Neolthic Pottery

Dawenkou culture, 4th millennium BC1
Shandong Provincial Museum, Jinan

The Dawenkou neolithic culture occupied the East Coast provinces of Shandong and Jiangsu; it coexisted with, and apparently traded influences with, the Yangshao culture to the west. This can be seen in objects like the painted pot at lower left, that shares design elements with similar Yangshao, Miaodigou phase, pottery from Henan (example; and see Thorp and Vinograd, pp. 40-44).

The Jinan museum is rich in East Coast Neolithic pottery, from Dawenkou and its successor Longshan; the Longshan type site is only a few km outside of Jinan.

1This website reflects the new periodization of the East Coast Neolithic whereby, in simple terms, now 4th millennium BC = Dawenkou, 3d millennium BC = Longshan, and 2600-2000 BC = Late Period Longshan. Ref: Shao Wangping, in Allen (ed.), The Formation Of Chinese Civilization, chapter 4, pp. 85ff.