Page 145 - Chinese and Asian Ceramics from an Indonesian Collection

Ceramics from the Musi River 5

operating actively until the mid-16th century, and which upper rim and a white slip on its upper body (see Figure
for a brief period of time, was also the capital of the Mon 179 on page 94).
kingdom (Borell 2014). The first reference to Martaban
jars appears in the Arabic traveller, Ibn Battuta’s Rihla RELATIVE ABUNDANCE OF STORAGE VESSELS BY
around the mid-14th century (Borell 2014:281-2). No MUSI RIVER SITE
Burmese storage vessels were positively recorded from A total of 72 storage vessels were collected from recorded
the Musi. sites in the Musi. Although their numbers were too low to
look at relative abundance within any of their country of
Amphora origin, by far the majority were from China (63%), then,
Chew (2014) noted that wine, oil and garum exported from in decreasing order of abundance, were Thailand (21%),
Rome to India was mostly stored in Roman amphorae. Central Vietnam (10%), and North Vietnam, Middle
Such shards have been excavated at various archaeological East Amphora (3%) and Indonesia (1%). Interestingly,
sites in India (Tomber 2007 & 2008, Young 2001, Begley almost all of these vessels, some 91%, were from the
and De Puma 1991). It seems that the amphorae were ‘East’ Palembang City sites of Pusri (53%), Boom Baru
not only from Rome but as well from Mesopotamia (25%) and Batu Ampar (13%). The others were from
(Tomber 2007). Sungai Rebo (7%), and PT Sharp and Sungai Sekanak
Two amphorae were recovered from the Musi. The (< 2%). This confirms that most imported goods shipped
first was terracotta (Figure 274) and was missing its body in storage vessels (fragile ceramics, food, wine and other
below the upper shoulder; it had a long neck with two non-durable commodities) to Palembang were unloaded
deep grooves at mid-point and a slightly everted upper in front of East Palembang, with a focus again on the
rim. Its two broken curved handles connected to the long Pusri site. Very few storage vessels were unloaded at the
neck (10.6 cm) at the lower one-third point and were Sungai Rebo sites which suggests that the relative high
shaped to suggest that the body was narrowly elongate. concentration of unglazed, ceramics recovered from
The neck and upper shoulder was crudely decorated the Sungai Rebo sites, was because those sites were a
with incised and stab marks. The most similar neck and production or redistribution centre, specifically for such
handles found were ‘carrot’ amphora from a Late-Roman unglazed ceramics.
wreck off Cape Plaka on the Crimea coast (Waksman
et al. 2014, Figure 2-BYZ 938). These were dated to be
from the second quarter of the 6th century to the third
quarter of the 7th century. It is possible that they were
manufactured in Sinop, a Turkish City on the Black Sea,
which at that time was part of Eastern Rome.
The second was reconstructed from its original parts
(Figure 275). It was thinly potted, had a small foot ring
and was of unknown origin and age.

Indonesia
Given that Palembang from before Sriwijaya until the
19th century was principally an entrepôt for international
trade, it is unsurprising that few large transport vessels
made locally were recovered from the Musi. By far the
majority of jars recovered from that river were glazed
jars from south China, Thailand and Vietnam. Further,
if local jars were more abundant in past times it can be
expected that they would have become degraded much
more rapidly than glazed jars.
Two unglazed jars were collected. The first of these
(Figure 276) was moderate large (51 cm high) and of
a grey body and decorated with three rows of beading
placed around the upper and lower shoulder and waist.
The second jar (Figure 277) was also moderately large
(48 cm high), excellently crafted, had a reddish-brown
body and was decorated with applied ‘goat horn’ beading
around the shoulder and ‘walking crook’ shapes on the
body reflective of decorations on a large goblet shaped
garden vessels from Old Banten Serang kilns during
Muslim times (Soegondho 1995, Photo 105) and a smaller
jar from Old Banten which also had a similar serrated

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