Funerary storage jar

The seemingly abstract zigzag designs on the burial storage jar are a stylized version of a human-like stick figure. The neck of the jar in this case represents the head. Built from coils of clay, the vessel relates in shape to the earlier Banshan (2600-2300 BCE) jars shown here, but its proportions are more elongated and its surface is matte and unburnished. Related Machang (2200-2000 BCE) type jars have been excavated in Gansu and Qinghai provinces in northwest China.