Painted pottery in Yangshao culture
Yangshao culture is distinctive and recognizable with two types of painted pottery, namely, Banpo and Miaodigou.
Banpo is an archaeological site located near Xi'an, Shaanxi Province and contains the remains of a Neolithic village dating back to 6,000 years ago. The classic Banpo painted pottery is a bowl with the ‘human-faced fish’ motif, and was unearthed in the 1950s. The basin, 16.5 cm in height with a diameter of 38.5 cm, is made of fine-mud red ceramics and has a design of a human face and fish body. It is uniformly red in color and decorated with black pigment.
Strikingly, the pattern of fish is everywhere at Banpo Village. According to archeologists, these patterns may have been used for decorating the utensils; but they may also have been used for sacrificial rites in the spring season to pray for a good harvest. If that were true, the Banpo pottery designs might be the earliest religious artwork in art history.
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