Page 53 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

Terracotta head; height 22.5
7
(8 /s); Hongshan culture;
excavated in 1983 from
Niuheliang, Jianping,
Liaoning province.

other regions, formed distinctive cultures — each at a different pace, certainly, but developing
along similar trajectories.
The objects themselves do not allow us to distinguish the artistic superiority of one cul-
ture over another. Beginning in the fourth millennium BCE, jade was used extensively to make
ritual objects, exemplified by the Hongshan culture in the north and the Liangzhu culture in
the south. During roughly contemporaneous periods, monochrome pottery became prevalent
in most regions, while polychrome ceramics flourished among the Majiayao and the Taosi Long-
shan cultures. The phenomenon of exchange among regional cultures is manifested in their
works of art. Dragon motifs, for example, although they assumed diverse forms, were shared by
the Hongshan, Taosi Longshan, and Liangzhu cultures (compare cats. 10, 25, and 35); animal
masks appear in the Hongshan and Liangzhu cultures (compare cats. 13 and 29~3o). 4
Archaeology has demonstrated that these prehistoric cultures were more complex and
interconnected than had previously been thought. Ceramics from the Jiahu site at Wuyang
(Henan province) in the middle Yellow River region, dating to between 7000 and 5800 BCE,

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