The Majiayao culture benefited from the warm and humid climatic conditions from the Late Glacial to the Middle Holocene, which led to flourishing agricultural production and rapid population growth.

[3] The archaeological site was first found in 1924 near the village of Majiayao in Lintao County, Gansu by Swedish archaeologist Johan Gunnar Andersson, who considered it part of the Yangshao culture.

During the Majiayao phase, potters decorated their wares with designs in black pigment featuring sweeping parallel lines and dots.

[14] Its development is associated with interaction between hunter-gatherers in the Qinghai region and the westward expansion of agricultural Yangshao people.

[15] The manufacture of large amounts of painted pottery means there were professional craftspeople to produce it, which is taken to indicate increasing social complexity.

[16] Control over the production process and quality declined by the Banshan phase, potentially due to greater demand for pottery to use in funeral rituals, similar to what Hung Ling-yu calls the "modern Wal-Mart syndrome".

Their introduction in China may have been through the Hexi Corridor during the Majiayao culture period, although an alternative may be a route through the Eurasian grasslands and then through the Mongolian plateau circa 3500–2500 BC.