A Study Of Yangshao Culture Painted Pottery From Dahecun Site

The culture of central China enjoys a long history.Zhengzhou,located in the inner land of Central Plains,is one of the oldest cities in China.From the Neolithic Age,our forefathers have labored,lived and multiplied on this land.The central plains culture occupies an important position in the history of Chinese civilization.Zhengzhou Dahecun site located in the northern suburb of Zhengzhou,is one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the 1970 s.It was a large-scale ancient settlement site that contained the archaeological cultural relics of Yangshao,Longshan,Xia and Shang periods.It was discovered in 1964 and first excavated in1972.Until 2015,it has been excavated 25 times successively and have been cleared up to more than 50 foundations,more than 500 cellar holes,more than 400 tombs and5 trenches.More than 3500 precious cultural relics and 20000 specimens of various types were unearthed as well.Dahecun site had experienced the prosperity phase of the human primitive society matriarchal clan stage and the patrilineal clan stage to the slave society stage of xia and shang dynasties,which is a complete epitome of the Zhengzhou ancient culture development.The middle part of Dahecun site was the residential district of yangshao culture.It had the thickest cultural layers and the richest heritage;the foundations are stacked on top of others;cellar holes are all over the place.There are two burial areas respectively located at the southwest and northeast.The yangshao culture in Dahecun site lasted for about 2400 years,involved the whole process that coming into being,development,prosperity and vanishment,contained a large number of painted potteries with rich content,diverse themes and unique styles.It had outstanding information value and specimen value for research the painted pottery’s law of development and style.The first part of this paper introduces the research background,status,design and methods and describes the importance of dahecun site.The second part introduces the dahecun site and the painted pottery,then divides Dahecun site’s yangshao culture painted pottery into four periods and summarizes the painted pottery development’s law and influence factor.The third part divides the decorative pattern of painted pottery into four groups that include geometric patterns,botany patterns,animal patterns and astronomy patterns.This part summarizes common pattern and discussesthe relationship between Dahecun site yangshao culture painted pottery pattern and agriculture,the spiritual world of ancestors,daily life.In order to make sure the agricultural production progress smoothly,ancestors must master astronomy knowledge.They copied the patterns of stars and nature that they observed onto the painted pottery.These astronomy patterns,in turn,are the evidence that ancestors mastered the astronomy knowledge.The development of agriculture and ancestors pay attention to agriculture little by little can be seen from the patterns of painted pottery.The fourth part summarizes the law of painted pottery’s development and change,discusses the factors behind painted pottery properties’ evolution and ancestors’ astronomy worship.The fifth part summarizes this paper.Dahecun site is an outstanding one among thousands of ancient sites in the Yellow River in the case of its large area,thick accumulation of cultural layers,rich cultural connotation and long duration.This paper intends to research the Dahecun site yangshao culture painted pottery and patterns,hoping to fill in the blank and recognize the whole through observation of the part,which can be of some help and reference value to the yangshao painted pottery culture study in the whole Central Plains and other areas.