Sawankoloke-Sukhothai Wares from the Empress Place Site, Singapore

Transcription

1 Sawankoloke-Sukhothai Wares from the Empress Place Site, Singapore by Cheryl-Ann Low Curator, Singapore History Museum Textual records suggest that Singapore and ailand had a political relationship in the 14th century. Wang Dayuan, a Chinese traveller who visited Singapore in the 14th century recorded an attack by the Siamese sometime before A 16th-century account records that a local ruler in Singapore was a relative and vassal of the Siamese king. e former was murdered and his position usurped by a renegade prince from Palembang. e Siamese consequently drove the usurper out of Singapore. An archaeological excavation was conducted at the Empress Place Building site in e discovery of ceramics produced by the kilns of Sawankoloke and Sukhothai in the 14th and 15th centuries adds another dimension to the knowledge about the trading relationship between Singapore (Temasek) and ailand (Ayutthaya). Sawankoloke and Sukhothai Trade Ceramics Evidence from archaeological sites and shipwrecks indicate that ceramics from the kilns of Sawankoloke and Sukhothai in ailand were exported from the 14th to the 16th centuries during the Ayutthaya period, reaching its peak in the 15th and early 16th centuries when there was a shortage of Chinese ceramics traded in the markets. Ceramics from the Sawankoloke and Sukhothai kilns have been discovered in the Lam Dong site in Vietnam, 1 Bintan and Midai in the Riau Archipelago, 2 in the Philippines, from the Turiang and Longquan shipwrecks in the South China Sea on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula 3 and several sites in Maluku, east Cheryl-Ann Low (Cheryl-Ann_Low@nhb.gov.sg) is a curator with the Singapore History Museum. Her portfolio includes the pre-colonial history of Singapore and the post-1965 development of Singapore. e Heritage Journal, vol. 1, no. 1 (2004): pp

2 SAWANKOLOKE-SUKHOTHAI WARES FROM THE EMPRESS PLACE SITE Indonesia. 4 Sawankoloke wares were discovered at the Royal Nanhai and Nanyang shipwrecks on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula. 5 e ceramics were most probably exported from the trading capital of Ayutthaya 6 near the Chao Phraya River. e trading network of Sawankoloke and Sukhothai ceramics included Singapore, as evidenced by archaeological discoveries here. e ai ceramics discovered in Singapore will form the discussion of this paper. Archaeology of 14th- to 18th-century Singapore Systematic research into pre-19th century-singapore began in 1984 with an excavation at Fort Canning Hill at a site located approximately 500 m from the Singapore River, and approximately 1 km from the mouth of the river. In addition to this long-term research at Fort Canning, remains from 14th-century Singapore were discovered at another three brief archaeological excavations. ese were the Parliament House Complex site on the left bank of the Singapore River, downstream from Fort Canning Hill, which was excavated from November 1994 to January 1995; and the Empress Place site on the left bank of the Singapore River, downstream from Map 1: Singapore island showing the area where 14 th -century artefacts have been found in archaeological excavations. 22 / e Heritage Journal

3 CHERYL-ANN LOW Map 2: Location of archaeological sites on the Singapore mainland with 14 th -century artefacts. the Parliament House Complex site and approximately 100 m from the river mouth, which was excavated from April to June Documentary sources indicate that Singapore was occupied from around the beginning of the 14th century. According to the Sejarah Melayu, 7 Singapore was a prosperous entrepôt established by a Malay king at the beginning of the 14th century. At the end of the 14th century, an attack possibly from Java or ailand destroyed the kingdom. e king the fifth in line after the founder at the beginning of the century fled and eventually founded Melaka. e Sejarah Melayu contains a mixture of legends and facts. us, the accounts in the manuscript should not be taken literally. However, other documents also give the impression of Singapore being a busy port in the 14th century. Wang Dayuan, a Chinese traveller described two settlements in Singapore in his Dao yi zhilue, dated One was the pirate-infested Longyamen and the other Banzu which he described as being more congenial and affluent. 8 Wang observed that there were Chinese living side by side with the indigenous people, and the items traded included red gold, blue satin, cotton prints, Quzhou e Heritage Journal / 23

