Banshan

Refers to one of the three major phases of the Gansu culture, dating from ca. 2800 to ca. 2300 BCE. Four sites make up Banshan: Waguanzui, Banshan proper, Bianjiagou and Wangjiagou. Banshan culture covered an area that overlapped with the eastern end of the Majiayao region and extended north and west; it is named for a site in the area of the middle Tao and upper Wei rivers, from which numerous funerary urns were uncovered in the 1930s. As a result of these urns being acquired by American and European museums, Banshan urns, with their narrow necks, wide shoulders, and narrow bases, are the most recognized Chinese Neolithic pottery in the West. Designs are often comprised of four large roundels and are usually painted in purplish black and plum-red pigments although shades of yellow and brown are sometimes seen. Bowls, produced less frequently than urns, occasionally feature designs of human figures.