Hsintien painted pottery ewer with double hook design

Tags: Neolithic | pottery | Shindian

The implement is a Shindian(Xindian) painted pottery jar with a double-hook design. Shindian(Xindian) culture was a late Neolithic culture in the northwest region, around 3,000 years ago. This painted pottery jar is made of orange sandy clay. It is smooth on the surface, and originally it had a painted layer of purplish red coating, though this has come off. The jar opens slightly towards the outside, and has oblique shoulders, a round belly, a flat bottom, and a pair of handles hanging down where the shoulders and belly meet. Although the inner surface of the jar is plain, the outer surface was painted with all types of floral designs, of thick and forceful brown lines. There are stripes, spirals, birds, sun and double hook motifs from the opening of the jar all the way down to the shoulders. There is no decoration on the belly; but there is a distinct impression of a cord mark that you may be able to see. The design of the double hook is the distinguishing mark of Shindian(Xindian) pottery,and it is understood that it might have been transformed from the shape of a ram's horn.

 

National Museum of History