EARLY PICTOGRAM FOR 'TIAN' (FIELD)

MS 3042/2
MS Short Title CHARACTER 'TIAN' (FIELD)
Text CHARACTER TIAN FOR "FIELD", A CROSS WITHIN A SQUARE, INSIDE A SWASTIKA, REPEATED 4 TIMES
Description MS in Chinese on red earthenware, Ganshu, China, ca. 2200-1800 BC, 1 funeral urn, h. 32 cm, diam. 26 to10 cm, wide, near spherical corpus with vertical ringlugs at the middle, tapering to a base which is a little wider than the mouth, decorations in dark brown and light violet.
Binding
Context
Provenance Cemetery, Ganshu, China (2200-1800 -); 2. Private collection, Ascona, Switzerland (1965-)
Commentary From the Yangshao Neolitic period, representing the oldest Chinese pictograms/marks/characters next to the Banpo neolithic village pottery ca. 4000 BC, and about 700 years before the oracle bones (MSS 2103/1-7), which is the earliest Chinese continuos writing so far.
Published
Exhibited
Mentioned
Boxing
See also
Place of origin China
Dates ca 2200 - 1800 BC