Majiayao culture is the late Neolithic culture in the upper reaches of the Yellow River. Named after the earliest discovery in Majiayao site, it is about 5000-4000 years ago. Majiayao site is located at the entrance of Majiayao village on the west bank of Taohe River in Lintao County, Gansu Province. During the period from1923 to 1924, An Tesheng, a Swedish geologist and archaeologist, made an investigation in Gansu and Qinghai, and his assistant discovered the Majiayao site, which was excavated in1924. Since 1957, Gansu Provincial Museum has conducted many investigations on this site, and found the stratigraphic relationship of Majiayao type superimposed Yangshao culture temple bottom ditch type. Majiayao culture and Majiayao types are named after this site.
Majiayao culture pottery industry is very developed, and its painted pottery inherits the hearty style of Yangshao culture temple bottom ditch, but its performance is more detailed, forming a gorgeous and elegant artistic style, which has further developed than Yangshao culture and reached the peak of artistic achievement. Most pottery is formed by the method of clay lath construction. Pottery is orange, and the surface of pottery is polished very delicately. Among many Majiayao cultural relics, there are kilns and pottery kilns, pigments, stone slabs for grinding pigments, painted pottery plates and so on. The early painted pottery of Majiayao culture was mainly painted in pure black; In the middle stage, the pattern is drawn alternately in pure black and black red; Later, black and red were used to draw patterns. Majiayao Culture Two Pottery Making: The art has begun to use slow wheels to trim the blank, and to draw concentric circles, chords and parallel lines with wheels, showing skillful painting skills. The large-scale production of painted pottery shows that the social division of labor in this period has long been specialized, and specialized pottery craftsmen have appeared. The development of painted pottery is a remarkable feature of Majiayao culture. Among all the painted pottery cultures found in China, Majiayao culture has the highest proportion of painted pottery, and its indoor color is particularly developed, with distinctive characteristics of the times. Since the late 1950s, with the accumulation of a large number of newly unearthed materials, the study of painted pottery of Majiayao culture has been paid more and more attention by academic circles, and has gradually become the focus of prehistoric culture research. Scholars discuss, analyze and discuss the evolution of painted pottery patterns, the application of decorative techniques and the choice of decorative parts from different angles, and the research work continues to deepen. Majiayao culture is mainly distributed in central and southern Gansu, with the loess plateau in Longxi as the center, from the upper reaches of Weihe River in the east, Hexi Corridor and northeastern Qinghai Province in the west, southern Ningxia Autonomous Region in the north and Sichuan Province in the south. The main rivers in the distribution area are the Yellow River and its tributaries Taohe River, Daxia River and Huangshui River. Linxia is the core area of Majiayao culture, among which Linjia Site in dongxiang county, Bianjialin Site in Lekang County and Dibaping Site in Guanghe County are the most important remains.
Linjia site is located on the loess plateau on the east bank of Daxia River in Dongxiang Autonomous County, Gansu Province. Its cultural connotation is mainly Majiayao type, including the early, middle and late cultural remains of Majiayao type, and it is the representative site of Majiayao type. During the period of 1978, the cultural relics team of Gansu Provincial Museum, Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture Cultural Bureau and Dongxiang Autonomous County Cultural Center were excavated, covering an area of nearly 3,000 square meters. Twenty-seven house relics, three pottery kiln sites and 985 ash pits were found in Majiayao period (Gansu Provincial Cultural Relics Team, Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture Cultural Bureau, Dongxiang Autonomous County Cultural Center: Excavation Report of Linjia Site in Dongxiang, Gansu Province, Archaeology Series 4). The accumulation relationship of Majiayao-style remains in the early, middle and late stages is preliminarily clarified from the stratum. More than 3,000 relics were excavated and collected, including more than 2,000 tools and household utensils, mainly stone tools, followed by bone tools, and a small amount of pottery, mussels and horns.