4 SAWANKOLOKE-SUKHOTHAI WARES FROM THE EMPRESS PLACE SITE porcelain, and iron cauldrons. Fourteenth-century Singapore was also mentioned in Vietnamese records, 9 the 14th-century Javanese poem Negarakrtgama and 16th-century poem, Pararaton. 10 ese accounts have been supported by evidence noted in the 19th and 20th centuries. In February 1822, John Crawfurd walked around the area of the ancient settlement and noted some brick foundation remains, pottery sherds, Chinese coins, and a keramat (shrine) at Fort Canning Hill. He also noted a stone inscription at the mouth of the Singapore River, and remains of an earthen rampart near the foot of Fort Canning Hill. 11 In 1926, a set of gold ornaments ascribed to the Majapahit era were discovered at Fort Canning Hill during excavation works for the construction of a reservoir. 12 Archaeological data from Fort Canning, Parliament House Complex, and Empress Place also corroborate the existence of a 14th-century kingdom. e assemblages from these sites contain variant sets of material remains, suggesting that the different sites had different activities and demand patterns. e assemblage at Fort Canning is unique from the others in that it includes a significant volume of glass artefacts. 13 Chinese porcelain also forms a larger proportion of the total assemblage at Fort Canning than at the other two sites. In addition, the styles were confined to the 14th century. e assemblage at Parliament House Complex dated from the 13th century to the 15th century. 14 ere were also more thin-bodied earthenware sherds in the assemblage from Fort Canning than from the Parliament House and Empress Place assemblages. Too fragile for daily use, these would have been used for ceremonial purposes. Metal finds and Chinese coins were abundant at the Parliament House Complex, whereas they were rare at Fort Canning. e raised double fish motif on Chinese greenwares is more common in the Empress Place assemblage than the Parliament House assemblage and absent in the Fort Canning assemblage, indicating differences in stylistic preferences between the sites. Chinese white and cobalt blue decorated porcelain are less common at Empress Place and Parliament House than Fort Canning. e discovery of 18th-century Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) coins at the Empress Place site indicate that it was occupied for a longer period than the Fort Canning and Parliament House Complex sites. Singapore did not produce any high-fired ceramics and all ceramics such as 24 / e Heritage Journal

5 CHERYL-ANN LOW porcelain and stoneware were imported, mainly from China, and a smaller quantity from ailand and Vietnam. On-going analysis indicates at least 16 sherds of Sawankoloke-Sukhothai wares in the Empress Place assemblage. e ceramic assemblages from the Fort Canning, Empress Place and Parliament House Complex sites were fragmentary, no complete ceramic artefacts were discovered. 15 In 2002, 11 Chinese stoneware jars were discovered intact with an abundance of stoneware sherds and other 14th century artefacts near the Empress Place and Parliament House Complex sites. 16 is is indicative of pre-existing storage facilities at the site. e Empress Place Excavation e archaeological investigation at the Empress Place was commissioned by the Asian Civilisations Museum, National Heritage Board, Singapore. e Empress Place Building was built in It was first used as a courthouse. Later, it was used at various times to house government offices and subsequently underwent several rounds of alterations and extensions. In 1988, it was converted into the Empress Place Museum which was closed in In 1996, funds for converting the building into the second wing of the Asian Civilisations Museum were approved and planning of the works began. e main contract for the repair and conversion works began in March 1998 with the demolition of some of the buildings around the Empress Place building. A period of three months was granted for archaeological investigations. A 2-m by 1-m test pit and a 2-m by 20-m test trench were excavated in early April is preliminary research indicated that the site on the river bank, in front of the Empress Place Building possessed sufficient archaeological potential to warrant a full-scale excavation. A grid of approximately 10 m by 40 m consisting of thirtytwo 2 m by 5 m squares was opened under what used to be a food centre. Due to time constraints and inclement weather conditions however, not all the squares were fully excavated. e stratigraphy at this site was more complex than those at the Fort Canning and Parliament House Complex sites. e strata sloped e Heritage Journal / 25

