Banpo Museum

1
Banpo Museum
2
Overview

• Banpo Museum is located in the eastern suburb of
  Xian,nine kilometers from the center of the
  city. It houses the site of a 6000-year-old
  village,which belongs to a Neolithic matriarchal
  clan community. The site was named Banpobecause
  it was unearthed near the present-day Banpo
  Village.

3
Overview

• Banpo is a typical site of Yangshao Culture which
  belonged to Chinas Neolithic Age. Remains of the
  Culture were located mainly in the middle and
  lower reaches of the Yellow River Valley.
  Yangshao Culture first came to light in Yangshao
  Village,Mianchi County Henan Province in 1921.

4
Overview

• With painted red pottery as its chief
  feature,Yangshao Culture is also known as the
  Painted Pottery Culture. More than 400 sites of
  Yangshao Culture have been discovered in Central
  Shaanxi Plain of the Yellow River Valley. Thus
  the Yellow River Valley has always enjoyed the
  reputation of being the cradle of Chinas ancient
  culture.

5
Overview

• Production tools,such as the knife,axe,adze and
  chisel,were mostly made of stone by means of
  grinding and polishing. There were chipped stone
  implements and bone objects as well. Pottery
  utensils for daily use were chiefly made from
  refined terra-cotta and red sandy clay.

6
Overview

• Some objects of refined terra-cotta were
  decorated with zoomorphic and geometric designs.
  Agriculture dominated the economic life of that
  age,while fishing and domestic animal rearing
  came second. All these finds give evidence to the
  fact that matriarchal clan community came to its
  prime. Using the Carbon-14 dating method, we may
  come to the conclusion that the Yangshao Culture
  can be traced back to 5,000 to 3000 B.C. in
  Central China.

7
Overview

• It is believed that the matriarchal clan
  community began with the birth of primitive clan
  communes,and came to an end not long before
  patriarchal society was established. This
  happened in approximately the period spanning the
  late Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages. Women then
  played a dominant role in society. The
  matriarchal society falls into two periodsthe
  early period and the latter period.

8
Overview

• In the early period women were engaged in
  gathering while men were occupied with fishing
  and hunting. As a result of the intertribal
  communal marriage, children were closely
  associated with their mothers. Yet their fathers
  remained somewhat like a stranger to them. They
  followed their mothers in the family pedigree.

9
Overview

• The latter period of the matriarchal society saw
  the transition to exogamy. Women took up
  farming,and managed the tribe affairs and the
  economic life as well. Husbands lived in the
  homes of their female partners,and they were also
  recorded together with their property in the
  family pedigree after their female partners

10
Overview

• Banpo remains were discovered by chance in the
  spring of 1953. It extends over an area of 50,000
  square meters. Excavations were conducted in six
  phases between 1954 and 1957,opening up an area
  of 10,000 square meters,one fifth of the total.
  Banpo Museum was set up at the site in 1958,the
  first of its kind in China.

11
Overview

• According to the archaeological survey,the
  village is divided into three sectionsthe living
  section,the pottery-making section and the burial
  section.

12
Overview

• By means of scientific excavation,archaeologists
  have discovered nearly 10,000 production tools or
  daily utensils,46 houses,2 pigsties,200
  cellars,174 burial pits for adults and 73 burial
  jars for children. The discovery of so many
  artifacts is indeed unprecedented.

13
Natural Environment

• Favorable natural environment is essential to
  human survival and sustenance. The plant
  specimens and animal bones under study show that
  the area of Banpo Village was warm and moist 6000
  years ago. In those days, both the Chan River and
  the Ba River were affluent.

14
Natural Environment

• The Banpo people never had to worry about the
  availability of water. To the east of Banpo
  Village is the White Deer Plateau,and to the
  south is the Zhongnan Mountain densely covered
  with vegetation.

15
Natural Environment

• The Banpo people made this place their home
  because of its fertile soil,abundant water supply
  and dense forests. All this made it possible for
  them to conduct many activitiessuch as farming,
  fishing,hunting, pottery making, livestock
  breeding,house building,etc. therefore they lived
  a settled life.

16
Farming

• In the days of Banpo, men had to go out for
  hunting and fishing,while women made a living by
  gathering. Through the long-term observation and
  experimentation in their daily activities,the
  Banpo women gradually became acquainted with the
  law of growth of various plants,therefore
  developed primitive agriculture.

