Page 148 - Vol_2_Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaport Trade

6 Fujian and Hizen Ware: A 17th Century Evidence of the Manila … 119

6.2.1 PortaVaga in Cavite City

The Porta Vaga site is located in Samonte Park, Cavite City. Porta Vaga is an
adobe-walled forti!cation that served as gateway to the Puerto Cavite or port of
Cavite (Fig. 6.2). The Fort of San Felipe Neri and the gate of Porta Vaga were
constructed in 1595 and completed in 1602 (www.triposo.com). From the 16th to
the 19th century, the fort was historically known as a seaport town (Tatel 2002;
www.triposo.com). It also served as the point of embarkation for the
Manila-Acapulco trade and functioned as a shipyard for a distinct colonial society
that mainly subsisted on the maritime environments (Tatel 2002: 16; www.triposo.
com).
Archaeological evidences of 17th-century Fujian wares had been reportedly
found in the site that Tatel subsequently and intensively studied in 2002. Dehua and
Zhangzhou (Swatow) kilns produced Fujian wares excavated from the Porta Vaga
site during the 17th and 18th centuries (Tatel 2002). Although recovered in frag-
ments, types of morphological features are exhibited in Fujian bowls, dishes,
covered boxes, cups, !gurines, and spoons. Fujian wares from Porta Vaga
demonstrate domestic response to the changing colonial trade policies as the
European world economic order was shifting from mercantilism to capitalism (Tatel
2002: 117). The Porta Vaga or Cavite Puerto where was known as a small !shing
village underwent transformation from simple economic !shing village into a major
port of call for the trans-Paci!c galleon trade. This was shown on the Fujian and
Guandong wares which were predominantly recovered from the excavation in the
17th–18th century layers. This !nding prompted Tatel to infer that the shift in the
frequency of identi!ed ceramic types per cultural layers reflect the over-all
changing patterns in western trade in Southeast Asia. In other words, the ceramic
analyses have shown that there were no changes on the wares themseoves. Rather,

Fig. 6.2 The town of Cavite showing the location of Porta Vaga site (Google map)