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Identification and Creation
Object Number
2006.170.10
Title
Long-necked jar
Other Titles
Original Language Title: 仰韶文化或馬家窯文化 石嶺下類型 彩陶壺
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
vessel
Date
late Yangshao to early Majiayao culture, Shilingxia phase, c. 3500-3000 BCE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Neolithic period
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/148464
Physical Descriptions
Medium
Earthenware with slip-painted decoration
Dimensions
H. 37.8 x Diam. 29 cm (14 7/8 x 11 7/16 in.)
Provenance
[The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, 2002] sold; to Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation, Woodside, CA (2002-2006), partial gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2006.
Acquisition and Rights
Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Partial gift of the Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation and partial purchase through the Ernest B. and Helen Pratt Dane Fund for the Acquisition of Oriental Art
Accession Year
2006
Object Number
2006.170.10
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions
Description
Globular vessel with flared lip, long cylindrical neck, sloping shoulders, broad midsection, and lower body tapering inward to a flat base; buff earthenware lightly burnished and decorated on the exterior with abstract designs painted in black slip; painted designs on body and neck include three large lozenge shaped medallions enclosing a fishnet pattern on the body, each surrounded by curvilinear triangles, arcs, lines, and dotted circles. From the upper Yellow River valley region, Gansu or Qinghai province.

Note:
A sample taken from the base of this vessel was thermoluminescence (TL) tested at Oxford Authentication Ltd. in October 2001 and determined to be consistent with the suggested period of manufacture.
Commentary
Compare to:
(1) Long-necked jars of similar shape and with closely related painted decoration attributed to Shilingxia excavated in 1980 at Dadiwan, Qin’an county, Gansu province, now in the Gansu Provincial Museum. See Zhongguo shehui kexue yuan, Kaogu yanjiusuo [Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences], Qin’an Dadiwan: Xinshiqi shidai yizhi fajue baogao [Dadiwan in Qin'an: Report on Excavations at a Neolithic Site], vol. 2 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 2006), CCVIII, pl. 4 and color pl. 35.2.
(2) Basin with very similar painted decoration excavated in 1975 in Zhuangjiaping, Yongdeng county, Gansu province, now in the Gansu Provincial Museum. See Zhang Pengchuan, Zhongguo caitao tu pu [Handbook of Chinese Painted Pottery Illustrations] (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1990), no. 142.
Publication History

Transitory and Timeless: Ancient Chinese Pottery, auct. cat., The Chinese Porcelain Company (New York, 2002), no. 5, pp. 7 and 14

Exhibition History

32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 03/14/2016 - 04/18/2016

Prehistoric Pottery from Northwest China, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/21/2016 - 08/14/2016

Related Works

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu