital Museum, Beijing

The potter's wheel was developed sometime around the middle of the Yangshao period.

彩陶重幛纹钵 仰韶文化庙底沟类型（约公元前3600〜前3000年） 河南省陕县庙底沟遗址出土 上海博物馆 Painted pottery bowl with a declining curtain pattern Miaodigou Style from the Yangshao Culture (c. 3,600—3,000 BCE) Excavated at the Miaodigou Site, Hunan. Shanghai Museum

The Majiayao Culture 马家窑文化 was related to a fork of the Yangshao Culture that moved westward. Majiayao Culture artifacts were first discovered in Gansu in 1923. Their range included the Upper Yellow River Basin in Qinghai and Gansu. The picture below shows a pot with a string design from the Majiayao Culture.

彩陶弦纹壶 马家窑文化（约公元前3100〜前2700年） 上海博物馆 Painted Pottery Pot with String Design Majiayao Culture (c. 3,100—2,700 BCE) Shanghai Museum

Banshan was a later phase of the Majiayao Culture. A pot with a lattice design from the Banshan phase is shown below.

彩陶网格纹壶 马家窑文化半山类型（约公元前2600〜前2300年） 上海博物馆 Painted Pottery Pot with Lattice Design Majiayao Culture, Banshan type (c. 2,600—2,300 BCE) Shanghai Museum

A jar with a lattice design from the Machang phase is shown below.

彩陶曲折纹罐 马家窑文化马厂类型（约公元前2200〜前2000年） 上海博物馆 Painted Pottery Jar with Zigzag Design Majiayao Culture, Machang type (c. 2,200—2,000 BCE) Shanghai Museum

A ring pattern is used to decorate the pot below.

彩陶圆圈纹壶 马家窑文化马厂类型（约公元前2200〜前2000年） 上海博物馆 Painted Pottery Pot with Ring Design Majiayao Culture, Machang type (c. 2,200—2,000 BCE) Shanghai Museum

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