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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2006.170.42
Title
Broad-shouldered jar
Other Titles
Original Language Title: 馬家窯文化馬厰類型 彩陶壺
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
vessel
Date
Machang phase, c. 2300-2000 BCE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Neolithic period, Majiayao culture, c. 3300-2000 BCE
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/191001

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Earthenware with bichrome slip-painted decoration
Dimensions
H. 41.2 x W. (across handles) 43.1 x Diam. 41.4 cm (16 1/4 x 16 15/16 x 16 5/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[J.J. Lally & Co., New York, 1999] sold; to Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation, Woodside, CA (1999-2006), 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 Alpheus Hyatt Purchasing Fund
Accession Year
2006
Object Number
2006.170.42
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
Ovoid jar with short neck, broad rounded shoulders, sides tapering inward to a small, flat base, and two strap lug handles positioned bilaterally below the shoulder; buff earthenware with geometric decoration painted in black and burgundy slips; decoration around the shoulders includes designs of stylized headless anthropomorphic figures alternating with round cartouches of crosshatched patterns. Majiayao culture, Machang type. From the upper Yellow River valley region; Gansu, Qinghai, or Ningxia province.
Commentary
Compare to:
(1) Jar of same form with very similar designs painted in black excavated from a Machang site in Liuwan, Ledu, Qinghai province. See Yang Xiaoneng, Chinese Archaeology: New Perspectives on China’s Ancient Past in the Twentieth Century, vol. 2 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press), 74-75, fig. 28b.
(2) Jar of same form with similar bichrome painted design excavated in 1977 from a Machang site in Sanjia, Minhe county, Qinghai province, now at the Qinghai Painted Pottery Research Center. See Zhongguo taoci quanji (The Complete Works of Chinese Ceramics), vol. 1: Xinshiqi shidai (Neolithic period) (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin meishu chubanshe, 2000), no. 121, pp. 151 and 287.
(3) Jar of same form with similar bichrome painted design excavated in Gansu, now at the Gansu Provincial Museum. See ibid., no. 141, pp. 165 and 293.

Exhibition History

Subjects and Contexts

  • Sedgwick Collection

Verification Level

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