Neolithic Majiayao Culture Straight-Body Painted Pottery Bowl with Triangle Geometric Motifs, Neolithic Majiayao Culture

拍品描述

Dimensions: 13.5 cm (5.31 inches) in diameter, 9.5 cm (3.74 inches) in height, approximately 5000 years old. Condition and Provenance: This pottery is well-preserved, with no through cracks or signs of glued repairs. The rim shows only minor natural excavation marks, with no signs of modern artificial repair. The pottery is red clay, dense and solid in texture. The red and black painted decorations on the exterior are intact in layers. The body is naturally covered with a uniform patina formed by millennia-old soil, and the hand-trimming marks are clearly visible on the flat bottom. The original soil patina and natural patina are undamaged, with no signs of modern acid washing or artificial pigment embellishment. This piece was previously handled by an ancient pottery collector in Northwest China, then passed through the hands of an antique shop in Hong Kong, and was subsequently acquired in 2016 by a private collector of prehistoric painted pottery in Pennsylvania, USA. Hong Kong, California, and Vancouver are major trading centers for ancient prehistoric pottery artifacts worldwide. Description: This Majiayao culture straight-walled painted pottery bowl, decorated with triangular geometric patterns, is a typical daily and sacrificial vessel from the prehistoric civilization of the upper Yellow River region, and a standard artifact of the Majiayao type. It has a wide opening, a straight and deep belly, and a short, flat foot, with an overall regular and balanced shape. Ancient tribes used it to hold grain and water, and it also served as a small sacrificial vessel. The bowl's walls are decorated with layered painted patterns: the upper part is surrounded by a ring of fine vertical lines, while the main body is decorated with intersecting triangular grid patterns, outlined with red and black mineral pigments. The symmetrical zigzag lines and nested triangles give the vessel a strong sense of visual order. Triangular geometric patterns are the core totem motif of Majiayao painted pottery, symbolizing mountains, rivers, and all things in the world, reflecting the primitive ancestors' worship of nature and the aesthetic views of early geometric art. This vessel was handmade using the coil-building method, polished smooth, painted with mineral pigments, and fired at a low temperature. The fine, porous red clay body is tightly bonded to the painted layers, with only slight fading of natural pigments visible in certain areas. The clear, original turning marks on the bottom provide invaluable material evidence for the study of Neolithic pottery techniques and prehistoric decorative systems in Northwest China. Complete Majiayao painted pottery pieces are extremely rare on the market, and this well-preserved bicolor straight bowl, with its clear and complete decoration, possesses extremely high archaeological research value and prehistoric art collection value. It is highly sought after by prehistoric artifact collectors and small private museums in North America, and is a classic core item in the collection of ancient painted pottery.

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