Storage Jar, Majiayao culture, c. 3000 BCE. Majiayao type. Burnished earthenware with painted décor, 52.07 x 42.55 x 38.74 cm. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gift of Ruth and Bruce Dayton, 2003.103.

Located in the far northwest of China, the Majiayao culture (c. 3800-2000 BCE) produced an accomplished painted pottery tradition. Although originally derived from the Yangshao culture, Majiayao is now considered a culture of its own. Many of its tomb sites in Qinghai and Gansu provinces were richly furnished with decorative pottery.

The culture went through an evolution of painted pottery designs that lasted more than a thousand years. During the Majiayao phase (3100-2700 BCE), when this spectacular storage jar was created, painted decoration had become independent. Designs have a distinctive linear quality with black parallel lines encircling the vessel with fluid and rhythmic movements creating striking graphic effects. The additional use of a white pigment, here effectively used to highlight the design, is somewhat rare. The vessel comes from Gansu or Qinghai province in the upper Huang He (Yellow River) basin; probably the most prolific pottery producing area between 4000 and 2000 BCE. The Majiayao region would later produce two other distinct types of painted pottery; Banshan (2600-2300 BCE) and Machang (1200-2000 BCE), classic examples of which are displayed below and to the left.

Storage Vessel, Majiayao culture, c. 3000 BCE. Earthenware with painted designs and burnished surface, 36.04 x 32.54 x 30 cm. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gift of Ruth and Bruce Dayton, 2003.200.6.

The high shoulder, flat bottom, and wide mouth of this handsome vessel would have made it an effective storage jar. The well-proportioned hand built vessel has been decorated with a strikingly linear design of clustered swirls interrupted by large, round "eyes" on a burnished ground. The Majiayao type (3,100-2,700 BCE) is characterized by the severe linearity of its painted designs usually executed in black only, and the meanings of this décor has yet to be determined. This dynamic pattern covers the upper half of the vessel ending just above the edge of the loop handles, one of which bears an applied strip or rippled clay along its spine. The other handle is plain. An urn of similar form and design was excavated in 1977 from Ciqi county in Gansu province.

Basin, Majiayao culture, c. 3000 BCE. Earthenware with painted designs and burnished surface, 12.7 x 32.07 x 32.07 cm. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gift of Ruth and Bruce Dayton, 2003.200.1.

The form of this thin-walled, hand-built basin follows a Banpo type shape of the Yangshao culture that was already in use nearly a thousand years before this vessel was made. The wide rounded bowl has a fairly small flat base and an everted rim with a broad, rounded rim flange. Typical of much Majiayao ware, it is made of yellowish-brown earthenware, extensively painted in overall concentric and spiral patterns. It is exquisitely burnished imparting a rich luster to its interior surface.

Jar, Majiayao culture, 26th-24th century BCE. Banshan type Earthenware, pigment, 27.15 x 25.4 x 25.4 cm. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gift of Iver M. Nelson, 2008.47.2.

Jar, Majiayao culture, 26th-24th century BCE. Banshan type Earthenware, pigment, 25.88 x 24.29 x 24.29 cm. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gift of Iver M. Nelson, 2008.47.1.

Funerary Storage Jar, Majiayao culture, c. 2300 BCE. Machang type. Earthenware with painted decor, 48.26 x 12.07 cm. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gift of funds from Louis W. Hill, Jr., 86.43.

The seemingly abstract zigzag designs on the burial storage jar are a stylized version of a human-like stick figure. The neck of the jar in this case represents the head. Built from coils of clay, the vessel relates in shape to the earlier Banshan (2600-2300 BCE) jars shown here, but its proportions are more elongated and its surface is matte and unburnished. Related Machang (2200-2000 BCE) type jars have been excavated in Gansu and Qinghai provinces in northwest China.

Funerary Storage Jar, Majiayao culture, c. 2300 BCE. Banshan type. Earthenware with painted and burnished decor, 37.47 x 40.32 x 36.51 cm. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gift of funds from Ellen and Fred Wells, 89.49.

The most distinctive product of the Majiayao culture (3800-2000 BCE) was a type of painted pottery of extraordinary refinement which has become associated with the Neolithic grave sites at Banshan in Gansu province. This jar, like others shown here, was fashioned without the use of a potter's wheel by coiling rolls of clay into the desired shape, after which it was smoothed, burnished, painted and fired at a temperature around 1000 degrees F. Because most Majiayao pottery was a less refined, more utilitarian ware, and since elaborate jars such as this were usually buried with the deceased, it is probably that they held food for the afterlife and the designs may have held religious significance for the ancient Chinese.

Storage Jar, Majiayao culture, c. 2300 BCE. Earthenware with painted decor, 34.93 x 41.91 cm. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gift of Mr. C. T. Loo, 32.2.

Two-Handled Jar, Majiayao culture, 2000 BCE. Pottery, pigment, 13.8 x 11.3 x 11.3 cm. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gift of the Asian Art Council, 2001.31.7.