Thai Ban Chiang Earthenware Jar | Incised and Painted Wave Motif

Southeast Asia, Thailand, Ban Chiang culture. A squat, wide-bodied earthenware jar with a short neck that turns out into a broad, flat rim. The shoulder carries several parallel lines around the pot. Below them, a deep wave of red pigment swings around the body, edged with finely incised outlines so the paint sits inside drawn grooves. The design is restrained and rhythmic, typical of the red-on-buff ware of the Ban Chiang potters, who often painted their vessels with swirling, wave-like curves. The buff clay surface shows dark mineral flecks and the soft, chalky surface of long burial. Vessels like this are found mostly in burials of the Khorat Plateau, so this jar was likely placed in a grave, though it may also have been used in daily life. Ban Chiang, a village in Udon Thani province in northeast Thailand, came to wide notice in 1966, when painted pottery was found eroding from the ground there. Excavations in 1974 and 1975 by the Thai Fine Arts Department and the University of Pennsylvania Museum revealed a long burial sequence. It records the move from Neolithic farming communities to bronze and then iron working on the Khorat Plateau. UNESCO named the site a World Heritage Site in 1992. The red-painted buff pottery is the best-known product of the culture and belongs to the Late Period of the sequence. Some vessels have bold spirals and scrolls; others, like this one, have a more measured wave pattern outlined with incised lines. Item # 205631

Estimate:$250

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