Song/Yuan Ceramics from the Sumatra Kota Cina site


The NUS Museum has a collection of sherds collected by Prof. John Miksic from Sumatra Kota Cina site while conducting archaeological excavations in the 1970s.

Located in Northeast Sumatra, Kota Cina  is a village which lies beside a mangrove swamp near the mouth of the Deli River. Archaeological excavations in the 1970s by Prof. John Miksic and Dr. Edwards Mckinnon discovered large quantities of Chinese and local ceramics.  According to Prof. Miksic, the Chinese ceramics sherds were from around 1070 to 1260 A.D (Late Northern Song to Late Southern Song period). It is an important site that provided a body of references on the type of Chinese ceramics that were exported to the Sumatran markets.  The name suggested the likely presence of significant number of Chinese immigrants who may have settled there.  It may have been an important port with its hinterland supplying important Chinese imports such as camphor and gold.

Dr. Edwards Mckinnon wrote a research paper on findings from the Kota Cina site in 1977.  He acknowledged that at that point of time, archaeological informations on the Chinese ceramics from the various kilns were relatively lacking and faced difficulty in more accurate dating and kiln identificaiton.   Furthermore, no photos of the ceramic fragments found were included in the paper which would have aided subsequent identification.  On one occasion, I had the opportunity to speak to him and he mentioned that the archaeological materials excavated could not be located now.   Although Dr Miksic did manage to preserve some excavated ceramic materials  from his excavation and they were kept in NUS Museum, the materials may not be exhaustive.  However, on going through the materials with benefits of current relatively much better level of archaeological informations available,  they do match the mid 12th/13th century time-frame that he suggested.

A study of the sherds shows that no Yue green ware, Xing white ware or Changsha ware were among them.  Those were important export ceramics during the first golden phase of trade with Southeast Asia during the Tang period.  Changsha ware was no longer exported after the 5 Dynasties period while Yue ware continued to be an important export ceramics till early Northern Song period.  

The sherds basically conforms to what one would expect to find during the Mid Northern/Late Northern Song to early Yuan phase phase.  Among them, there are  Zhejiang Longquan and Fujian celadon, Jingdezhen Qingbai,  Fujian Dehua qingbai/white ware, Guangdong/Fujian brown glaze ware, Fujian Cizao green lead glaze ware and etc.

Southern Song Longquan celadon fragments

The top fragment with carved/combed decoration is likely from late Northern Song period.  Such type were first produced in Longquan and widely copied by Fujian kilns.  Further down, it is a early Yuan Longquan fragment with carved floral scroll.  The piece on the foreground is likely of Fujian kiln origin and dated to late Song/early Yuan period.

Jingdezhen Qingbai cover box fragments with molded floral decoration.  Based on dating from archaeological context in China , they are from late Norhtern Song/early Southern Song period.

Southern Song Dehua white wares, some with carved/combed decoration and others with molded floral decoration.  Comparable example of the carved/combed types could be found in the Java Jepara wreck.  Nanhai 1 wreck have many examples of the molded decoration.

Examples from Nanhai 1 wreck

Comparable examples of bowl with thicken lip were found in some shipwreck such as the Lingga and Pulau Buaya wreck.  They are dated to late Northern Song period and likely from a Guangdong kiln or kilns from Southern Fujian area.  Th.e rest of the bowls are likely also from the same time frame and could be of Guangdong/Fujian origin.

The above brown glaze and lead green glaze fragments are likely from Fujian Cizao kiln.  Comparable examples could be found in the Southern Song Nanhai 1 wreck.

Fragment with the impressed Jin Yu Mang Tang (金玉满堂) mark。  Such mark is particularly popular on Longquan ware of Southern Song period.  However, some could be found during the Yuan period.  The kiln of production of this green glaze example is hard to determine but could be Fujian in origin.

Brownish green fragments of a basin with impressed floral decoration. Likely a product of Northern Song Guangdong Xicun kiln.

Earthen ware of unknown origin

But there were also some unexpected finds.  Among the sherds, there were some late Northern Song Yaozhou green glaze ware with carved floral decoration.  Yaozhou wares were produced mainly for the Chinese domestic market and few were known to be exported.  Another rare find were some biscuit form Zhadou (渣斗) fragments from Jiangxi Ganzhou kiln (江西赣州窑).