17
Farming

• As a result, planting became a reliable source of
  their daily needs. So we may conclude that women
  were the chief creators of agriculture. With
  women doing cooking at home,the distribution of
  food became their responsibility,which, plus
  child rearing,weaving,and pottery-making,made
  their role in the clan increasingly important and
  dominant.

18
Farming

• Some carbonized millets were discovered in the
  cellar,and Chinese cabbage seeds were discovered
  in pottery jars. This shows that Banpo people not
  only knew how to grow grain crops, but also
  vegetables, which greatly enriched their material
  life.

19
Farming

• Banpo people opened up land by slashing and
  burning trees and wild plants, thus turing the
  ashes into fertilizer. In this way waste land was
  turned into cultivated fields.

20
Hunting

• Hunting played an important role in the life of
  the Banpo people. It not only provided people
  with meat, but also supplied them with other
  daily necessities such as fur,bones,horns and
  animal fat. There were a large number of wild
  animals around the place 6000 years ago.

21
Hunting

• Judging from the animal bones discovered on the
  site,we can tell that sika(spotted deer)were the
  principal game of the Banpo people. People then
  went out hunting collectively. The hunting tools
  they used were mainly arrows,stone pebbles and
  stone spears.

22
Fishing

• Fishing was another occupation of the Banpo
  people. The Chan River to the west of the Village
  had a large volume of water flow teeming with
  fish. Fish hooks and harpoons were found at the
  site,all of them exquisitely made. In the early
  period,they had no barbs on themlater on,barbs
  appeared on fish hooks and harpoons.

23
Fishing

• Though it is impossible to find fish nets on the
  site,since they were then probably made of plant
  fibers,and had rotted along,long time
  ago,however,archaeologists found impressions of
  fish nets on pieces of broken pottery. What is
  more,some stone net sinkers were
  discovered,another evidence that fish nets were
  used to catch fish 6000 years ago.

24
Pottery Making

• In Banpo remains, a large number of differently
  shaped pottery utensils were discovered.
  According to their usage,they could be classified
  into several kinds,such as food and water
  containers,cooking utensils,and utensils for
  storing things.

25
Pottery Making

• The pottery made by Banpo people was mainly red
  in color. At that time,pottery was still made by
  the ring-building method. The potterss wheel did
  not come into existence then. What is the
  ring-building method?Well, people rolled the clay
  into long pieces,coiled them up into different
  shapes of untensils,smoothed their surfaces with
  bone knives and then fired them in the kilns.

26
Pottery Making

• The pottery making section is located in the
  eastern part of Banpo Village. In this area,six
  pottery kilns of two different types were
  discoveredhorizontal and vertical. The
  horizontal kilns were used in the early
  stage,while the vertical kilns were constructed
  in the later period of Banpo.

27
Pottery Making

• Compared with the horizontal kilns,the vertical
  ones were more advanced in structure. An
  examination of the wall of the kilns shows that
  the temperature in the kiln could reach as high
  as 800? to 1000?.

28
Pottery Making

• The pottery utensils unearthed at Banpo were not
  only beautifully shaped,but also rich in the
  variety of colorful designs. Most of the designs
  had to do with fish. Because they lived by the
  riverside,Banpo people lived a lot on fish. As
  they often went fishing,they got a direct
  perception of fish.

29
Pottery Making

• Besides designs of fish,there were also designs
  of deer, mountains and rivers,etc. In addition to
  painted designs,there were also impressions of
  nails,strings,mats,linen fabrics,etc. The
  decorative patterns of the designs are found
  mostly on the upper sections of the pottery
  utensils,while the beautiful impressions are
  found either at the bottom or on the body of the
  utensils.

30
Weaving and Sewing

• In Banpo remains,some bone shuttles and 81 bone
  needles with eyes were unearthed. Impressions of
  linen fabrics were found at the bottom of some
  excavated pottery vessels. All this may convince
  us that this period saw the emergence of spinning
  and weaving.

31
Weaving and Sewing

• The discovery of the large number of delicate
  bone needles,with eyes at their ends which made
  it possible to pass thread through them,shows
  that Banpo people mastered the skill of sewing.
  According to archaeological study,it is believed
  that the materials for sewing then were possibly
  linen and hides.

32
The Living Section

• Banpo is one of the largest villages of Yangshao
  Culture. The living section alone covers an area
  of 30,000 square meters. It is surrounded by a
  300-meter-long moat which served the purpose of
  protecting the village against wild beasts and
  floods. To the north of the moat is the burial
  section,while to its east is the pottery-making
  section.

