Porcelain, celadon and 'blue and white' bowls: what was traded in Singapore in the fourteenth century

Singapore was an active trading hub long before the British arrived in 1819, researchers have concluded after studying the cargo of a shipwreck that sank off the island in the mid-14th century. The ship is known as Temasek Wreck - after Singapore's old name, Temasek. It is the earliest known shipwreck in Singapore waters and has provided archaeologists with rare 'maritime' evidence of the region's extensive trade during the medieval period.

Although little remains of the ship itself, archaeologists raised around 3.5 tonnes of finds - mostly Chinese pottery- from the bottom between 2016 and 2019. A detailed dissection of the cargo was presented by Dr Michael Flecker of Heritage SG (an entity under the Singapore National Heritage Board). The work was published in the Journal of International Ceramic Studies.

Most of the items turned out to be fragments, but there were also whole pieces. Among the finds - 136 kilograms of rare blue-white porcelain, heavy stone vessels, Longquan celadon (green glaze), as well as porcelain type Shufu. According to the author of the study, the volume of blue-white porcelain in this cargo is one of the most notable among documented shipwrecks of this time.

How the sailing date was determined

To understand when the ship put to sea, the researchers compared painting styles and ascertained the origin of the wares by kilns/workshops. A key clue was a recurring pattern: mandarin ducks in a pond with lotuses on the inside of blue and white bowls. This motif was popular in China for a short time, and then production was interrupted by unrest. Therefore, the ship's last trip was dated between 1340 and 1352, during the Yuan Dynasty.

Where the ship was going and why it is important

A separate part of the research is trying to understand what the route was. The pattern on many of the small bowls and vases matches fragments of pottery found in excavations in Singapore (including at Fort Canning and other sites). At the same time in the XIV century for the markets of India and the Middle East were characterised by huge blue and white dishes with a diameter of 40-50 cm, but in the cargo Temasek Wreck such items were not found: all plates were less than 35 cm. This suggested that the ship was not heading for the Indian Ocean, but Singapore was its main destination, and the ship sank en route already "at the finish line".

In the researcher's estimation, the pottery recovered gives a rare insight into the kind of utensils used by Temasek's inhabitants, from the everyday to the status and ceremonial. The authors emphasise that the find reinforces the picture that excavations on land have been showing in recent years - that before the colonial period there was a busy port here, embedded in regional trade networks. And the Temasek Wreck cargo becomes the strongest maritime argument in favour of this theory.