Majiayao Painted Pottery

Majiayao relics is situated in Lintao County, Gansu Province, at the upper stream of the Yellow River, and belongs to the late period of the New Stone Age, from the year 3300 B.C. until 2050 B.C with a duration of about 1000 years.

Majiaya Painted Pottery is an important representative of the Majiayao Culture. At that time the pottery industry was in its prime, and painted pottery accounted for quite a proportion among all the pottery products, and a number of fine works emerged. The paintings on the Majiayao Painted Pottery were made with brush pens and with lines as the means of shape-design, with black (equals to ink) as the main keynote color. The most spectacular painted pottery products are those with geometrical patterns, from which people can sense the strong and powerful vitality, like the torrents of the Yellow River, with thousands of different postures. Majiayao Painted Pottery boasts a rich variety of pottery types, multiple themes, refined and elaborate pattern decoration. Its primitive simplicity, magnificence and elegance make it an unparalleled wonder in the world history of painted pottery. Furthermore, these potteries also convey abundant social and cultural information about the pre-historic ages---this is of extraordinary cultural value. The pottery basins and kettles unearthed in 1973 in Datong County of Qinghai Province with dancing patterns on them are precious exemplification of this ancient art.

In China's national museum and museums in Gansu and Qinghai there are rich collections of the fine works of painted pottery of Majiayao Culture.