Painted pottery is an important symbol of Yangshao culture, especially in the middle of Yangshao culture - the painted pottery of the temple ditch period, and its typical ornamental petal pattern has attracted wide attention.
On May 14th, on the occasion of the "5.18 International Museum Day", the "Walking in Henan, Understanding China" cultural relics exploration and concentrated interview group walked into the Miaodigou Museum in Sanmenxia City, Henan Province, through the exquisite Yangshao faience petal pattern, feel the creativity of the ancestors of Yangshao, and feel why this "flower" 6,000 years ago is fragrant in China.
The picture shows many painted pottery on display at the Miaodigou Museum Photo by Han Zhangyun
The museum basically displays "Flowers Bloom in China - Miaodigou and the Occurrence of Early Chinese Civilization", which tells the development process, cultural outlook and important influence of Miaodigou culture, and is currently the largest number of Yangshao cultural painted pottery, the most complete type, and the longest prehistoric cultural exhibition in China.
Among the many painted pottery in the museum, the petal pattern painted pottery pot can be called the representative work of the temple bottom ditch type painted pottery. It has a diameter of 31.9 cm, a bottom diameter of 13.2 cm, a height of 20.3 cm, clay yellow pottery, the surface of the vessel is polished, the bowl is pot-shaped, and the upper abdomen is painted with black color to create a number of groups of staggered arc triangles, dots, lines, etc., forming a continuous petal pattern for a week, with beautiful texture, smooth lines, simple colors, and a great sense of art.
The picture shows the petal-patterned faience pot on display at the Miaodigou Museum Photo by Han Zhangyun
According to Wang Hongmin, director of the Miaodigou Museum, the petal pattern is the most iconic ornament of the Miaodigou culture, including single-petal petal pattern, double-petal petal pattern, four-petal petal pattern and multi-petal petal pattern.
Why did the ancestors of Yangshao draw petal patterns on the utensils? Wang Hongmin believes that this shows that people at that time have observed the growth law of plants, flowers have the meaning of life reproduction, and the flower ornament depicted on life utensils is a beautiful sustenance for life reproduction, which is "the flower of reproduction".
The audience visits the Miaodigou Museum Photo by Han Zhangyun
Archaeologist Yan Wenming once proposed the "double-petaled flower" pattern of China's prehistoric civilization. He believes that if the Central Plains is regarded as the center of flowers, the first petals and the second petals are distributed around it, and the Neolithic culture of China as a whole is like a huge double-petaled flower, with a super-stable structure. Wang Hongmin said, "The Miaodigou culture, which is prevalent in petal patterns, has a wide distribution range and great radiation impact, and blooms like a double-petaled flower on the land of China." Miaodigou culture is also regarded as the "flower of culture".
He added that in ancient Chinese, "flower" and "hua" have the same sound, and the two have the same meaning, so some scholars believe that the petal pattern on Yangshao faience may be the origin of the "Hua" of Huaxia, which is the "flower of Huaxia".
Wang Hongmin said that the Yangshao culture, which was first discovered in Mianchi, Henan, lasted for 2,000 years and formed the taproot vein of ancient Chinese civilization. Miaodigou culture is the most representative type of culture in the heyday of the Yangshao era, it carries the painted pottery to influence most of China, and is called "the artistic wave of China's prehistoric period" by the academic circles, which has had a profound impact on the development of China's prehistoric culture.
Text/Chinanews reporter Han Zhangyun, Li Yue, Wang Shan
Editor/Cui Wei