The Dispersion of Early Painted Pottery in Northwest China

Summary

The dispersion of resource-based goods, such as obsidian and metals, has been a common subject in world archaeological literature and various mechanisms such as migration, gift exchange, and trade have been conjured up to explain it. The dispersion of painted pottery, by contrast, has been glaringly understudied. Although the raw materials for this product are less geographically constrained, its dispersion has not been well appreciated and explained. This paper aims to address the movement of the painted pottery of the Siba culture in the Hexi Corridor to the Tianshanbeilu culture in Eastern Xinjiang, and the Qijia culture in eastern Gansu and Qinghai provinces. The dispersion to Tianshanbeilu has been well noticed but an explanation is wanting. This paper argues that a group of Siba migrants brought the painted pottery technology to Eastern Xinjiang. The painted pottery found in the Qijia culture, however, has been traditionally conceived as an integral element of a regional variant. Given the fact that Qijia has a tradition of making grey pottery, whereas the Siba culture has a tradition of making painted pottery, the motion of the Siba pottery is apparent and this paper will further entertain the ideas of gift exchange and trade.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• New Insights into Painted Pottery from Northwest China

Keywords

Spatial Coverage