Our SEACS volunteers are featured in the July 2023 issue of MUSE SG covering Singapore's ongoing research and work in extracting clues to its early history. SEACS members were amongst the first volunteers to be trained to help wash, identify, sort and catalogue its most recent marine finds.
Behind the scene: Cleaning, categorizing, and documenting thousands of sherds from a fourteenth century shipwreck....
A Manager of Collections Management and an Assistant Conservator of Objects orient members of the Southeast Asian Ceramic Society to the workings of Singapore's Heritage Conservation Centre (HCC) as the society's July 2023 programme. A workshop will be help as Part II for members later in the year.
An introduction by Curator Emerita Louise Allison Cort to the Freer|Sackler collection of Southeast Asian ceramics serves as an excellent introduction to the very topic of the region's ceramics as it covers categories, methodologies and other basics to facilitate and appreciate the region's rich and vast ceramics heritage.
Jaap Otte, a native of the Netherlands, presented findings of his ongoing study of Japanese ceramics exported to Southeast Asia, primarily from Indonesia, from the 19th to the first half of the 20th century, which included architecturally-used ceramics, excavated material and contemporary written sources. His presentation included the following wares: stoneware “bartmann” jugs; water storage jars from Hizen(?); Nagasaki ware bottles; Arita porcelain; Awaji ware; and industrial earthenware and porcelain.
Dr. Ea Darith, Director, Department of Conservation and Archaeology, National Authority for Preah Vihear (NAPV) Cambodia, shares with SEACS members his findings from years of field research in Angkor and identifies two distinct periods of stoneware production.
How the only collection of Yuan blue-and-white shards in America ended up in the Palace Museum in Beijing
Dr. SAKAI Takashi shared his research into the glazed ceramic shards found in the Segaran district of the Trowulan archaeological site, East Java, Indonesia as well as a number of other Southeast Asian sites. Trowulan was the former capital (1293-c. 1527) of the Majapahit Kingdom, the largest and last of the Hindu Java kingdoms.
Our speaker, Khun Atthasit Sukkham of the Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum, Bangkok University, focused on a trade time period that merits more attention: the last half of the 18th to the early 20th centuries. Based on his and Clifford Pereira and Asyaari Muhamad's research, we looked at six shipwrecks found in Southeast Asia in this time period, which had ceramic assemblages: the Samed Ngam, Diana, Tek Sing, Desaru, Francis-Garnier (Man Nok or Ruea Mail) and Tha Krai. By analysing the origins, typologies, dates, functions and selections of these ships’ ceramics, it was clear that the Chinese-made armorial, Chinese-made bencharong and European ceramics offer diagnostic evidence of post-peak ceramic trading patterns. These ceramics were products for sale, remains of earlier ceramic shipments or utensils for on-board living. This body of evidence is comparable with that of terrestrial archaeological sites that suggest other cultural influences among the more recent maritime ceramic trade in Southeast Asia. SEACS members can watch a video of this talk on our Membership Premium Video page.
Marine archaeologist Dr. Michael Flecker shares the stories and discoveries of the two historic shipwrecks recently found in Singapore waters: the Temasek (Yuan Dynasty) and the Shah Muncher (sank January 1796) enroute from Guangzhou to Mumbai.
Members of SEACS' Malaysia branch share some of the amazing ceramics recovered from Sumatra's Musi River, presented by Steven Ho Kah Hong to SEACS members and their guests on 23 November 2021.
How did three British-made plates come to be found by divers in the Musi River?....
