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 designs of stylized headless anthropomorphic figures alternating with round cartouches of crosshatched patterns. Majiayao culture, Machang type. From the upper Yellow River valley region; Gansu, Qinghai, or Ningxia province.
H. 41.2 x W. (across handles) 43.1 x Diam. 41.4 cm (16 1/4 x 16 15/16 x 16 5/16 in.)
[J.J. Lally & Co., New York, 1999] sold; to Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation, Woodside, CA (1999-2006), partial gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2006.
Blackened gray earthenware
3rd millennium BCEChineseEarthenware with slip-painted decoration
4th-3rd millennium BCEChineseEarthenware with applique and impressed decoration
3rd millennium BCEChineseBlackened earthenware
3rd millennium BCEChineseEarthenware with slip-painted decoration
3rd-2nd millennium BCEChineseDark gray earthenware with inscription incised on the interior wall of the footring after firing
4th-3rd millennium BCEChineseEarthenware with bichrome slip-painted decoration
3rd millennium BCEChineseEarthenware with slip-painted decoration
4th-3rd millennium BCEChineseBlack earthenware
3rd millennium BCEChineseEarthenware with traces of painted decor
5th-3rd 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 BCEChineseHarvard 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