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Plate 28.5 Longquan ware shards from the early Ming period (early   Plate 28.6 Blue-and-white shards from the Yuan dynasty unearthed
          15th century) unearthed from Gedi Ruin            from Gedi Ruin
          of context. In order to examine the quantity of Chinese   Ming period is due to the fact that there is not enough
          ceramic exports from a chronological perspective, studying   material from shipwrecks to cover this period in time.
          a coherent context or stratum of an ancient trading site is a   However, there are sufficient discoveries on land to show
          better way of understanding the issue of the evolution of the   that the ‘Ming Gap’ did not exist at this time. The
          export of Chinese ceramics.                        Longquan kilns have been extensively excavated in recent
            Research by our team as part of this project in the coastal   years and the dating of late 14th and 15th century wares is
          areas of Kenya shows that the absence of export ware during   now more securely linked to archaeological evidence from
          the late Yuan to the Hongwu reign (1325–98) in the early   the production sites in the Longquan area of Zhejiang
                                                             province. A large quantity of Longquan ware dating to this
          Plate 28.7 Underglazed copper-red Yuhuchun vase unearthed from   period has been discovered along the coast of Kenya (Pl.
          Gedi Ruin (restored)                               28.5), in addition to a few blue-and-white (Pl. 28.6) and
                                                             underglaze copper-red wares from Jingdezhen (Pl. 28.7).
                                                               Following on from this, we can now use data derived
                                                             from our investigation of Chinese ceramics unearthed from
                                                             the Gedi Ruins on the outskirts of Malindi to examine
                                                             thoroughly the state of Chinese ceramic exports during the
                                                             late Yuan to early Ming periods. The Gedi site is located
                                                             15km southwest of Malindi in the central part of the Kenyan
                                                             coastal region. It was the largest and most important ancient
                                                             settlement in the region and judging by the size of the site,
                                                             academics believe that it was a settlement of 3,000 people.
                                                             On the basis of archaeological excavation and related
                                                             research, scholars estimate that it was built in the 12th or
                                                             13th century. It slowly developed into a prosperous
                                                             settlement and lasted until the 16th century when it was
                                                             abruptly abandoned. James Kirkman was in charge of
                                                             archaeological excavations at the site for a period of more
                                                                                12
                                                             than ten years from 1948  and it is the most extensively
                                                             excavated site in the Kenyan coastal area. As part of our
                                                             project, we conducted research on all the ceramic pieces (a
                                                             total of 1,257) excavated from the site, identifying the areas
                                                             of production and determining the dates of manufacture. 13
                                                               In terms of the production areas, 732 pieces (58.23%)
                                                             were Longquan wares (including Longquan type wares
                                                             made in the broader area of Longquan in China), 469
                                                             (37.71%) were made in Jingdezhen, 30 (2.39%) were Fujian
                                                             wares, 14 (1.11%) were from Guangdong, 1 (0.08%) was
                                                             Cizhou ware and 6 pieces (0.48%) remain unidentified. An
                                                             investigation into the Longquan wares revealed that almost
                                                             none of them could be dated to the Southern Song and most



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