An incised large red pottery bowl, Yangshao culture, Banpo phase, c. 4800-4300 BC 仰韶文化 半坡類型 紅陶刻符缽

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An incised large red pottery bowl,
Yangshao culture, Banpo phase, c. 4800-4300 BC
仰韶文化 半坡類型 紅陶刻符缽

d. 29.2 cm

Condition Report:
Overall good condition for its type. Minor flakes to mouthrim, max. approx. 1.2 cm. Expected surface scratches.

Catalogue Note:
This nearly hemispherical bowl is shaped in one of the most basic forms. Bowls in this form may be plain and unpainted, or painted with a wide band at the mouth rim on the exterior in a slightly different colour. Decorated with a deep maroon rim band, this bowl showcases how the Banpo people embellished their daily life by creating simple decorative elements on ordinary objects.

The present bowl is remarkable for the elaborate feathery mark cut through the deep maroon band before firing when the clay was still damp. Marks on hemispherical bowls are extremely rare, and the majority of the extant engravings are of simpler designs. Compare two pottery bowls incised with a simple cross and a downward arrow, exhibited in Shandong Museum and published in Dahe shangxia. Huanghe liuyu shiqian taoqi zhan [An exhibition on the prehistoric pottery of the Yellow River Basin], Beijing, 2015, p. 198 top and bottom, and also Ronald W. Longsdorf, op.cit., p. 52, figs 1 and 2, together with three similarly marked pottery sherds from the Dadiwan culture, fig. 3. Such marks are believed to be symbols for identification, signifying clanship or ownership.

器呈半球，器形簡約。此類陶缽或為素身，不經繪飾；或於外壁口沿處繪有與陶土顏色稍有不同的彩邊。此缽口沿略歛，飾以褐色寬邊，展示半坡居民如何通過在普通物件上製造簡單的裝飾元素來點綴他們的日常生活。

此缽沿下有一窰燒前刻劃的羽狀符號。刻劃符號的陶缽本已罕見，且標記多較簡單，如此羽狀符號更是珍稀。參考山東博物館藏兩陶缽，分別刻劃「十」字及往下的箭頭紋，收入《大河上下：黄河流域史前陶器展》，北京，2015年，頁198上及下，又刊於 Ronald W. Longsdorf，前述出處，頁52，圖1-2，同載大地灣文化三件附有標記的陶片，圖3。這類符號相信乃用於識別氏族或擁有者的功能。