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D. J. FINN, S.J.
"double F pots developing a foot and that as a recent event, while show- ing another late mark-the glaze type. The fact that feet have in several other cases been found detached should be noted as agreeing with the observa- tion of finds in Tonkin and Annam showing that the feet were made separ- ately and attached before the firing of the upper part of cups and pots (7). Another point of technique which is worthy of note, as affording link with the neolithic south (whose culture was very much the same as our Kwangtung seaboard) as well as affording a characteristic for classify- ing other local finds, is the attachment of the neck. It was a mainland site indeed that first presented me wih the clue.
S
"
It had been noted already that the inside of the pots just below the neck showed sometimes a peculiar row of scalloped edges pointing down from a projecting ridge. Fragment 1 is a notable instance but is not unique. No solution offered itself until on a site which may be know for the present as S.K.F. High, a small bit of a basket" type (1.a) was found which gave the wanted clue. The sherd was from the neck and gave a section from the tip of the lip just down to below the join with the shoulder. On what would be the inner side, were in high relief two big regularly cut chevrons of clay which formed a continuation of the clay of the neck-collar.
It was now obvious (and has since found abundant confirmation) that this was a way of attaching the neck by a series of tabs or fringe of chevrons which were inserted within the already formed mouth-opening of the pot and then pressed back and upwards into the clay of the shoulder or necking. In the Lamma pots (figure 7, c and d), the technique is advanced enough to succeed in concealing the device by a better amalgamation of the two parts: on the S.K.F. High site, the result was left as a kind of high-relief chevron pattern standing out on a part invisible as long as the pot remained whole.
In (9) Plate 5, M. Patte has published a piece from Bau Tro which seems to have this technique though it is not so described in the text.
This point may be well worth noting for the sake of the classification of local finds as well as for their link with Tonkin and Annam.
The fragment 1 has on the interior of its collar, some zones of dots that suggest the glaze type. Also it has lower down than its chevron neck- join a very distinct rope zig-rag imprint that may be the mark made by the top of a basket used to support the pot interiorly during the earlier stages of making and stamping. Figure 7, c and d show typical neck-sections with bevelled edge.
That brings to an end the first description of the I class of the pottery. Before the end of the series it will be necessary to return to these again and again. For the moment we are content to record them with one attempt at finding a general indication of the date. Of course, in this, I am in- fluenced by the knowledge of the other finds to be discussed later on, but I think that even now a fair case can be made for the "double F" class and in general for the strata 1-3 feet as representative culture of the 3rd century B.C. either Chinese or in fairly close contact with them.
Before concluding, I should perhaps add that the evidence for the general conclusions of my lecture (12) is getting stronger and that even since
The Hong Kong Naturalist.
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Archaeological Finds on Lamma Island
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I began this article the first problem proposed above has come much nearer solution. I can now confidently say that the stratum which contains the typi- cal pots is the stratum that contains or has contained very fine polished stone weapons (which it may be misleading to call "neolithic ") as well as well as bronze Ko's," arrow-heads and other weapons. Tonkin and Annam have revealed similar collocations (4) (7) (9) and we may hope that further research will establish conclusions very interesting for the early history of South China as a whole.
16
REFERENCES,
(1) d'Ardenne de Tizac: Animals in Chinese Art,
(2) British Museum Guide to Oriental Pottery and Porcelain. (3) Chin shih so (Commercial Press re-print in 12 volumes),
(4) Goloubew, V.: L'Age du Bronze au Tonkin et dans le Nord-Annam.
Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême Orient, 1929.
(5) Hobson, R. L. Catalogue of the George Eumorfopoulos Collection;
Pottery and Porcelain.
(6)
Hsi ch'ing ku chien (Kien Lung edition).
(7)
Parmentier, H. Depôts de Jarres a Sa-Huynh.
P. 323.
B.E.F.E.O. XXIV.
B.E.F.E.O.. VIII
(8) Parmentier, H. Anciens Tambours de Bronze,
(9)
p. I.
Patte, E: Le Kjökkmödding néolithique de Bau Tro. B.E.F.E.O.
XXIV. (10) Shuo wen ku chau pu.
(11) Siren: Early Chinese Art: Prehistoric and Pre-Han.
(12) South China Morning Post 8/8/32.
(13) Burlington Magazine Monograph on Chinese Art. (14) B. Laufer. Han Pottery.
(15) Ts'in Han Chin Wen Luh (Catalogue of Ts'in and Han Bronze Epigraphy) recently published by the Academia Sinica, edited by Yung Keng (December 1931).
APPENDIX I.
When the above article had been almost completed, new and very pertinent material turned up in a most interesting fashion. So important is it that Dr. Herklots has added to his generosity and patience by allowing the addition of this appendix along with the considerable extra expense of a tone- block, Plate 34, figures 1, 2, and 3.
Mr. Ng Ching Sum, the demonstrator in the Biological Department, seeing the fragments which had come to be reproduced recognized them as the same type as vases carefully treasured by his father, one of them known worshipfully as Noah's Vase." Very kindly he has allowed them to be published here.
December 1933.