Majiayao culture was formed in the late Neolithic period 5,700 years ago, and its main types are Majiayao, Banshan and Machang. It is mainly distributed in the upper reaches of the Yellow River in Gansu, Taohe River in Qinghai, Daxia River and Huangshui River Basin. It was named after 1923 was first discovered in Majiayao Village, Lintao, Gansu.
Majiayao culture is a local type in the later period of Yangshao culture's westward development. Its remarkable feature is the development of painted pottery. In the middle period of Yangshao culture, it was represented by Miaodigou type. Miaodigou painted pottery is mostly red and black flowers, all of which are external colors without internal colors. Decorative patterns mainly include petal pattern, hook leaf pattern, vortex pattern, triangular vortex pattern, stripe, mesh pattern, dot pattern and animal pattern. These patterns are interactive, uneven and irregular.
The painted pottery of Majiayao culture inherits the distinctive style of Miaodigou, but it is more delicate and colorful, which is the peak of the development of painted pottery art.
The pottery is mainly orange pottery, with a small amount of gray pottery. The decorative patterns are very exquisite, mainly including vortex patterns, water ripples, concentric circles and animal patterns. The patterns on painted pottery show that all clans and tribes had the same worship consciousness at that time. The shape of pottery has changed greatly. Pots, bowls and bowls still exist, but the number of storage tanks, cans and bottles is gradually increasing. Compared with before, the technology of firing pottery and pottery kiln has made great progress, the fire pool is separated from the kiln, and the kiln temperature is obviously improved. And there are concentrated workshop-style pottery kiln sites.
A painted pottery basin-painted pottery dancing pattern basin, with a diameter of 29 cm, a bottom diameter of 14 cm and a height of 14 cm, was unearthed from a tomb in Shangsunjiazhai cemetery in Datong, Qinghai. The inner and outer walls and mouth edges of the basin are painted. The most eye-catching thing is its interior color. The theme decoration of the interior color is three groups of pedestrian patterns, five people in each group, hand in hand, facing the same direction, and there are ramps on both sides of the head, which seem to be braids, and the direction is unified. The human body has three lower parts, and the two vertical roads connecting the ground are undoubtedly legs, while the lower part of the body is like an ornament, and each assembled ornament is separated by an arc pattern. Throughout the picture, the brushwork is smooth and even, the characters are prominent, the shape is realistic, and the braiding and tail ornaments swinging from different directions reflect the rhythm and rhythm of the dance. Ancestors used dance to celebrate harvest, celebrate victory, pray to God or offer sacrifices to ancestors. Dance is also a manifestation of totem activities. Intermediate pottery appeared in the late Majiayao culture, with complex patterns and strong sense of movement, and various patterns were formed with red and black sawtooth patterns as the skeleton.
Painted pottery has developed into a horse factory style, and great changes have taken place. Most of the painted pottery in the racecourse is based on red pottery clothes with patterns painted in black. At this time, the painted pottery patterns are mainly composed of four circles, twists and turns, frog patterns and small diamond patterns, among which various patterns composed of straight lines are particularly developed, and the later the age, the more prominent this feature is. In the painted pottery of Mid-levels and Machang culture, there are deformed frog patterns, which are monsters shaped like frogs, non-frogs and non-people, and are called frog gods. This is the ancestor's worship of the frog god, which stems from the human blessing to the flood disaster. Frogs are amphibious, not afraid of floods and have strong reproductive ability. People imitate it and worship it. With the continuous development of religious consciousness of primitive ancestors, the image of frogs naturally appeared in a large number of decorative patterns.
In the painted pottery painting of Majiayao culture, the brush is used as the painting tool, the line is used as the modeling means, and black (the same as ink) is the main tone, which lays the historical foundation for the development of Chinese painting and the basic form characterized by line drawing. Painted pottery is the root of China culture and the source of painting.