Basin (pan)

Displayed in a group: B60 B1001 (front). B60 B89 (middle) and B60 B37 (back)
This shape can claim a Neolithic ancestry, is attested to in Middle Shang finds, and was produced throughout the Shang and Zhou dynasty. Usually Shang pan have three irregularly shaped perforations where the bowl and feet meet. Late Zhou texts refer to pan as vessels used for ablutions, and the aquatic nature of their main ornamental schemes clearly indicates that they were meant to hold water. These unusual designs and the special cursive way in which they are rendered illustrate a surprising freshness of attitude, a sort of popular vein which is usually absent from all other categories of vessels.

The exterior decoration of this vessel (back, B60B37) consists also of two bands. The upper band is divided into six panels, each one with an elongated eye motif in flat relief against a meander background. The foot band is more simply made of large, but dense, spirals and raised lines. The distribution and association of the motifs incised inside the bowl echo those we have just described in connection with the other pan. Here, however, the procession of animals on the walls goes clockwise instead of the other way around and is limited to two species: five dragons alternating with five beaked fish whose sides are marked with the sign The center of the howl is occupied by a large flattened and taloned turtle. A three-graph inscription is incised high on the wall between the beak of a fish and the tail of a dragon. The first graph represents a broom in a house, the second a kneeling figure with his head turned all the way round and the third a foot print. This entire inscription, which remains somewhat obscure, may be a clan sign.