Jar

Ceramic bichrome two-handled funerary urn. Painted pottery of this type is typical of Banpo, Banshan, and other sites along the Yellow River in North China. It has a flat base with an ovoid body and shoulders which slope up to thumb-width constriction under a short plain flared rim. The piece has two short vertical band handles. The painted decoration includes: a shoulder zone of four-wave meanders of five bands, added bands filling triangular interstices, bands fired purple to dark brown, and occasional bands with fine serrated borders. The interior and exterior of the rim has a garland. The heavy fabric is a fine clay, fired orange-buff, with a wheel-smoothed/polished (over paint) surface which has some wheel-scars and pocks.