33
The Living Section

• In all,the remains of 46 houses were discovered.
  A house as large as 160 square meters was
  uncovered in the center of the living section
  with smaller houses built around it. The doors of
  the smaller houses were all open towards the
  large one in the center.

34
The Living Section

• It is believed this large house was used as a
  meeting hall in which the Banpo people discussed
  their communal affairs,and at the same time,it
  served as a dormitoryfor children and old
  people. Religious and ritual activities of the
  clan were also held here,such as adulthood
  ceremony.

35
The Living Section

• As for the smaller houses, some were round and
  others square in shapesome were built half under
  ground and others above ground in structure. Most
  of the houses were built half under ground.

36
The Living Section

• In building these houses,Banpo people began with
  digging a pit and then along the edges of the
  pit,erected a framework for a roof with thatches.
  The houses may appear to us very primitive
  today,but they really represent a big step
  forward from cave dwellings. In order to get in
  and out conveniently,they built a sloping
  entrance in the south,which allowed only one
  person to pass.

37
The Living Section

• Then they built up a raised threshold to stop
  rainwater. It is not hard to imagine the
  importance of fire in the life of the primitive
  people,for fire was indispensable for
  cooking,heating and lighting. So no wonder there
  was in the middle of every house a fire pit.

38
The Living Section

• There are altogether 200 cellars scattered
  outside the houses. They were mainly used to
  store tools and grain. They fall into two
  typesone,from the early daysthe other,from the
  later days. The capacity of the cellars was small
  and they were of irregular shapes.

39
The Living Section

• In the later period, cellars were shaped like a
  pocket with mouth smaller than the bottom. They
  were of uniform shape and had large capacity.
  This growth in the volume of the cellars and the
  tendency in the latter period toward a uniformity
  in shape indicates the growth of productivity and
  the increase in the output of production.

40
The Living Section

• All the cellars were located in the open
  air,which shows that the Banpo people worked
  together,and enjoyed equal distribution. They
  lived in a primitive society without
  classes,exploitation or private property.

41
The Living Section

• The entire living section is surrounded by a
  protective moat,six meters in both depth and
  width. Its main purpose is to safeguard Banpo
  people from attacks of wild beasts and damage
  from heavy rainfall. At the same time,it served
  to prevent conflicts between clan members.

42
The Burial Section

• To the north of the protective moat lies the
  burial section of Banpo Village. It was the place
  where adults were buried. Altogether 170 graves
  were excavated. Archaeological excavation has
  revealed that at the time of Banpo, males and
  females were separately buried either in groups
  or singly and there was not a grave where a man
  and a woman were buried together.

43
The Burial Section

• This is precisely an indication of a
  characteristic matriarchal society when exogamy
  was practiced. At that time a man was married
  to a woman,but during the time they lived
  together,both could have sexual relations with
  others. As a result,their children only
  recognized their mothers instead of fathers.

44
The Burial Section

• The family was always headed by the
  motherchildren followed their motherthe man
  could be packed off any moment as the woman
  pleased. The poor man even had to be sent back to
  his matriarchal family for burial after death.
  This is why no graves with corpses of both sexes
  were discovered.

45
The Burial Section

• The deceased were found to be buried in various
  postures. Some were buried with their faces up
  and arms and legs straight and some were buried
  with their faces down and some were buried
  sideways.

46
The Burial Section

• It was a common practice to bury the deceased
  twice. When a person died,his corpse would be
  placed somewhere for a period of time until it
  became decomposed. Then people collected the
  bones and buried them formally in the cemetery.

47
The Burial Section

• This way of burial is also known as washing bone
  burial. Perhaps Banpo inhabitants then believed
  that mans blood and flesh belonged to the human
  world,only when they became decayed could the
  soul go to the other world.

48
The Burial Section

• The heads of the deceased were directed to the
  west, probably because people then believed that
  the deceased would go to the other world,and the
  other world was in the direction of the sunset.

49
The Burial Section

• There were three or four pieces of burial objects
  in every tomb. They included bowls,
  plates,bottles and some other pottery cooking
  vessels. The burial objects were usually placed
  near the legs of the deceased.

50
The Burial Section

• From this we can see that 6,000 years ago the
  primitive people already generated the conception
  that everybody had a soul. They believed that
  people would go to live in the other world after
  their death. So they buried the dead together
  with his daily utensils.

