Ceramics of Baijinbao - the basic site of the bronze age in the Heilongjiang province

The most significant event for investigations of the Bronze Age of the Heilongjiang province was the excavation of the Baijinbao settlement on the north bank of Songhua river. The tribes of Baijinbao barely had any agriculture, a fact confirmed by an extremely small number of agricultural tools found. Hunting and fishing played a significant role. Numerous fishing and hunting tools, such as harpoons, spears, arrow-heads, knives and scrapers were found. As a general rule, bronze items, such as knives, needles, axes, buttons, rings and earrings, were usually quite small. There are more than 400 vessels found, therefore ceramics was the basis for dividing the culture into four periods. The first period is an early phase, which is dated from the late Neolithic - to the early period of Shang. The most widely spread vessels are with a wide mouth and straight walls, they are common not only for Baijinbao, but also for all the other cultures of this period. In the first period, ceramics were poorly ornamented. Part of a collection was covered by drawn lines on the bottom. The only tripod (of the li type) was decorated with cord impressions in the form of horizontal stripes or a zigzag pattern on the rim. The second period belongs to the middle-late Bronze Age. In the second period, the most common pottery forms are wide pots, tripods with a high neck, wide dishes and bowls with handles. Vessels with signs on the bottom common in the first period, disappear. Nail prints are found both on the neck and along the body of vessels. Tripods on hollow legs wide spread in the Bronze Age first appear. There are two types of such tripods typical for Baijinbao culture: the first - with a narrow neck and bent body, which is the exact copy of B type vessels of Lower Xiajiadian culture in western Liaoning, and the second, with a broad rim decorated with clay pearls and a cylindrical body, which is the most typical form of Shang time on the territories of modern Hebei. Thus, there was an influence of two traditions concurrently in Baijinbao culture. The third period is a period of “classical” forms. It dates to the late Bronze Age - the period of Western Zhou. A complex geometric pattern typical for Baijinbao culture or the images of animals such as frogs, sheep and deer appear. The finds of typical pots ( guan ) in the Upper Xiajiadian culture in the southeast of Inner Mongolia indicate close contacts between these two regions in the early period of Western Zhou. The fourth period in scientific literature is called "Hanshu II", dated back to the Zhanguo period and is characterized by the decline of classical forms.