Page 100 - Chinese and Asian Ceramics from an Indonesian Collection

Chapter 5. Unglazed, Slipped & Painted Wares in the Musi River

srivasa, swastika, vajra, purnaghata, and lions, elephants
and swans (Aussavamas 2011).
The Chansen site in Central Thailand was continuously
occupied from about 200 BC and had occupation levels
which included earthenware pottery shards similar to
early (250–450) and later (450–600) Oc Eo styles from
the Mekong Basin region. However, after 600 to 800,
Dvaravati type pottery was common and it continued to
be produced until about 1100. Interestingly ,the Chansen
Dvaravati pottery was similar to that from Pimai, the
famous Khmer site in North East Thailand (Bronson
and Dales 1972).
Pottery from the Musi which shared some of the
characteristics of the Dvaravati style included the jars
K1102, K1435, K1500, K1606 and K1435 (Figure 145)
and several bowls (K2368, K2448), the former of which
was similar in shape and decoration to sharply carinated
and cord marked Dvaravati bowls from a number of sites
in North and Central Thailand from 500–1000. And was
Figure 148. Basin, decorated above base with two rows of also similar to one found in the Tang Dynasty Phanom
impressed brackets filled with punctations, it
appeared to have a chaff temper, height 11.2 cm, Surin shipwreck from Central Thailand (Jumprom 2014,
from the Musi River. Catalogue No. K1567. Figure 7).
There were also four stem-cups, K2340–1, K2547–8,
would be found in the Musi. One exception may be a from the Musi with stamped patterns around the
six-spouted grey bodied kendi (Figure 144) which was vertical outer edges of the upper rims. These stamped
similar to a vase with nipple motif found at Hoa Diem site, patterns on three of these were a generally similar with
Central Vietnam, dated at the early centuries of the 1st an intricate impressed scroll of circles and oblongs, and
millennium (Le 2015, Yamagata and Matsumura 2017). stars connected by meandering vine, one had the oblongs
surrounded by tiny shapes of animals and plants (Figure
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD (7TH–15TH CENTURY) 146). The fourth stem cup (Figure 147) was different in
Munoz (2016) follows Krom in using the term ‘Classical that its stamp was an impressed scroll of leaves and flowers
Period” to group the history of the Indo-Malay Archipelago interspersed with what appears to be a person crouched,
between the 7th and 15th centuries. His subdivisions possibly dancing, and holding aloft a spear, in a style not
for this period follow Miksic and are based on cultural unlike those sometimes seen in Khmer temple friezes.
achievements. These are: The fabric of K2340 was tempered with sand-shell and
it did not have red slip, while the other stem cups were
EARLY CLASSICAL PERIOD (7TH–9TH CENTURY) fine-ware and had a degraded red/brown slip.
This Period was characterised by the beginning of These stamped patterns, especially K2340 and K2548,
literature and artworks and adaptation of Indian Epics, shared similar patterns with those found on the earlier
inscriptions, religious architectural edifices, and extensive Dvaravati pots from the 6th to 8th century (Period V) at
involvement in international networks of religious and Chasen. These impressed designs (Bronson and Dales
commercial ties. Munoz (2016) considered the beginning 1972: Plate IV & also Figure 10, bottom) were a series
of the Early-Classical period in Sumatra coincided with of three or four designs repeated several times around
the decline of the Kantoli polity. a pot’s circumference. Each represents a single motif
(elephants, cows, horses with riders, running or dancing
Dvaravati style pottery figures, abstract floral designs) separated by rectangular
In mainland Thailand the Dvaravati style pottery has frames and rows of raised dots. Bronson and Dales know
been found at many 7th–11th century sites. It is unglazed of only one other similarly patterned stamped shard,
pottery formed by wheel throwing and fired in an open but this was on a different type of purple-gray stoneware
hearth kiln. Its forms can be traced back to prehistoric found at Lopburi, outside Wat Maha That.
times, particularly the dish-on-stand and carinated pot A fine-paste ewer with an elongate body and very short
(Indrawooth 1985). Spouted pots, or kendis, and spouted neck (K2524) from the Musi River has a short phallic
bowls used as lamps and sprinklers also show close spout reminiscent of that illustrated in Bronson and
similarity in both shape and design to Indian prototypes Dales (1972, Figure 10), presumably from a Dvaravati jar
from the 4th to 8th centuries. Design techniques include dated from 600–800. A less common but related type of
line and wave incising, cord and mat wrapped paddle quasi-phallic spout, also attached to a striped body, was
and an impressing snail and shell designs using fingers. found by Groslier at the Cambodian site of Sambor Prei
Particularly common motifs during the Gupta period were Kuk, believed to date at the latest to the first part of the
8th century.

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