Pottery, an ancient way of life
Basin with human face and fish patterns
Height: 16.5 cm
Diameter: 39.8 cm
Period: Neolithic, Yangshao Culture (5000-4000 BC)
Pottery, one of symbols distinguishing the Paleolithic age from the Neolithic age, has an epoch-making significance.
In prehistoric societies, our ancestors mainly used stone implements such as axe heads, chisels and polishing tools.
Traced back 20,000 to 19,000 years ago, the earliest pottery fragments that have been found in China so far are excavated from Xianren Cave in Wannian County, Jiangxi Province. Archeologists unearthed four human skeletons on the site, one male adult, one female adult and two children aged 1 and 8.
In the National Museum of China, there is one mysterious and imaginative pottery piece, which is so valuable that it is listed as one of the artifacts forbidden to be exhibited abroad. The important discovery was found at the Banpo village in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, in 1955.
The archeological site was discovered in 1953 and was continuously excavated by nearly 200 workers from 1954 to 1957 in a series of five diggings. The site was divided into three parts: living area, cemetery area and pottery-making area.
Banpo archeological site contains the remains of 45 dwellings, two domestic animal pens, six kilns and over 200 storage pits. The settlement is surrounded by a ditch, which might be a defensive moat. Built of mud and wood, the houses are circular, square and rectangular, mainly ranging from 10 to 20 square meters. Some houses are semi-subterranean. A 160-square-meter room is located in the center of the living area. The place is believed to be a social place.
A total of 247 tombs belonging to 174 adults and 73 children were found on the site. Also, around 10,000 implements such as stone axes, mortars and pestles, fishhooks and harpoons, and pottery bowls, pots and cups were unearthed.
The primitive society is associated with Yangshao Culture, a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the Yellow River in China. Yangshao is the first excavated site of this culture, which witnessed the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy.
The Banpo Museum in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. Banpo archeological site is associated with Yangshao Culture, a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the Yellow River in China.
During the Neolithic age, Yangshao civilization was the most prosperous period for the painted pottery. Creative craftsmen decorated the pottery with human facial, animal and geometric designs. The mysterious pottery displayed at the National Museum of China is designed into a basin shape. The interior wall of the pottery is painted two sets of symmetrical human face-and-fish motifs. The patterns are outlined in black against the red clay.
The human face on the basin is round with the left side of the forehead painted black and the right side in semicircle. Two horizontal lines represent a pair of eyes. On both sides of the mouth and ears are the patterns of two fishes. A triangular object is overhead, which probably depicts the person’s hair as well as a fish’s fin.
The design creates a serene and mysterious image that combines human and fish. The figure is believed to be a wizard who is performing a religious ceremony.
Showing the fantastic imagination of the craftsmen, the artifact is a masterpiece of ancient pottery, a representation of aesthetics and a symbol of the era.
The basin doesn’t function as a bowl for washing. Instead, it is a lid of an urn in which dead children were stored.
In the primitive society, our ancestors had very limited ability to cope with diseases and natural disasters. When their children were dying, there was nothing more the parents could do but preparing urns for them and praying for their souls. To connect with deities, our ancestors painted the patterns of fish on the containers.
Some experts suppose that Banpo people saw fish as a god due to its fertility. They might wish their clan long-standing and handed down from generation to generation.
It was a universal phenomenon in the Yangshao civilization that people worshiped fish which might be their totem. The fish pattern can be found from most of the pottery wares of that time.
Yangshao Culture gave priority to agriculture. Their main crop was millet. The archeologists once found a carbonized vegetable seed from a pottery jar. Along with agriculture, Yaoshao people also engaged in hunting and fishing, and pig and dog raising.
Fish is one of the most important sources of protein for Yangshao people, which gives another explanation of fish’s significant role in the Yangshao civilization. The fish pattern, in this sense, also implies our ancestors’ wish for abundant foods.
