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

POTTERY FROM CULTURE I, NORTH KURGALA.   I 2 7

and 2; plate 27, figs. I-3; plate 28, fig. 2; plate 29, figs. I-4; plate 3o, figs. I-3; plate 31, figs. I and 2) .

Technique of the painting.—The colors were laid upon either a clay ground, more or less well-treated, or upon a thin color-slip. The coloring is, perhaps, still more varied than in group a. Here, too, black predominates, and with it occurs brown in different shades—light brown, black-brown, red-brown, and violet-brown. The manipulation of the brush was for the most part rapid, especially as large surfaces were often to be painted. Nevertheless, the lines are drawn appropriately and accurately.

THE DECORATION OP BOTH GROUPS a AND b.

The patterns used by the painters of the vessels may be divided into two classes, according to the arrangement on the surface of the vessels; horizontal,

linearly arranged patterns (Reihenmuster), i. e., patterns of which

the separate motives are arranged in rows, and in oblique band-

patterns (Bandmuster), patterns in which the parts become effective only when arranged in bands. Each starts from a ground form—the first from an erect triangle, with the point at the top, the other from a group of oblique parallel lines.

(I) The triangles are grouped in horizontal rows, either placed close together (fig. 67) or stand-

ing farther apart (fig. 68). A   \\~~

peculiar motif is formed when

the topoints are forked (fig. 69).   64   \\ ~    ,   ,~

This last variation recalls the com

mon pole-tent, and the ground motif controls the whole decoration to such an extent that we may speak of a tent-ornamentation, merely for the purpose of identification, without any reference to the origin of the pattern.

The ground pattern occurs, however, in many variations. It is halved and placed obliquely, or directed upwards (figs. 7o, 71). The whole triangle or half-triangle is drawn only in contour (figs. 72, 72a). Moreover, the triangular field is filled in in different ways—with a trellis pattern (fig. 73), or with parallel lines (fig. 74), or several lines may start simultaneously from the basal angles upwards, crossing each other at the apex (fig. 75). Again, the triangles are so shoved into each other that the sides cross each other at the bottom (fig. 76), or at the apex (fig. 77), as in the ground pattern (fig. 79). A pattern which is not infrequently used is shown in fig. 78 in which the somewhat curved apices of the triangles are ranged like the prows of ships (see plate 24, fig. 2).

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