Historic Southeast Asian Ceramics Preserved in Taiwan: A Discussion Beginning from the Evidence of Several Early Photographs

The principle aim of the present essay is to examine the Thai and Vietnamese ceramics recovered from Fort Zeelandia and other sites in Tainan. On the basis of samples unearthed at overseas archaeological sites and materials raised from undersea wrecks, as well as the results of scholarly surveys of Southeast Asian kilns, it can be confirmed that the samples of Thai jars with four lug handles uncovered at the Fort Zeelandia site include seventeenth century products of the Singburi kilns in central Thailand. It is also apparent that the shards of the tall Vietnamese vases were produced at kilns in central Vietnam. Another observation is that the glazed jar seen in the photo of a Paiwan aboriginal chief taken in the 1920s or 30s is a Thai piece dating to the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. When this material evidence is examined alongside textual records, it appears quite possible that the four-lugged Thai jars gathered at Feng-kueiwei in P’eng-hu and excavated at Fort Zeelandia in Tainan were brought to region by the Dutch. However, in the case the seventeenth century jar of the same style handed down over generations by the local population of Taiwan, it is possible that it was not transported by the Dutch, but rather by the forces of Cheng Ch’eng-kung (Koxinga) or the Red Seal merchant marines of Japan. Finally, the present essay confirms that the various ceramics that have been gathered in P’eng-hu or raised from the bottom of the Taiwan Strait include both Vietnamese and Thai wares. Some of these wares can be dated to as early as the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries. This observation offers an interesting clue for the study of trade routes between Japan and Southeast Asia.