Archaeological site of the Neolithic Age

Location: Lintao County, Gansu Province

Period: 3100 BC - 2700 BC

Excavated in 1924

Significance: The Majiayao Culture is named after the site. It is the first find of the Neolithic Culture in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, which covers the present-day Gansu and Tibet. 

Painted pottery jar with pointed bottom: water vessel (up, height 26 cm); Painted pottery dou (bowl with high stem and spreading foot): food container (bottom, height 16.4 cm)

Introduction

Majiayao Culture was a culture of the late Neolithic Age that existed around 5,750-3,950 years ago. It is named after the Majiayao Site in Lintao, Gansu. The Site covers an area of about 100,000 square meters..

Colored pottery excavated here was well developed. Among all the pottery wares, colored wares possessed a high proportion. Potteries commonly had their upper sections coated red or purplish red. They were decorated with black and red geometric patterns. Other patterns included human figures and frogs. The black and red provided a most attractive contrast. Among them, a basin depicting five people dancing hand in hand is now considered a national art treasure.

Villages and large-scale cemeteries were found in this culture. This showed that people at that time had a settled way of life. Weaving tools including spinning wheels where found in some tombs of females while male tombs generally contained production tools like axes, adzes and chisels. This indicated that there was a division in social roles, with females specializing in weaving and males in farming.