Lobed Ware in the Far East from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages

Abstract

The study focuses on the origin and survival of the so-called lobed ware in the Far East. The term refers to vessels decorated with shallow vertical grooves, less often with deep, wide dents, either on the most convex part of the body or on the entire surface. Some vessels are covered with groups of vertical carved lines or burnished, less often painted bands imitating lobulation. Such ceramics are especially frequent at sites of the Jurchen era (7th–13th centuries) in the Amur basin. They are also found in Primorye, northeastern China, and in adjacent territories. The study of various sources shows that the lobed ware was made on the Lower Amur as early as the Neolithic (5th to late 2nd millennia BC), with the earliest samples relating to the Kondon culture. Typical lobed ceramics were also made by people of the Malyshevo and Voznesenovskoye cultures. It is hypothesized that the Jurchen-Bohai pottery, including the lobed ware, was directly influenced by Korean traditions of the first two or three quarters of the 1st millennium AD. Given the distinctness of the tradition, its reminiscences in the Amur region can be traced back to the Neolithic.