Page 57 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

Two vessels in the exhibition come from the site of Dadiwan, in the Qin'an area of Gansu
province, which marks the approximate western limit reached by the Banpo settlements (cats.
2-3). Another is from the nearby site of Wangjiayinwa (cat. 4). Like the Banpo sites in Shaanxi
province, Dadiwan witnessed a long period of habitation, during which five recognizably
separate cultures succeeded one another in time. 5 Late in the Banpo period at Dadiwan, large
rectangular buildings make their first appearance. These buildings, constructed as a setting
for the administrative or ceremonial functions of a governing elite, suggest a society much
changed since early Banpo times. One of these (F 405), which had entrances on three sides,
measured 14 meters in length and n meters across. 6
The range of ceramics at Dadiwan suggests that the period of the Banpo habitation co-
incides with that at Baoji, and that communications between the two settlements were close.
One pen basin from Dadiwan, for instance, which is decorated with geometricized renditions of
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fish images, finds a virtually identical counterpart among the late phase finds at Baoji. The
Banpo phase at Dadiwan appears to have outlasted that at Beishouling, however, and witnessed
the reduction of the once discrete images offish to virtually abstract forms (cat. 2). Although
this final phase in the evolution of the Banpo decorative style is absent at Beishouling, it is

represented by a small number of pottery fragments at Banpo and Jiangzhai, as well as at
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Nanchengzi, in Huayin, slightly farther to the east. At this point in time, the remnants of the
Banpo fish designs were absorbed into the newly emerging Miaodigou decorative style, which
supplanted Banpo throughout the Shaanxi region.
The fact that the various phases in the evolution of the ceramic forms and their deco-
ration recur throughout the continuum of Banpo sites indicates that the communities all
across Shaanxi province and into eastern Gansu province maintained close relations with one
another, and that they prized their association with the culture at large, to the point of sustain-
ing a taste for its signature products. The consistency of vessel shapes and decorative designs at
any one period in time also demonstrates the professional nature of the ceramic workshops and
excludes the possibility that the production of ceramics was ever a "cottage industry" under-
taken by individual households. This same professional quality pertains to all the other
Neolithic Chinese pottery traditions, whether earlier or later, and serves as an indication of
the degree of specialization within these societies.
The Banpo pottery also reveals another, quite different aspect of this culture. On a small
number of vessels there appear single marks incised, or in very rare cases, painted, on the sur-
face. They are seen almost exclusively on small rimless bowls. The marks take a variety of forms,
but the same ones recur on different bowls and on bowls from different sites. Their significance
is uncertain, but whatever the case, these marks seem to belong to a system and obviously car-
ried some sort of recognizable meaning. While they cannot be considered as evidence of actual
writing, and were apparently not passed on to the succeeding Yangshao cultures, they are

nonetheless of considerable significance as a nascent phase in the use of visual signs, or as a

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