4/10/09 5:47 PM Paleolithic ? roughly 12000 BCE. Our focus will be on Neolithic-new stone age. 10000 BCE ? 7000 BCE. Bronze age noted because people begin to use metal. Prior to the bronze age ppl don?t use metal tools. Their primary use of utensils are pottery, stone. Human figure with headdress on-priest. Not reliable in terms of dating because the discovered items are usually just fragments. No organic material around that you can test and date securely. The Chinese already were creating images at this time. Yellow river area was very cultured (northern area). The southern part liked to make polished, very PLAIN, black, very little painted pottery. Photo of red vessel and red bowl. Very small selection of pottery had images painted on them (probably for people of a higher status). Banpo village Most distinctive painted pottery are the painted bowls/basins. Large size, sometimes accompanying large urns, usually in burials, but some evidence that they were used in life. Mask-like forms. Two masks interspersed with designs. These ppl were hunters and gamers. They painted faces on the bowls. The faces were gods of fish possibly? Possilby from a ritual, dance, worship service, etc. lots of cultures include ppl wearing masks and headgear. They didn?t have writing at the time though to write their history. When you first see the faces they look alike but there are varieties. The images of these masks from Banpo village are very well known in Chinese imagery. Info about Banpo is in the textbook (and online). Qinghai culture Decorative on the rim of the bowls, bold lines image not in txtbk. Thick and thin lines like Chinese callig, shows the artist has control over the brush. More flexible than western paint brushes. Not necessarily fertility symbols. The gender of the deceased? Whose tombs and burials were these taken from? Later we see a distinction btwn objects placed in male tombs and female tombs. Less frequently reproduced is a Qinghai bowl from two figures that seem unisex holding a large sphere. 10. Vessel with large bird ? sometime called crane or ?waiting water bird? a. from Hunan. Not sure of significance?but regardless of what it means, it shows that the Chinese were very interested in portraying birds/nature/etc (a very popular Chinese art subject). 11. Final part of Neolithic pottery according to décor: 2 colors of paint ? dark brown and maroon. Painted on pots in giant swirls or spirals, sometimes with checkerboard patterns. Large amphora?s/jars with handles, wide or narrow mouths. Literally thousands of these have been found. Storage vessels for most likely grain. Placed in the ground and buried. 12. Calligraphy prehistoric marks are very close to modern marks. 13. Paleolithic etc terms were originated from Europe. 14. Around 1200 BCE-written records. Most important source of Chinese history was written with as many records as possible. Until the 19th and 20th century everything in this book everyone believed stories about the emperors etc. People thought it was all just myths, stories about birds etc. Educated Chinese began to think maybe they weren?t as advanced as they thought. 15. Xia dynasty 2100-1500 BCE. Near the yellow river but extends. No certain dates?some say it began around 1700-1500 and ended around 1100 BCE. At the end of this dynasty, there is a lot of writing on bronzes and oracle bones, tortoise shells, etc. Writings mention certain kings. Oracle bones-type of divination. Usually done for the kings. The writing records what type of questions are asked. Sometimes the answer will be written on the oracle. ?Lady general?. 16. Long exposition about history. Vessels with inscriptions from 900 BCE. 4/10/09 5:47 PM 4/10/09 5:47 PM
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