Painted pottery in Yangshao points to cultures of common origin
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Yangshao Culture is important because it was from where China’s century-long archeological studies began in 1921.
Subsequent excavations at Yangshao Village, Mianchi County, Sanmenxia City, in Henan Province, revealed a culture that once flourished mainly along the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River.
Identified as Neolithic, it dates back 5,000 to 7,000 years, across a region now under 10 provinces or autonomous regions, effectively invalidating the previous assumption about the absence of a Neolithic period in Chinese civilization.
Its well-known painted pottery, established as local, remains perplexing since the patterns are so similar to objects found in Eastern Europe.
In April 1921, the legendary Swedish geologist Johan Gunnar Andersson (1874-1960) came across some pottery fragments and stone implements on the ground near the village.
From October to December that year, with approval from the Chinese government (he was a geology consultant to the government), Andersson and Yuan Fuli (1893-1987), a geologist returnee from the US, began the field studies later known as the first round of excavations.
Their exploration, conducted at 17 locations over 36 days, led to the discovery of the prehistoric culture they named Yangshao, which is characterized by honed stone artifacts and painted pottery.
The painted pottery was astonishing, and the site map Yuan drew, based on survey data, was prototypical. Using archeological implements brought in from abroad, they were precursors in the field, establishing a sort of modus operandi for modern archeological field studies in China.
The importance of this discovery manifests itself in a simple observation: Of the recently released list of the top 100 archeological discoveries over the past 100 years, 33 of them are Neolithic.
The similarities of the Yangshao pottery patterns to those found in Cucuteni-Trypillian Culture in modern-day Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, led Andersson to postulate that Chinese prehistoric culture was a Western import.
However, subsequent excavations at sites much later than Yangshao, in Gansu Province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, unearthed pottery with patterns that showed direct influence of Yangshao, suggesting the propagation of the culture from Yangshao in central China to the West.
Of course, as with all cultural interactions, it is a two-way communication. In this process indigenous culture in central China plains also learnt the use of jade, turquoise and bronze.
If Paleolithic findings answer the question: “Where I came from,” ascertaining a Neolithic period establishes beyond any doubt that Chinese civilization is indigenous.
These discoveries put to rest Andersson’ hypothesis about the source of the culture. Subsequent findings suggest Yangshao Culture shares a common origin with Ligang, Cishan, Beixin and Hemuda cultures.
In spite of this, an adequate explanation is still needed to account for the striking similarities between pottery in Cucuteni-Trypillia Culture and that in Yangshao. The similar patterns of arc triangles, petals, and ropes, and a series of symbols that might be used for keeping numbers gave rise to conjecture if the Silk Road had been preceded by a Road of Painted Pottery
There are also speculations regarding the uses of the painted pottery, with some believing these were used for special occasions, not in daily life.
The patterns themselves might provide some clues. The designs of birds, fish, human faces and flames might suggest the practice of divination or sacrificial services, since birds and fish might have been seen as intermediaries between the heaven and the people.
Meanwhile, the culture turned out to be far more extensive than the village it was named after, Yangshao. Subsequent sites were scattered over an area of more than 1 million square kilometers, with the core area bordering on Henan, Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces. The expansive area the culture covers suggests the area to be the fountainhead of the early Chinese civilization at a pivotal time in Chinese history.
The excavations are still going on.
After a hiatus of about 40 years, the ongoing fourth excavation since August 2020, by conducting the explorations in a more scientific, multidisciplinary approach, promises to further enrich our understanding of our past.
The culture is also important because, starting from Yangshao, the Chinese people had taken to agriculture and massive community settlement as a way of life, with their intrinsic cultural emphasis on self-reflections, harmony, peace and stability.
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