Page 16 - Chinese and Asian Ceramics from an Indonesian Collection

PREFACE

During the last forty years, a number of archaeological the widespread concern that much historical information
expeditions conducted on dry land in the vicinity of on the archaeology of Sriwijaya was being lost, Mrs
Palembang, the capital city of South Sumatra, revealed Heny Kustiarsih decided to establish and document a
significant temples, statuary-made of stone, gold and representative collection of Musi River artefacts. She
bronze - vast deposits of ceramics, antique wooden objects concentrated only on glazed and unglazed ceramics.
and some coins and glass jewellery, some of which dated Critical to her effort, was the development of reliable
from at least the eighth century. These objects confirm relationships with antique sellers in Palembang who
that Palembang was for some considerable period the directly purchased ceramics from divers on boats working
epicentre of the South East Asian Sriwijaya Maritime the Musi River. Where possible, she cross-checked
Kingdom, which played an important role in regional and information provided by these sellers and obtained from
international trade between the seventh – and thirteenth them the actual location of collection sites along the
century AD. River. A catalogue was then developed of her collection,
Professor John Miksic wrote in 2011 that in recent years in which each individual ceramic object was described
a large quantity of ancient artefacts was also recovered using standard curatorial practice. This collection is on
by local fishermen from the bed of the Musi River, which public display and freely available to anyone that wants
flows past the modern city of Palembang. He described to review or research it.
how local men waited until the tidal flow was slack and This book makes this collection available to a wider
then dived into The Musi from small boats to collect these audience and attempts to place it in a historical perspective
artefacts. They used primitive equipment, comprising in order to contribute further to our current knowledge
goggles and a hose, which was fed air from a compressor, of early commercial trade in South East Asia, especially
and probed the muddy bottom some 20 metres below the in ceramics. The early chapters outline what is known of
surface, using iron rods which often damaged the buried the geography and archaeology of the Musi River Basin
ceramics. The removal of these artefacts was of great and international and local trade in ceramics and other
concern to Professor Miksic because he saw enough to related regional products. Most of the book details the
conclude that what was being taken from The River had glazed and unglazed ceramics in the Kustiarsih Collection,
the potential to clarify many details of early commerce some of which were locally made, but many were produced
in Sumatra and shipping activities in South East Asia, in Peninsula Malaya and mainland South East Asia and
particularly that related to the Sriwijaya Kingdom. China. It concludes, with a discussion based on ceramics,
Shortly after 2011, artefacts from below the Musi as to how early traders probably used the rivers in the Musi
River began to appear in the antique markets of both River Basin and other nearby river systems to the south,
Jakarta and Bali. And considerable quantities were sold both before, during and after the Sriwijaya Kingdom.
overseas via internet transaction. Many of those sales did
not associate objects with the Musi River. In response to

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