6 SAWANKOLOKE-SUKHOTHAI WARES FROM THE EMPRESS PLACE SITE Map 3: Site plan of Empress Place site depicting squares from which Sawankoloke- Sukhothai wares were discovered. at different angles toward the river, and several different strata were found in different areas of the site. 18 e site revealed a dense layer of occupation dated by discoveries of approximately 30 VOC coins under the 19th- and 20th-century strata. e lower most layer dates from the 13th to the 14th centuries. Artefacts found at this layer included dense concentrations of Chinese porcelain high quality celadon, some blue and white wares, some Dehua wares, Chinese coins, and large amounts of stoneware jars and earthenware. 19 irteenth- to 14th-century artefacts were also discovered in the 26 / e Heritage Journal

7 CHERYL-ANN LOW more recent stratas of occupation such as the surface layer, and 18thand 19th-century layer, as was the case for most of the Sawankoloke- Sukhothai wares. is is probably the result of the construction activities and alteration works made to the building from the 19th century onwards. Artefacts from the later period were introduced to the earlier contexts as fill during the building works. Sawankoloke-Sukhothai Wares Sixteen sherds of Sawankoloke-Sukhothai wares were identified in the Empress Place assemblage. 20 ese include celadon, white-glazed ware, underglaze black ware, and a green underglazed sherd from a covered box, forming a total mass of 580 g. e sources consulted in the identification of the ceramics are Brown 1978, 21 ai Ceramics (1977) 22 and Brown and Sjostrand e discoveries were concentrated in Squares A2, A3, B3, B4, D2, D3, E2 and E3 (see Map 2 and Table 1). Four sherds were discovered at the surface layer, five in Spit 1, one at Spit 1-2, three at Spit 2, two at Spit 3, one at Spit 6. While Spit 6 is securely dated to the 13th- and 14th-century context, Spits 1 to 3 yielded artefacts from the 14th to 18th centuries. Square B3 where an underglaze black sherd was discovered was particularly disturbed with the different soil stratas within the same spit level. A posthole was found protruding from Spit 1 of this square. Spit 3 of this square yielded a consistent 14th-century strata, dated by Chinese ceramics. Square D2, where two sherds of Sukhothai wares were found, had wood deposits and other ceramic sherds in Spits 1 and 2. e wood pieces were mostly flat cut, less than 3 cm thick and 6 cm wide of varying lengths, there were some round pieces mostly less than 5 cm in diameter. Square D3, where a celadon was discovered, also had wooden posts in Spits 1, 2, and 3. e setting of the wooden posts into the soils may have caused some disturbance to the position of the artefacts, pushing artefacts from more surface layers deeper into the soil, or causing the artefacts to fall deeper into the soil as the wood decomposes. Indeed, the remnant of one wooden post was discovered with ceramic sherds randomly embedded on it. Square E2 where two sherds of celadon were discovered had an abundance of wood. Besides the ubiquitous ceramics, a few pieces of glass were e Heritage Journal / 27

8 SAWANKOLOKE-SUKHOTHAI WARES FROM THE EMPRESS PLACE SITE also discovered in Spit 1. Square E3, which yielded two sherds of celadon, was also found to be abundant in wood pieces from Spit 1 to Spit 4. ere were concentrations of charcoal and iron patches in Spit 1, and glass globules in Spit 2. e concentrations of wooden pieces and postholes suggest that there were structures built on the site. Table 1: Summary of Contexts of Sawankoloke-Sukhothai Wares Square Spit Description Rim Base Provenance Weight Diameter Diameter (g) (cm) (cm) A2 2 underglaze black 26 Sawankoloke 30 A3 6 celadon 16 Sawankoloke 96 B3 1-2 underglaze black 36 Sawankoloke 14 B4 1 underglaze green 10 Sawankoloke 18 (lid of covered box D2 2 stoneware Sukhothai 2 D2 3 white glazed Sukhothai 10 D3 1 celadon 22 Sawankoloke 34 E2 1 celadon Sawankoloke 8 E2 1 celadon Sawankoloke 16 E3 2 celadon 24 Sawankoloke 10 E2-3 0 celadon Sawankoloke 12 E3 3 celadon 30 Sawankoloke 40 F4 1 celadon Sawankoloke 2 0 underglaze black 18 Sawankoloke 10 0 stoneware with 12 Sawankoloke 224 greenish-grey glaze 0 stoneware with Sawankoloke 54 greenish-grey glaze Total Weight / e Heritage Journal