The most important thing is that a bronze knife was unearthed from the site, and copper slag was unearthed from the ash pit H54. The copper knife is cast in two pieces, with flat surface, uniform thickness, short handle and long blade, blunt tip, slightly upturned back, and obvious traces of wooden handle at the handle end. 198 1 It is tin-bearing bronze after inspection by Metallurgical Research Institute of Beijing Institute of Iron and Steel. Carbonized grains and ears of grain were also found in a cellar, indicating that millet was one of the main grains of residents at that time.
Unearthed pottery can be divided into argillaceous pottery and sand pottery, which are mainly made by rolling clay strips and plastic kneading. According to stratigraphic accumulation, it can be divided into three stages: early, middle and late. There were few early pottery, mainly bottles, cans, pots, bowls and so on. Most bottles are bell-mouthed, jars are open, the spout is rolled outward, and bowls are round-lipped. Painted black, deep and shiny, decorative patterns are mainly spiral and arc patterns, with thick and simple lines; In the middle stage, the bottle mouth turned outward, the neck became longer and the jar neck became shorter. The patterns were mainly arc-shaped parallel stripes, and the lines were even and fine, lively and smooth. Late pottery is the most, and pottery is rough. The main shapes are pots, bowls, cans, bottles, cans and so on. Moreover, the color has also changed, with white, simplified and scrawled patterns, mainly spiral lines and parallel stripes, with lighter colors, and white as an auxiliary decoration, with clear black and white and strong contrast, which is a prominent feature in the later period.
The excavation of Linjia site clarified the stratigraphic accumulation relationship of Majiayao style in the early, middle and late stages, which provided clear stratigraphic evidence for the 33rd cultural relics. Especially pottery, the stage characteristics are very obvious, and the development and evolution are relatively clear, which laid the foundation for future work.
Bianjialin Site is located in Guanfeng Village, Huguan Township, Kangle County, Gansu Province. It is the late Majiayao cemetery, distributed on the second terrace on the north bank of Sancha River, with an area of about 1 10,000 square meters. 198 1 year, the Gansu Provincial Museum, Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture Museum and Kangle County Cultural Center jointly excavated, with an excavation area of 425 square meters, clearing tombs 17 and ash pits 1 seat, and unearthed more than pottery 100 pieces with nearly 8000 stone bones. Pottery is mainly painted pottery, including pots, cans, pots, bottles, bowls, bowls and so on. The neck of the pot is thin and straight, and it appears red. The shape and ornamentation of Bianjialin's later period are similar to the remains of the lower layer of Huazhaizi in the early Mid-Levels, which obviously shows the trend of transition to the Mid-Levels type, filling the gap in the transition from Majiayao type to Mid-Levels type.
Dibaping site is located in the south platform of Guangtong River, 6 kilometers southeast of Dibaping Village, Gansu Province. There are not only the remains of the Mid-levels, but also the remains of the racecourse and Qijia culture. During the period of 1973, the Gansu Provincial Museum and the Cultural Relics Team of Guanghe County conducted two excavations, and 66 mid-level tombs were cleared, all of which were vertical rectangular pit tombs, and 756 relics were unearthed. The funerary objects are mainly pottery, as well as stone tools and bone beads. 392 pieces of pottery were unearthed, of which painted pottery accounted for 90%. Generally, 7-8 pieces of painted pottery are unearthed from each tomb, with a maximum of 17 pieces and a minimum of 1 piece. Dibaping site is the site with the highest proportion of painted pottery unearthed in the Mid-levels. Large painted pottery pots with small mouth and straight neck and painted pottery pots with small mouth and short neck are common in pottery. Pots, urns, cans or bottles are the basic combination of pottery, and a few tombs have pots or bowls. The pottery is delicate, orange or brick red, and the surface is polished and smooth. Painted pottery uses black as the main color and red as the auxiliary color to draw patterns. The pattern is exquisite and complex, with spiral and diamond patterns as the main colors. After sorting out the unearthed painted pottery and comparing it with the decorative patterns of Majiayao and Machang painted pottery, it is considered that the site of Dibaping belongs to the early Zhongshan site (Cultural Relics Team of Gansu Provincial Museum: Guanghe Dibaping Zhongshan Cemetery, Journal of Archaeology, No.2, 1978). Dibaping site is a well-preserved Mid-Levels cemetery, with many unearthed artifacts, which provides important information for the study of Mid-Levels burial customs.