51
Childrens Burial Jars

• To bury dead children in jars is a burial custom
  of the Banpo people. When children died,they were
  not supposed to be buried in the communal
  cemetery of the village. People first dug a pit
  somewhere near their house into which they placed
  a pottery jar,and then laid the corpse inside,and
  covered the mouth of the jar with a pottery bowl
  or basin,depending on the size of the jar.

52
Childrens Burial Jars

• They usually chipped a hole in the center of the
  bowl or basin. This was probably a passage for
  the soul of the dead to come in and out. Older
  children were buried in two pottery jars jointly
  connected.

53
Childrens Burial Jars

• To bury the children near the house is probably
  an indication of the mothers affection for their
  lost children. Others perhaps thought that their
  children were too small to live by themselves,and
  they still needed to be taken care of.

54
Childrens Burial Jars

• On the other hand,it is believed that there was a
  strict rule for burying the dead in Banpo. Since
  those children died very young,they were not
  considered as full members of the clan.

55
Childrens Burial Jars

• So far 73 childrens burial jars have been
  excavated. Obviously, infant death rate was very
  high in those days because of tough natural
  conditions.

56
Production Tools

• Banpo was a village of the Neolithic age,when
  tools were made by the technique of grinding and
  polishing and were comparatively smooth. Drill
  technique appeared in the later period. The
  polished tools are mostly for chopping and
  finishing purposes such as the axe,and the
  chisel,with the polishing applied either all over
  the body or only partially. Frequently polishing
  and chipping are combined in the making of a
  single tool.

57
Production Tools

• For instance, some tools have their body chipped
  while the cutting edge is polished. Harvesting
  tools discovered and pottery knives found in the
  early layers were roughly made. In the later
  layers archaeologists found sickles which could
  be fixed to some handles.

58
Production Tools

• They were shaped more or less like metal sickles
  in use nowadays. The improvement in the farm
  tools reflected the constant development of mans
  wisdom. Millstone and grinding stone which were
  used to process grain were also discovered.
  People put grain on the millstone and then they
  husked and crushed grain with the grinding stone
  in their hands.

59
Carved and Painted Signs

• Writing did not come into being in Banpo days,but
  some 113 carved and painted signs were found on
  the unearthed pottery vessels. Comparing these
  signs with the inscriptions on bones or tortoise
  shells of the Shang Dynasty (16---11th centuries
  B.C.),we may see a few of them bear some
  resemblance to each other.

60
Carved and Painted Signs

• It is believed these signs were possibly the
  earliest Chinese script,the predecessor of the
  inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the
  Shang Dynasty. Guinness World Records 1988 page
  174 the third paragraph mentioned thisThe
  earliest characters of the world were found on
  the eastern suburb of Xian China in1960s.

61
Tip-bottomed Bottle

• The tip-bottomed bottle is characteristic of the
  pottery unearthed at Banpo. It is a water-drawing
  device which is in conformity with the law of the
  center of gravity. As soon as the bottle touched
  the water surface,it would automatically tilt.

62
Tip-bottomed Bottle

• Then it would stand upright after being filled
  with water,due to the shifting of its center of
  gravity. It had two advantages for holding water.
  The first is that it was portable and easy to
  carry on the back. The second is that the water
  would not spill out when it was carried from the
  river to the living place.

63
Human-faced Fish Design

• The design of a fish with a human face was a
  masterpiece painting discovered on the site,and
  reflected the artistic attainments of these early
  inhabitants. Its lines were clear and graceful.

64
Human-faced Fish Design

• On its head the hair was well pinned and done
  into a knot,two small fish were held in the
  corners of its mouth. This design depicted Banpo
  peoples strong ties and special emotion with
  fish. It was most likely the totem of the Banpo
  people.

65
The Use of Pottery Steamers

• Banpo people already found that steam could be
  used in cooking,and then they invented pottery
  steamers. This has been proven to be the earliest
  use of steam in human history.

66
Remains of the Sty

• In the course of excavation, the remains of two
  sties and bones of pigs,dogs oxen,sheep, horses
  and chickens were found. According to the study
  of some experts,the only domestic animals 6,000
  years ago could be pigs and dogs,while other
  animal were being tamed.

67
Remains of the Sty

• Because dogs are easy to raise and they are good
  helpers for hunting and pigs are capable of quick
  breeding and easy to keep in sties,so they became
  the earliest domestic animals.