9 CHERYL-ANN LOW Celadon Eight sherds of celadon were discovered concentrated towards the northwestern sector of the site, except for one sherd which was found towards the southeastern sector in Square A3. It is notable that the sherd discovered in A3 was in Spit 6, deeper than the spit levels which yielded the other sherds. Due to time constraints, the other squares were not excavated to as extensive a depth, despite clear indications that they were archaeologically rich. ere are three different rim diameters from dishes, one sherd from the neck of a vessel, indicating a minimum number of four celadon artefacts from which the sherds in the assemblage were derived. Descriptions of each sherd follows. Context: Square A3, Spit 6 Vessel part: Base and body of dish. Description: Pale green crackled glaze inside, with incised medallion underglaze. Vertical gouge lines outside. Unglazed foot and base. Base diameter: 16cm Figure 1: Celadon from Square A3, Spit 6, with incised decoration on the interior and vertical gouge lines on the exterior. Context: Square D3, Spit 1 Vessel part: Rim and body of a dish with everted rim. Decoration: Crackled glaze inside and outside, vertical lines inside. Rim diameter: 22cm. Figure 2: Celadon from Square D3, Spit 1, with everted rim. e Heritage Journal / 29

10 SAWANKOLOKE-SUKHOTHAI WARES FROM THE EMPRESS PLACE SITE Context: Square E2, Spit 1 Vessel part: Sherd from the neck of a vessel with incised horizontal line outside. Description: Crackled glaze outside, black and white impurities inside. Context: Square E2, Spit 1 Description: Crackled glaze inside and outside. Incised lattice design under two horizontal lines inside. Figure 3: Celadon from Square E2, Spit 1 with incised lattice design and horizontal lines inside. Context: Square E3, Spit 2 Vessel part: Rim. Description: Sherd of a pale green everted rim. Rim diameter: 24. Context: Squares E2 and E3, Spit 0 Description: Crackled glaze inside and outside, vertical comb lines inside. Context: Square E3, Spit 3 Vessel part: Rim and body of a dish. Description: Olive green glaze inside with uncoloured spots inside. Glaze outside abraded. Figure 4: Celadon from Square E3, Spit / e Heritage Journal

11 CHERYL-ANN LOW Context: Square F4, Spit 1 Vessel part: Rim. Underglaze black ere are three sherds of underglaze black ware in the assemblage. All three were rim sherds of different diameters, indicating a minimum number of three underglaze black wares. Context: Square A2, Spit 2 Vessel part: Rim of a dish. Description: Crackled glaze inside and outside. Underglaze brushed decoration varying from blue to black. ree horizontal brush lines above background filled with dots inside, brush line on the cavetto. ree horizontal brush strokes outside near the rim, and four diagonal bands outside. Diameter: 26cm. Figure 5: Underglaze black from Square A2, Spit 2. Context: Square B3, Spit 1-2 Vessel part: Rim of a dish. Description: Crackled glaze inside and outside. Underglaze brushed decoration with three horizontal bands near the rim, background filled with dots, and a free flowing line on the cavetto. Outside undecorated. Diameter : 16cm. e Heritage Journal / 31

