Firing and Feasting: Examining Porcelain Production and Consumption of Early Second Millennium East Asia

Before the expansion of European interests into East Asia in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a maritime network was established between Asian imperial powers and Southeast Asian polities that connected artisans, merchants, chiefs, farmers, and foragers together and extended from Korea as far as to the African coast. Furthermore, this Early Historic period (including the Song, Yuan, and Early Ming Dynasties) was a time of important developments that set the stage for later exchange systems that have led to a globalized world. Given the size and complexity of this system, this research undertakes a scalar approach, looking at local, regional, and interregional systems, to explain the processes involved. One important marker that highlights this exchange is porcelain and other tradeware ceramics. This research considers both production and distribution of tradeware in this network - by examining polities in the Philippines which traded for and received products and kiln locations in Fujian, China which produced them - through the comparison of chemical data obtained through Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) as well as stylistic analysis of ceramic tradeware remains. Contrasting how tradeware vessels were obtained, distributed, and used within and between three Philippine polities (Manila, Cebu, and Tanjay) has highlighted the different political structures and means by which individuals engaged with the system of exchange. Secondly, this research examines the differentiation and overlap of kiln sites from southern China (including Lulin, Gou Tou Shan, Hou Bi Shan, Hou Lou Shon, and Zhangzhou wares). This research demonstrates the potential of a chemical analysis approach, even outside of a traditional sourcing study, and produces results which show the interaction of kilns and polities within a larger regional and interregional framework. The identification of several grouping patterns across socio-economic levels, within and between the polities, and at kiln sites themselves is investigated and provides data for future work examining ceramics and exchange in Southeast Asia. Finally, by looking at sherds collected from habitation contexts in the Philippines and from ceramics obtained from a worker’s village for the kiln production sites at Hou Bi Shan and Hou Lou Shan, this research connects individuals to the archaeological past.