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Neolithic painted pottery basin reflects totem worship, fishing life
Updated: Jul 11, 2022
govt.chinadaily.com.cn
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Chinese people started to make pottery for daily use since the Neolithic times. A painted pottery basin is a representative item of Yangshao culture (5000-3000 BC).
The red-clay basin is decorated in black paint, with two sets of symmetrical human face and fish patterns on the inner wall. The patterns reflect totem worship and people’s fishing lives at the time.
Excavated in 1955 from Banpo village, Xi’an, Shanxi province, the basin was used as the lid of a child’s burial pot. It is now in the permanent collection of the National Museum of China.