12 SAWANKOLOKE-SUKHOTHAI WARES FROM THE EMPRESS PLACE SITE Figure 6: Underglaze black from Square B3, Spit 1-2. Context: S0, found on the surface before grid squares were marked Vessel part: Rim of a bowl. Description: Crackled glaze inside and outside. Underglaze brushed decorations with three horizontal bands near rim and background filled with dots on the interior. Incised horizontal lines on the exterior. Diameter: 18cm. Figure 7: Underglaze black surface find. Stoneware with Light Greenish-grey Glaze Two sherds were discovered on the surface before the grid squares were marked. One sherd had a fine grainy surface, while the other had darker coloured glaze inside and outside and crackled glaze in the interior, suggesting a minimum of two vessels. 32 / e Heritage Journal

13 CHERYL-ANN LOW Context: Context: S0, found on the surface before grid squares were marked Vessel part: Base of a dish. Description: Light grey glaze outside, light greenish-grey glaze inside. Unglazed base. Black circular pontil scar on the base. Diameter: 12cm. Figure 8: Stoneware base found on the surface. Context: Context: S0, found on the surface before grid squares were marked Description: Crackled light greenish-grey glaze inside and outside. White glazed ware One sherd of this was found in Square D2, Spit 3. A sherd of a handle with crackled glaze inside and outside. Figure 9: White glazed handle sherd from Square D2, Spit 3. Covered Box ere was one sherd from the lid of a covered box with underglaze green decorations found in Square B4, Spit 1. e interior is unglazed. Diameter: 9.8cm. e Heritage Journal / 33

14 SAWANKOLOKE-SUKHOTHAI WARES FROM THE EMPRESS PLACE SITE EMP B4 S1 Figure 10: Lid of a covered box. Sherd of Stoneware ere is a single small sherd of unglazed stoneware weighing 2g. e fabric is coarse, dark grey, and speckled white. It was found in Square D2, Spit 2. Ayutthaya and Temasek e connection between Ayutthaya and Singapore (known as Temasek in the 14th century) has been mentioned in various records. Wang Dayuan, the 14th-century traveller, recorded that Singapura (Singapore) was besieged by the Siamese sometime before 1349 and had to close its defensive gates against the attack for over a month until a passing Chinese ship warned the aggressors not to harm the inhabitants of Temasek. While it cannot be verified that the aggressors were indeed Siamese, it does indicate that the Siamese were considered by Temasek as a formidable force during the time. ere is also a record of a decisive attack on Temasek at the end of the 14th century which caused the ruler to abandon the kingdom and flee. Some Portuguese sources written in the 16th century record 34 / e Heritage Journal

15 CHERYL-ANN LOW that this last king of Temasek, Parameswara, was a renegade prince from Sumatra who fled the wrath of his ruler in Java and arrived at Singapura and was welcomed by the local ruler. After a week, he murdered his host who was a relative of the king of Siam. 24 e latter visited revenge with an attack, forcing him to flee once again. 25 He eventually went on to found Melaka. However, the Sejarah Melayu and another Portuguese account by d Eredia in the 17th century identifies the aggressor to be the Javanese. 26 Sawankoloke-Sukhothai ceramics in the Empress Place site assemblage, though fairly small in quantity especially when compared with the abundant Chinese trade ceramics indicates a trade relation between Ayutthaya and Temasek. ere is a minimum of 12 Sawankoloke-Sukhothai wares in the Empress Place assemblage so far. e quantity of Sawankoloke-Sukhothai ceramics at the Empress Place site is not conclusive, and the on-going analysis of the archaeological assemblage will increase the quantity of ai wares. e archaeological assemblage indicates that there was some demand for Sawankaloke-Sukhothai wares in Temasek from the 14th century. Miksic has also suggested the possibility that ai ceramics were re-exported from Singapore to Riau. 27 Singapore was thus part of the trade network for ai ceramics in terms of its local demand, and probably as a centre of re-export. ai ceramics were known to have been exported into the 16th century. e sample of ai ceramics analysed so far can be dated from the late 14th to the 15th-century. ese ceramics, with the 15th-century Vietnamese ceramic fragment and the 18th-century Dutch coins which were also discovered at the Empress Place site, are illuminating as they show that trading activities continued at the settlement on the riverbank after the royalty fled Temasek at the end of the 14th century. NOTES 1. C.T. Trinh, Summary on ai Wares found in Vietnam, in ed. Charnvit Kasetiri Sangkhalok-Sukhithai-Ayutthya and Asia ( ailand: Toyota ailand Foundation, e Foundation for the Promotion of Social Science and Humanities Textbook Project, 2002), pp e Heritage Journal / 35

