Page 104 - Chinese and Asian Ceramics from an Indonesian Collection

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

Figure 160. Pot, with stamped decoration, height 20.4 cm,
Central Thailand, Phitsanulok kilns, C14–C15, from
Figure 159. Figurine, standing bird, wing outlined, possibly the Musi River, Batu Ampar. Catalogue No. K2594.
with white terra sigillata, height 9 cm, from the
Musi River, Sungai Rebo site. Catalogue No. 2133.
Soemantri (2003) noted that, based on a fragment of This cap was an indigenous Javanese clothing element,
roof, that these houses were potted with “remarkable which Kieven (2008) stated first appeared early in the
attention to neat detailed work”. The house, K2670, was Majapahit period in East Java. The cap had several forms
indeed carefully potted and revealed detail of the roof ranging from a half round helmet type cap to a flat beret.
tiles and open carved wooden front wall on either side It was apparently worn by a wide range of Majapahit
of the opening door. Also notable, was the sharp pitch of social groups, including common people, who wore it
the saddle shaped roof, still reflected in old Joglo houses with a sarong type cloth fastened at the waist and a naked
throughout Central and East Java, and the rather low base upper body.
to the house, which was decorated with small punctate One perky figurine (Figure 159) was a small bird
marks which frequently characterise Majapahit terracotta. with a wing and dotted feather outline (possibly painted
This house and shed could be confused with the funerary with white terra sigillata) which is tentatively allocated to
objects made by the Han Chinese and by the Viet–Han in Sriwijaya. It has some similarities in form with a series of
North Vietnam, who made complex ceramic architectural pigeon like birds described below.
objects, as well as single-story farmhouses. These Han Majapahit earthenware pottery from the Musi was
farmhouses also showed great detail, including tiled roofs equally relatively abundant at Sungai Rebo and Pusri
and courtyards. However, they frequently had ‘dougong’ site. Both had 43 per cent of the 35 Majapahit items with
brackets, windows, and stilt supports which raised them recorded site information. Boom Baru had 14%.
above ground level, all features lacking in K2670.
A variety of zoomorphic money boxes collected Central Thailand pottery
included: pigs comprising numbers K1759, K2008, Central Thailand had several sites that produced
K2328 (Figure 151), frog (K1926), rooster (K1578), earthenware during this period. The most notable were
rabbit (K2331), duck (K2395), fish (K2397), elephants the unglazed pottery from the Sukhothai kilns which
comprising numbers K2257, K2327, K2426 (Figure 152), produced numerous Khmer-like baluster jars, similar to
goat (K2480) and unknown animals (K1493, K1573); an those produced at both Si Satchanalai and Phitsanulok.
elephant water container (K1547); sitting bird (K2332); Also produced were small stoneware basins with wide
stiffly made cow and the horses K1109 and K1925 (Figure flared walls inverted near the mouth with a relatively small
153); jarlets (K1386, K2355); pots (K2324); a bell (K1239); thick foot ring; rough bodied greyish or reddish mortars;
the upper body of a man wearing what appears to be a and thinly potted high fired earthenware kendis with
foreigners hat (Figure 154); two kundika (Figure 155 and grey-black or red brittle bodies and tall tubular necks,
K1898), a roof tile (Figure 156) and a variety of kendis funnel like spouts that are sometimes curved and with a
without a foot ring and with a flat base, some with mammary flat foot (Brown 1989).
shaped spouts, including K883, K1570, K2072–3, K2134, The Phitsanulok brick cross-draft kilns were designed
K2210, K2268, K2363 (Figure 157 & Figure 158) were also in the late-14th and 15th centuries to supply both
thought to be Majapahit. specialised earthenware and stoneware for trade and
Several other human figures (K1585, K1849–50) had domestic use. At least 42 kiln sites have been found but
males that appear to be wearing a helmet like ‘tekes cap’. the final total may reach 100 kilns (Phinsakul et al. 2016).

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