A reinterpretation of the octagonal starpatterned painted pottery dou from the Dawenkou Culture: sun worship or totemic symbol?

The octagonal star pattern painted pottery dou vessel of the Dawenkou Culture has long been an important representative of prehistoric painted pottery art because of its unique shape and decorative patterns. Scholars have put forward many explanations for the meaning of the octagonal star pattern. Among them, the "sun worship theory" is the most common. But most related studies infer it only by the similar shape of the image. This paper takes the octagonal star pattern painted pottery dou vessel of the Dawenkou Culture collected in Shandong Museum as the research object. On the basis of sorting out the existing research views, it re-discusses the symbolic meaning of the octagonal star pattern by combining archaeological discoveries, the function of the artifacts and related remains of the same period. This study thinks that directly equating the decorative pattern with the sun pattern may lead to over-interpretation; it is more likely to be a symbolic image formed by the method of "forming symbolic images through the observation of objects", which comprehensively reflects the prehistoric ancestors' understanding of natural environment, agricultural production and group identity. The octagonal star pattern may have a conceptual connection with natural beliefs such as sun worship, but it is not their direct image correspondence, and should be understood in a more complex cultural context. This paper aims to reflect on the applicability of different interpretation approaches in the study of prehistoric decorative patterns through this specific case, and provide a more cautious research perspective for the interpretation of the meaning of related images.