Yangshao Pottery Yangshao Culture The Yangshao culture was

Yangshao Pottery

Yangshao Culture The Yangshao culture was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the Yellow River in China. It is dated from around 5000 BC to 3000 BC. The culture is named after Yangshao, the first excavated representative village of this culture, which was discovered in 1921 in Henan Province by the Swedish archaeologist Johan Gunnar Andersson (1874– 1960). The culture flourished mainly in the provinces of Henan, Shaanxi and Shanxi.

Economy The main food of the Yangshao people was millet, with some sites using foxtail millet and others broom-corn millet, though some evidence of rice has been found. The exact nature of Yangshao agriculture, small-scale slash-and-burn cultivation versus intensive agriculture in permanent fields, is currently a matter of debate. However, Middle Yangshao settlements such as Jiangzhi contain raised-floor buildings that may have been used for the storage of surplus grains. Grinding stones for making flour were also found. The Yangshao people kept pigs and dogs. Sheep, goats, and cattle are found much more rarely. Much of their meat came from hunting and fishing. Their stone tools were polished and highly specialized. They may also have practiced an early form of silkworm cultivation.

Crafts The Yangshao culture crafted pottery. Yangshao artisans created fine white, red, and black painted pottery with human facial, animal, and geometric designs. Unlike the later Longshan culture, the Yangshao culture did not use pottery wheels in pottery-making. Excavations found that children were buried in painted pottery jars.

Houses were built by digging a rounded rectangular pit a few feet deep. Then they were rammed, and a lattice of wattle was woven over it. Then it was plastered with mud. The floor was also rammed down. Next, a few short wattle poles would be placed around the top of the pit, and more wattle would be woven to it. It was plastered with mud, and a framework of poles would be placed to make a cone shape for the roof. Poles would be added to support the roof. It was then thatched with millet stalks. There was little furniture; a shallow fireplace in the middle with a stool, a bench along the wall, and a bed of cloth. Food and items were placed or hung against the walls. A pen would be built outside for animals.

Social Structure Although early reports suggested a matriarchal culture, others argue that it was a society in transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, while still others believe it to have been patriarchal. The debate hinges on differing interpretations of burial practices. Like the Khorat culture of Southeast Asia, the Yangshao did not have a centralized government, had no temples, and exhibited a great amount of individualization. The small villages were centered upon a common gathering spot]. ]

From the West? The common source for all these pottery cultures was probably the Old European Culture found in Mesopotamia and Iran that preceded the Yangshao culture of China by 2000 years. “Certainly, the early pottery culture of China owes much to that of the more ancient Mesopotamian and Iranian cultures. Highly developed by the fifth millennium BC, these cultures used forms and decorative motifs markedly similar to those found in Yangshao pieces of two thousand years later. ” The Arts of China, by Hugh Munsterberg, Charles E. Tuttle Company 1972, pp. 20 -21]

Dots, lines and sides (点，线，面）

Spirals

Neolithic Symbols

Yin Yang The Yinyang symbol is alive and moving. Empty/solid Hard/soft Cold/hot Strong/weak We can observe it in all phenomena, as shown through yinyang and the 8 trigrams. Represented with symbols from the natural world. The Yangshao way of life adhered to natural laws, perhaps this is the significance of the symbols they painted on their pottery, perhaps it was the first Chinese heaven and Earth. 一点万法齐备 象天法地