Minneapolis Institute of Art

Funerary storage jar

Majiayao artist

Date

c. 2300 BCE

Medium

Banshan type Earthenware with painted and burnished decor

Culture

Majiayao

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

The most distinctive product of the Majiayao culture (3800-2000 BCE) was a type of painted pottery of extraordinary refinement which has become associated with the Neolithic grave sites at Banshan in Gansu province. This jar, like others shown here, was fashioned without the use of a potter's wheel by coiling rolls of clay into the desired shape, after which it was smoothed, burnished, painted and fired at a temperature around 1000 degrees F. Because most Majiayao pottery was a less refined, more utilitarian ware, and since elaborate jars such as this were usually buried with the deceased, it is probably that they held food for the afterlife and the designs may have held religious significance for the ancient Chinese. China, Asia

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