National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

red ground-colour and is patterned in black and
light yellow. Immediately below the neck is a hori-
zontal border consisting of two lines with a wavy
triple line between. Below this are seven groups
of a sort of flame pattern. The "flames" are
painted light yellow and curved like inverted S's.
On the right side of the top of every "flame" six

black lines follow its contour, converging towards
the lower point of the flames. On the left side
of each flame and from their lower point there
is a group of 7—9 black lines following the border
of the flame and converging towards the top.
H. 22 cm. Diam. 16 cm. Diam. of rim 8.7 cm. H.
of collar 8 cm. Pl. 1.

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. Never-
theless, 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 cult-
ures 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 be-
tween 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 paint-
ing 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 ma-
terial 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 intro-
duction of a new, superior culture, which he has explained as a step forwards in the
perfection of agriculture.

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