Individual Paper
2. From Oceanic Crossroads: Empires, Networks and Histories
The high-fired ceramics of sites in Kota Cina in Northern Sumatra and the island of Singapore remain some of the most compelling archaeological evidence of their settlement. High-fired ceramics provide evidence for connections to trade routes conveying these vessels amongst other commodities, with this maritime Silk Road connecting China to settlements as distant as Africa. My research has augmented existing data from both settlements and further developed archaeological chemistry methodologies.
I used SEM-EDS to measure ceramic compositions and employed statistical techniques to discern body-paste and glaze recipes. Porcelain and stoneware compositions in Singapore differ considerably, indicating that their manufacturing process diverged from an early stage. These recipes differ between ceramics of the same category at Kota Cina and Singapore, especially Singaporean “mercury jars” which are more consistent despite a larger sample size than Kota Cina. Determining whether this implies recipes evolving over time or Kota Cina’s market preferences favouring different kilns from Singapore’s requires sampling more sites.
Identifications with contemporary Chinese ceramics’ recipes must remain tentative as the existing literature has inadequate sample sizes, as does the contrast in glaze formulae in the studied sherds to contemporary Chinese kilns as concerns the presence of plant-ash oxides. Further research calls for larger samples from more sites to gain a better picture of the region, and expanding analyses to ceramic production evidence and other materials which can be studied with SEM-EDS such as glass and metals to better understand the trade goods of the region and connections implied by their recipes.
Alasdair XR Chi
Independent Researcher, Singapore