16 SAWANKOLOKE-SUKHOTHAI WARES FROM THE EMPRESS PLACE SITE 2. J. Miksic, ai Wares in the Riau Province. Paper presented at International Conference on Sangkhalok-Sukhothia-Ayuttaya and Asia in Bangkok, ailand, November Unpublished. 3. R. Brown and S. Sjostrand, Turiang: A 14th-Century Shipwreck in Southeast Asian Waters (Los Angeles: Pacific Asia Museum, 2000). 4. K. Latinis, pers. comm. 5. Ibid. 6. J.C. Shaw, Northern ai Ceramics (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1981), p A version of this in English can be found in Sejarah Melayu Malay Annals, An Annotated Translation by C.C. Brown (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1983), pp is is based on the Raffles MS18 rescension of the oldest extant version of the text. 8. R.O. Windstedt, Tumasik or Old Singapore, in Singapore 150 Years, Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1973, pp.13 4; R. Bradell, Longyamen and Tanmasi, in Singapore 150 Years, pp J. Miksic, Archaeological Research on the Forbidden Hill of Singapore: Excavations at Fort Canning, 1984 (Singapore: National Museum of Singapore, 1985), p M. Murfett, J. Miksic, B. Farrell, M.S. Chiang, Between Two Oceans: A Military History of Singapore From First Settlement to Final British Withdrawal (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1999), p J. Crawfurd, Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Courts of Cochin China; Exhibiting a View of the Actual State of ose Kingdoms (London: Henry Colburn, 1928). Reprinted and published as J. Crawfurd, Journal of an Embassy to the Courts of Siam and Cochin China (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1967), pp R.O. Windstedt, Gold Ornaments dug up at Fort Canning, Singapore, in Singapore 150 Years, pp J. Miksic, 14th Century Chinese Glass Found in Singapore and the Riau Archipelago, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, Colloquies on Art and Archaeology in Asia No.17, London, 6 8 June Published in South East Asia and China: Art, Interaction and Commerce, ed. L. R. Scott and J. Guy (London: University of London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art and School of Oriental and African Studies, 1995), pp ; J. Miksic, Chinese Ceramics and Local Cultural Statements in 14th-Century Southeast Asia, in Nora Taylor ed., Studies in Southeast Asian Art: Essays in Honour of Stanley H. Conor (Ithaca: Cornell University, 2000), pp J. Miksic, pers. comm. 15. J. Miksic, Chinese Ceramics and Local Cultural Statements in 14thth- Century Southeast Asia, in ed. Nora Taylor, Studies in Southeast Asian Art: Essays in Honour of Stanley H. Conor (Ithaca: Cornell University, 2000), pp We thank the National Arts Council for granting permission to conduct an excavation at the site. 36 / e Heritage Journal

17 CHERYL-ANN LOW 17. Latinis, pers. comm. 18. Ibid., p J. Miksic, Interim Report to the ACM on the Progress of the Archaeological Excavation at Empress Place, 14 March Unpublished. 20. J. Miksic, pers. comm. 21. R. Brown, e Ceramics of Southeast Asia: eir Dating and Identification (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1978). 22. ai Ceramics: Ban Chiang, Khmer, Sawankaloke Ceramics (Australia: e Art Gallery of South Australia), R. Brown and S. Sjostrand, Turiang: A 14th Century Shipwreck in Southeast Asian Waters (Los Angeles: Pacific Asia Museum, 2000). 24. W. Linehan, e Kings of 14th-century Singapore, in Singapore 150 Years, pp Ibid. 26. Ibid., p Miksic, ai Wares. In ed. Kasetiri Sangkhalok ( ailand: Toyota ailand Foundation) pp e Heritage Journal / 37