2. Characteristics
of Neolithic Way of Life
This kind of life is characterized by reliance
on farming for food, by the use of pottery,
and by the making of stone implements by
grinding.
3. The best known Neolithic sites remain those of
the Yellow River valley. The first discovery was
made in 1920 by farmers of Yangshao Village in
northern Henan, near the great bend of the
Yellow River.
Typically Yangshao Culture was one practiced
by settled farmers, living in villages sited in
the valleys of the Yellow River drainage system.
4. They cultivated foxtail millet, and, to
supplement their diet they collected wild
grain and went hunting and fishing. They had
domesticated dogs and pigs and a few cattle,
sheep and goats, and they may have grown
hemp and raised silkworms.
The best known production of Yangshao culture
is its ceramics and in particular the painted
pottery used at meals and for rituals.
5. During the early Neolithic period
vessels were made using the coil
technique where ropes of clay are
circled on top of each other, pressed
together and the surface smoothed
over. To obtain the elegant shape,
two halves were made then joined
together while the clay was still
damp. A mix of fine clay and
natural pigments was painted
onto the vessels and the entire
surface was gently burnished to
shine the surface. This is the
earliest form of glazing (上釉).
9. A matriarchal clan society featured the early phase
of the New Stone Age.
The Yangshao Culture, which dates to 5,000 to
3,000 years BC, was the best representative of the
matriarchal clan society during its heyday.
The Yangshao Culture falls into several types
dating to different periods. One is represented by
the Banpo Ruins in Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province.
10. Banpo Culture
半坡文化三角纹钵 The best known Yangshao
site is that of Banpo near
Xi’an in southern Shaanxi. It
was quite a large village,
containing perhaps one
hundred houses surrounded
by a ditch.
Unearthed in Qi’an. This
pottery is about 6,000 year’s
old.
11. Excavations done so far on the ruins there
prove that the Banpo residents were able
to build residential buildings.
They led a settled life in villages of fairly
large size, used pottery containers to cook
food or hold things with, and made pottery
swords for cutting.
12. In one of the pottery jars excavated from
the Banpo Ruins, archaeologists found
cabbage, leaf mustard and other seeds.
Many pottery vessels are painted in red
with brown or black motifs in shapes of
human figures or fish, and for this they are
referred to as Cai Tao or “painted pottery”.
13.
14. The Hemudu Culture on the lower reaches of the
Yangtze River dates to 5,000 BC to 4,000 BC.
Its discovery at Hemudu Village, Yuyao County,
Zhejiang Province, east China, is equally important to
studies of the New Stone Age in China.
Pottery ware unearthed here ---bowls, plates, basins,
jars, etc.--- are black in color and in shape that are
rarely seen in pottery artifacts belonging to other
primitive cultures identified in China.
