Page 155 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

of the tomb floor. The li were usually placed upside-
down above a guan jar, but the example from M 612,
found in an upright position, is an exception.
Unlike the much earlier painted pottery of
the Yangshao Neolithic, the Dadianzi vessels were
decorated after firing. This characteristic, which
they share with the painted ware from the late
Neolithic site of Taosi (cats. 25-27) results in a
tendency for the paint to flake off, especially when
one layer of paint is applied over another. The
chalky white pigment is the most vulnerable of all.
In the present case, it would appear that the entire
outer surface of the vessel, with the exception
of the feet, was first coated with black paint. The
primary decoration in white and red was added
subsequently, leaving a narrow line of the under-
lying black pigment visible along the edges of the
designs.
The image of a single eye delineated in red can
be made out above the juncture of two of the legs,
like those visible on other vessels of this type from
1
M 612. The remainder of the decoration seems to
be largely a free invention of the artist, who has
transformed the more customary bands of curling
forms into an exuberant assemblage of flamelike
forms rising on the surface, unconstrained by the
rules of symmetry that govern most of the decora-
tive schemes associated with Dadianzi. The paint-
ing on this vessel thus contrasts with the orderly
arrangement of patterns seen on the hu (cat. 43),
41 recovered from the same burial (M 612).
The patterns encircling the inner side of the
Painted pottery li jar rim are more restrained and conventional. Painted

Height 25 (9 Y 4) to a smaller scale and meticulously executed, the
Early Bronze Age, Lower Xiajiadian Culture configurations of white curls, in repeated units
(c. 2000-1500 BCE) aligned radially and circumferentially, are outlined
by minute black lines, ending in dots at the tips
From Dadianzi, Aohanqi, Inner Mongolia
of the curls. LF-H
The Institute of Archaeology CASS, Beijing
i Excavated in 1977 (M 612:14); published: Zhongguo 1993,
1
Li vessels shaped like the present example have 129, fig. 101:1; Zhongguo 1996, 204, fig. 94:10.
been found in almost all the furnished burials at
Dadianzi. In the larger and more important burials
they were placed with other ceramics in the niches
cut into the wall of the tomb high above the level

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