Page 56 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

the first Banpo phase, nearly all of them simple rectangular pits containing a single individual
in dorsal position. Later, however, the burial procedure must have undergone a radical change.
The majority of the three hundred Phase II graves were found to be secondary burials contain-
ing some twenty individuals, both male and female, of various ages, arranged neatly in rows.
There are also rare cases where the remains seem to have been haphazardly tossed into the
grave pit. Both primary and secondary burials are typical of the broader range of Banpo sites,
as was the habit of burying infants, placed in pottery urns, close to their families in the dwell-
ing area. The uniformly small number of grave goods that accompany the Banpo burials indi-
cates a relative lack of rigid social stratification.
In fields peripheral to the settlements the inhabitants grew millet and vegetables. They
relied on slash-and-burn agriculture, which entailed the progressive cutting away of the sur-
rounding wooded areas to prepare new ground for cultivation. To supplement their diet, the
Banpo people raised domesticated pigs and fished in the river; in the outlying wooded areas,
they hunted wild animals. All these activities required the specialized production of stone and
bone implements. The craft involving the highest level of specialization, however, was pottery
making. Kilns have been found at all the major sites, and judging by the abundance of pottery
at these settlements, they must have been frequently in use. Alone among the artifacts that
have been preserved, the pottery provides an insight into the aesthetic sensibilities of the

Banpo people.
Despite the very large numbers in which they have been found, the pottery vessels are
confined to three basic types: tall, wide-mouthed jars tapering toward the base, which were
used for storing grain; containers for liquids (large water jars, usually with a pointed bottom,
requiring a stand of some sort, and smaller gourd-shaped flasks, possibly for millet ale); and,
finally, bowls, as well as larger basins with everted rims.
Painted decoration is restricted almost entirely to the small number of vessels used at
meals. The decoration was applied exclusively in black pigment, which contrasts with the reddish
color of the ware. At the onset of the decorative tradition, the patterns were alternatively geo-
metric, consisting mainly of multiple zigzag lines, used primarily for flasks, or composed of small,
more or less realistic images of animals and fish, which are painted on the inner surfaces of
bowls. The fish are often paired with mysterious masklike human faces, with fishlike appendages
extending from the sides of their mouths. Subsequently, larger and progressively more stylized
images of fish make their appearance on the outer surfaces of the bowls, and from then on, the
interiors are left plain. In the final period, contorted versions of these stylized fish are added to
the small flasks in sophisticated designs that leave the original image almost unrecognizable. In
general, however, the key to an appreciation of the Banpo decorative style resides less in a per-
ception of specific images, such as the fish or masklike faces, than in an awareness of the careful
and eloquent balance of painted and unpainted surface and the configurations and elements of
pure design thus engendered — characteristics inherent to this style since its beginning.

55 | YANCSHAO CULTURE: BANPO