Page 64 - Vol_2_Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaport Trade

2 The Cultural Change of Kilns and Contents of Export … 31

Fig. 2.1 Celadon from Hushang Kiln site of Anxi counuty of Fujian

were exported to the Islamic cultural regions. A large amount of blue and white
porcelains of Jingdezhen dating to the Hongzhi ("%) period were discovered in
the Lena Shoal wreck in the Palawan of the Philippines (Goddio et al. 2000) and in
the Brunei wreck in the Brunei Sea (Lin 2010: 84–96). Most of these wares are
large plates, kettle pots, boxes, bottles, and lidded boxes, all of them are decorated
with interlocking flowers of Islamic style. The same style porcelains of mid-Ming
Dynasty were excavated in the Penny’s Bay site of Hong Kong (Lam 1989–1992:
79–90) and the ancient seaport sites of southern Fujian as Anhai port (Fig. 2.2).
Furthermore, the same style porcelains were also widely unearthed in a series of
ancient sites in southeast Asia and west Asia such as Syria, Iran, Turkey, and some
other places in East Africa (Carswell 2007: 131).
Following the step of Muslim merchants, the European maritime forces had
reached east Asian waters and joined the traditional Asian trade network since the
beginning of the 16th century. After the opening of new sea routes from west to east
as a part of early globalizing navigation, the Portuguese established trade stations at
Goa of India and Malacca of Southeast Asia, and then reached to the southeast coast
of China. However, in the early period they failed to establish direct trade links
of!cially with the imperial court of Ming Dynasty. They stopped at Shuangyu
(%") island of Ningbo ("&) in Zhejiang, Yuegang and Wuyu of Zhangzhou in
Fujian, Nan’ao, Shangchuan island (""#) and Langbaijiao (%!") in
Guangdong, carrying out smuggling trade with Chinese maritime merchants from
southeastern China for nearly half a century (Teixeira 1994: 209). Export porcelain