Page 99 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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Painted pottery lei jar The Hongshan burials were often encircled with
large numbers of painted pottery cylinders, open at
Height 41 (16 Ys), diam. at mouth 12.6 (5), both ends, positioned in a single ring. One hypo-
l
diam. at base 11.6 (4 /-i)
thesis, which takes into account the fact that the
Hongshan Culture, c. 4700-3000 BCE
cylinders are bottomless, is that these objects
From Niuheliang, Jianping, Liaoning Province
served as vessels for communicating between
Liaoning Provincial Institute of Archaeology, heaven and earth; other scholars have argued that
Shenyang the cylinders were sacrificial devices, perhaps pro-
totypes of the stone mound. 4
Among the sixty-one Hongshan stone tombs exca- Pottery of the Hongshan culture comprises two
vated so far in the Niuheliang zone, only four in- principal types: painted red vessels with geometric
cluded pottery vessels among the burial objects — decorations, and unpainted gray or red-brown
in each case, a single painted pottery lei jar with a cylindrical vessels with zigzag patterns. The red-
2
1
lid. This lei was found near the feet of the occupant painted pottery (of which this lei is an example)
of a smaller tomb (Tomb 5, Mound 4, Locality 2) reflects the influence of the Yangshao culture; the
3
designated by the excavators as a Type A tomb. Pot- unpainted vessels represent an indigenous regional
tery vessels (whose function may have been sacrificial heritage and style. XY
Decoration and cross rather than utilitarian) are limited to smaller tombs;
section of cat. 22. After the furnishings of larger tombs, by contrast, are 1 Guo 1997, 20, 22. One of the four tombs contained a jade
Liaoning 1997C, 18, fig. 5:1. object.
exclusively jade (see p. 80), but it remains uncertain 2 Excavated in 1992; reported: Guo 1997.
whether the distinction in the material of the fur- 3 Liaoning 1997C, 17-18.
nishings was generated by the tomb occupant's 4 Liaoning K)97d, 81; Liaoning 1997C, 19.
social, material, or occupational status.

98 I LATE P R E H I S T O R I C CHIN A