サキザバード出土の彩文土器について

Abstract

Some scholars such as S. M. Kaplan, H. H. Von den Osten and R. Heine-Geldern already pointed out the possible existence of the relation between the so-called “black” pottery of prehistoric China and the similar pottery of prehistoric Iran, and even suggested the origin of the former pottery to the latter. These arguments are very attractive, but as S. Masuda has remarked, there are yet too scarce of positive proofs to demonstrate these inferences, though the existence of tripods in Li and Ho shapes which are generally supposed as rather peculiar in prehistoric China among the so-called Amlash pottery, seems to affirm at least the indirect relation between the “black” pottery cultures of prehistoric Iran and China.Here I treat these pottery cultures of East and West not through the monochrome, but through polychrome pottery.Since about 1960, there have appeared many polychrome and monochrome pottery in Tehran curios market, which they refered to the finds from Sakizabad not far from Kazvin southwardly.The painted pottery of Sakizabad show not so many kinds of shape: pots with a short neck, a round body and a wide mouth, pots like cups with a small base and a handle at one side near the mouth, bowls with a carinated body and a small base, shallow bowls and dishes are most commonly seen (Pls. I-IV, VI-XIII). The pots, shallow bowls and dishes are often supported by three legs (figs. I-4, V-4), and the pots have sometimes on both-sides of their shoulders a pair of lugs with a small hole for a string to pass through in order to suspend the pottery (Pls. II, III).The Sakizabad painted pottery seem to show the fabrication not by the method of potter's wheel, but by the ring-method or direct hand-make, because of their uneven surfaces and considerably irregular shapes. The temperature of their firing must have been rather low, the quality of the pottery being soft, porous and rough. The surface of the pottery seems in the majority of cases to be covered with a thin coating of “slip” in whitish or reddish colour.Decorative paintings on slip are applied mostly on the outer surface of the pottery, but also on the inside surface in the case of shallow bowls and dishes. According to the construction and colour of the painted designs, the Sakizabad painted pottery are roughly divided into two groups. The first group is characterized by its bold stroke of painting on the whitish slip surface of comparatively thicker wall of the pottery (Pls. I-V figs. II-1, III-3, IV-2, V). The common designs of the first group are: triangle, rhomb, meander, zig-zag lines, twined wavy lines, all arranged in horizontal bands, which divide the whole or the larger parts of the outer surface of the pottery, and swastika-like geometric designs and asterisk designs are also seen on the inside surface of the pottery (figs. V1, 4).The common colours of their paintings are: black, red and gray, tinged sometimes with purple, brown or yellow. Three or more colours are applied so often in this group of the Sakizabad painted pottery.The second group is characterized with the designs drawn by fine stroke in multiple lines on whitish or reddish slip surface of the comparatively thin wall of the pottery. The common designs of this group are: so-called staircase design, checker, rhomb, meander and meander-like geometric designs, zig-zag lines, wavy lines and x-shaped lines, all arranged in horizontal bands which cover the larger part of the outer surface of the pottery, and fantastic, highly stylized zoomorphic designs and asterisk designs together with rhombs and zig-zag lines freely drawn on the inside surface of the pottery (Pls. XIV right, XV). The common colours of their paintings are: black, red and gray tinged with purple or brown. In this group of the Sakizabad painted pottery, black paintings are seen both on reddish and whitish slip, while red paintings are only on whitish slip as general rule.The