Page 228 - Vol_2_Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaport Trade

200 E. Von der Porten

Fig. 12.15 Iberian “olive
jars” descend from the
classical amphorae which
Spaniards still used in their
trade

wreck 10 (Fig. 12.15). None the less, they, and the Iberian pottery, represent
remarkable journeys from Seville to Mexico or Panama, overland to the Paci!c
Ocean, to Acapulco, then to Manila, and back across the ocean. In the Paci!c, the
Spaniards quickly switched to Chinese and Southeast Asian Martaban jars, which
replaced barrels and other Spanish containers.

12.4 Southeast Asia

Some objects seemed simple to identify. Wax is often mentioned in Manila galleon
cargos because the New World has no indigenous wax-making bees, so Philippine
beeswax for candles and many other uses was carried by the galleons (Fig. 12.16).
However, when two samples were analyzed for their pollens, it turned out that the
wax came from Indonesia, indicating that not enough beeswax was produced in the
11
Philippines to satisfy trade needs. Whether all the waxes in our cargo came from
the same source is not yet known.
The great majority of the stoneware Martaban jars in the cargo come from three
of the usual four sources (Fig. 12.17). There is a gray-paste south Chinese ware
decorated with applied dragons; there are two similar types from Bang Rachan,

10
The standard text is Marken (1994). The olive-jar neck from Baja California was found in
November 2016 and has not yet been published.
11
The pollen analysis is described in Laura White and Staci Willis’s “The Pollens in the Beeswax.”