Compositional Analysis of Pottery from Kota Cina, North Sumatra: Implications for Regional Trade during the Twelfth to Fourteenth Centuries A.D.

FINE PASTE WARE is an earthenware found at sites distributed over a broad area of Southeast Asia, from the Philippines to east Java, and from north Sumatra to Viet Nam. A Chinese archaeologist has reportedly compared this ware to sherds found at the Dung Zishan kilns, Ziyao, China (Lim 1987: 24). Its color, texture, and form are quite distinct from the utilitarian pottery characteristic of these sites. It is made from a relatively pure clay, which can be obtained from only a few sources in the region. It is hoped that analysis of the mineral composition of this pottery will indicate the source or sources of this ware and allow us to reconstruct the pattern of trade in this locally produced but regionally distributed commodity. Such information would provide some of the first concrete archaeological evi-dence for regional trade in Southeast Asia to complement the data on long distance trade contained in Chinese and Arabic sources. If more such studies are conducted, it may be possible to reassess the significance of long distance trade in the ancient economies and societies of Southeast Asia. REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS ANALYSI