Fine-Bodied White Earthenwares of Southeast Asia: Some X-Ray Fluorescence Tests

the importance of trade as a factor in the development of the region's cultures. Southeast Asia first entered the consciousness of the Mediterranean world of the first century A.D. through the medium of the spice trade. Although few, if any, Greco-Roman traders seem to have visited Southeast Asia, they observed the produce of Southeast Asia as it arrived in the ports of south India, where during the golden age of the Roman Empire lay the principal junction of maritime trade between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. The Greco-Roman outposts in India were abandoned in the third century A. D., during the early decline of the Roman Empire. At the same time the Chinese began to devote more attention to the maritime activities conducted by "barbarian " groups along China's south coast. By the early fifth century the Chinese were traveling to India by sea, in ships built, manned, and owned by sea-going people of Southeast Asia. By the seventh century, the center of gravity of Asian maritime trade had shifted to Southeast Asia, where it remained for over 1000 years, well past the date when Europeans rejoined the action