Machang phase, c. 2300-2000 BCE
Ovoid jar with short neck, broad rounded shoulders, sides tapering inward to a small, flat base, and two strap lug handles positioned bilaterally below the shoulder; buff earthenware with geometric decoration painted in black and burgundy slips; decoration around the shoulders includes four large round cartouches containing rings of dotted circles surrounding a smaller circle of crosshatching. Majiayao culture, Machang type. From the upper Yellow River valley region; Gansu, Qinghai, or Ningxia province.
H. 40.3 x Diam. 38.7 cm (15 7/8 x 15 1/4 in.)
[J.J. Lally & Co., New York, May 1998] sold; to Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation, Woodside, CA (1998-2006), partial gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2006.
Earthenware with cold painted pigmentEarthenware with cold painted pigment
5th-3rd millennium BCEChineseGray earthenware
4th-3rd millennium BCEChineseBlack earthenware
3rd millennium BCEChineseEarthenware with slip-painted decoration
4th-3rd millennium BCEChineseEarthenware with slip-painted decoration
4th-3rd millennium BCEChineseEarthenware with slip-painted decoration
4th-3rd millennium BCEChineseEarthenware with bichrome slip-painted decoration
3rd millennium BCEChineseEarthenware with slip-painted decoration
4th-3rd millennium BCEChineseEarthenware with cord-impressed decoration
3rd-2nd millennium BCEChineseBlack earthenware
5th-3rd millennium BCEChineseEarthenware
3rd-2nd millennium BCEChineseEaHarvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Partial gift of the Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation and partial purchase through the Ernest B. and Helen Pratt Dane Fund for Asian Art
3rd-2nd millennium BCEChinese