国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

red ground-colour and is patterned in black and black lines follow its contour, converging towards light yellow. Immediately below the neck is a hori- the lower point of the flames. On the left side zontal border consisting of two lines with a wavy of each flame and from their lower point there triple line between. Below this are seven groups is a group of 7-9 black lines following the border of a sort of flame pattern. The "flames" are of the flame and converging towards the top. painted light yellow and curved like inverted S's. H. 22 cm. Diam. i6 cm. Diam. of rim 8.7 cm. H. On the right side of the top of every "flame" six of collar 8 cm. Pl. t.

E. DISCUSSION ON PAINTED POTTERY.

The painted wares of Miao-erh-ku, Sengim-aghiz and Toqsun seem to have little in common with one another. The two first mentioned places seem to be more related

to each other than to Toqsun. None of them, however, shows pronounced affinities

with painted wares in China proper or in the Near East, possibly with the exception of Sengim-aghiz. Now the Sinkiang material is indeed so limited that this circum-

stance is in itself sufficient to exclude the drawing of any parallels with polychrome

pottery from other regions, and no proper conclusions can be founded on it. Nevertheless, the presence of even these few items is significant as showing that the

painted chalcolithic pottery does exist in this vast province, a fact that was unknown before the Sino-Swedish Expedition started its surveys. It might be worth while to touch upon the question of the importance of Sinkiang to the spread of the painted pottery.

When Professor J. G. ANDERSSON discovered the occurrence of aeneolithic cultures with painted pottery in N. China less than twenty years ago the scientific

world was startled. Until then the prehistory of China was practically unknown,

and painted pottery had come to light only in SE Europe and the Near East. As there existed certain striking similarities between some patterns among the earlier

Chinese wares and those already known it lay close at hand to draw parallels between East and West. The Chinese painted pottery was declared to be an offspring of the Near Eastern painted pottery of late neolithic time, and the art of vase painting was stated to have reached China with a cultural stream across Central Asia in late neolithic (aeneolithic) time.

Professor ANDERSSON, the discoverer, has advanced only carefully formulated theories on these questions and repeatedly emphasized their conjectural nature, and that sufficient facts to prove the phenomena are in many cases unavailable. Some of those who have subsequently dealt with the same problems have been more confident, though they no doubt have less experience of the original Chinese material than has the discoverer.

ANDERSSON certainly believes in the migration from West to East of the art of vase painting and, furthermore, has pointed out that it probably marks the introduction of a new, superior culture, which he has explained as a step forwards in the perfection of agriculture.

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