Quoted from "Painted Pottery of Gansu Archaeological Culture Series" by Lang Shude and others, published by Dunhuang Literature and Art Publishing House)
Majiayao Culture Gansu painted pottery is the region with the earliest origin, the longest development time, the widest distribution and the highest artistic achievement in China, and is known as the "hometown of painted pottery". Painted pottery, which appeared in the first phase of Qin 'an Dadiwan culture 7800 years ago, is one of the earliest painted pottery cultures in the world. It exists in the cultural dependence of Yangshao culture, and painted pottery is the most important cultural symbol in this period. Its representative is a kind of painted pottery bottle with a head-shaped mouth, which is unique in conception, unique in shape, beautifully decorated and smooth in lines, marking the highly developed pottery-making technology in ancient China.
Majiayao culture in the middle and late Neolithic Age is the most discovered, widely distributed and representative culture in Gansu. Majiayao culture was discovered by Swedish archaeologist An Tesheng as early as 1920s. Its most striking feature is that the painted pottery culture is very developed, and there are a large number of painted pottery in different cultural sites, which can be said to be unique in the whole painted pottery culture in China. In addition, this cultural type of painted pottery has its own unique and self-contained style. Compared with painted pottery in other archaeological cultures, its painted parts are more extensive. Not only the outer walls and mouth edges of many fine pottery pots are covered with patterns, but also the inner sides of many large-caliber utensils and other sand-holding cookers are painted with patterns. Its complex, changeable and exquisite ornamentation shows that whether it is pottery firing or painting in this period, it was once called "Gansu painted pottery culture" by the archaeological community.
Majiayao culture is located in the upper reaches of the Yellow River. It was first discovered in Majiayao, Lintao, Gansu, and the age was about 3300 BC-2050 BC. It inherits Miaodigou culture and enlightens Qijia culture, and is a local branch of Yangshao culture in the late period.
The production technology of painted pottery in Majiayao culture is very mature, with a large number, accounting for 25%-50% of all kinds of pottery. Painted pottery accounts for 80% of the buried pottery. The painted pottery in Majiayao is mostly red pottery, which can be divided into mud red pottery and sand mixed red pottery. The frame is very large, and many argillaceous fine pottery are often painted with patterns on the mouth edge and outer wall, and the internal color is also very popular, and the inner wall of the utensils is painted with patterns. Even some sand-filled pottery used as cooking utensils are painted, which is extremely rare. The patterns are gorgeous, varied and regular. Most of the surface of sand pottery is decorated with rope patterns, and a few are decorated with parallel lines, broken lines, triangles or staggered additional pile patterns. The pottery of Majiayao culture has its own distinctive features in modeling, including bowls, bowls, cans, cans, bottles, cups and so on.
The painted pottery of Majiayao culture inherits the bottom ditch style of Yangshao culture temple and Qijia culture. According to time, it can be divided into four types: Shilingxia, Majiayao, Banshan and Racecourse. These four kinds of painted pottery have their own characteristics. There are many bottles, cans, cans, etc. Shilingxia painted pottery, popular deformation bird pattern and ring pattern; There are many kinds of Majiayao, such as bottles, cans, pots and urns. , there are popular vortex patterns and arc triangle patterns. The representative works are painted pottery pots with dancing patterns unearthed in Sunjiazhai, Datong Mountain, Qinghai Province. Medium-sized painted pottery pots with small mouth, straight neck, wide shoulders, bulging belly and bulging ears are popular with red and black sawtooth patterns and vortex patterns; Machang type has the same basic shape as Mid-levels, and the variant humanoid pattern is popular.