Page 109 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

painted gray wares came to predominate throughout the China heartland area. The discovery of
a thriving and sophisticated tradition of painted ware at Taosi has begun to alter this perception.
The painted vessels at Taosi ware differ from the Yangshao ceramics in many ways, notably that
they were fashioned of low-fired earthenware decorated only after firing. The use of spiriform
patterns, however, suggests that elements of the older tradition of painted decoration had con-
tinued uninterrupted as an ancillary tradition, at least in some areas of the Central Plains,
throughout Longshan times. The excavations at Dadianzi (cats. 41- 45) demonstrate that the
tradition of painted wares survived even into the early days of the Bronze Age. The existence of
this continuing and evolving tradition of painted decoration, in evidence at Taosi and later at
Dadianzi, begins to shed light on the question of how the decorative programs of some of the
earliest bronzes of the late Erlitou and Zhengzhou periods came to include spiriform patterns
and to maintain something of the more ancient syntax.
The presence of lacquerware at Taosi is especially noteworthy, because it may well be that
the colorful palette of the painted ceramics, distinguished from the monochrome painting tra-
dition of the earlier Yangshao ceramics, originated under the influence of lacquer painting. LF-H

i No complete report of the Taosi excavations has as yet 2 Two of the basins (cats. 25, 273) and the hu (cat. 263) are
appeared. The present text is based on the information known to have come from large tombs (M 3072, M 3073,
provided in Zhongguo Shanxi 1983, 30-42, pis. 4-7. An and M 3105, respectively). The size of the tombs that
initial report on the site was published in Zhongguo contained the other three objects exhibited here is not
Shanxi 1980,18-31, pis. 4-6. The metal bell from M 3296 clear from the archaeological report.
and two pottery bells found elsewhere at the site are 3 Zhongguo Shanxi 1983, pi. 5:1.
discussed in Zhongguo Shanxi 1984,1069-1071, pi. 3.
Color illustrations of the Taosi site and some of the burial
objects are available in Wenwu jinghua 1993, pis. 35-40.

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