The magical jars of Mindanao and Northern Luzon

Our love affair with Chinese porcelain is ancient. We love both the priceless antiques such as those collected by the Locsin family, and the pretty fakes the rest of us buy from Ermita and Quiapo. We have sought out Chinese ceramics since, well, forever. In fact, records show that our passion dates from at least the 10th century, when an Asian economic boom brought great prosperity to parts of the Philippines. During this time, the archipelago was linked to an international trading system that involved Borneo, Java, the Maluku islands, Champa (the area that today spans central and southern Vietnam), and China. We supplied gold ore, forest and marine products such as honey, gum and resin from trees, and tripang or sea slug from the sea, in exchange for Chinese ceramics and silk. Evidently, a culture of conspicuous consumption prevailed even in our ancient societies.

Potteries that were manufactured for trade in ancient Southeast Asia have long intrigued ceramic specialists. Archaeologists working in northeast Mindanao have recovered a diverse and plentiful range of high-fired ceramics that included Thai, Vietnamese and even Middle Eastern objects dating back as far as the 9th century. But the majority of the finds have been predominantly Chinese ceramics, most abundantly Guangdong and Fujian Song ware, with the oldest being Yue and Yue-type wares dating from the Five Dynasties period (907-960). Excavated mainly in and around the remains of a group of wooden boats known as balangay found in Butuan, Mindanao, the finds strongly indicate the participation of northeast Mindanao within a Philippine-Borneo-Celebes trading network and, more broadly, in Chinese, Southeast Asian, and Middle Eastern circuits.