Chinese blue and white porcelain pouring vessels from the Lena Shoal shipwreck

  • Lena Shoal blue and white boxes and pouring vessels

  • Lena Shoal dishes and a bottle

  • Lena Shoal excavation

This week on #MaritimeMonday highlights the ceramic pouring vessels found at the Lena Shoal shipwreck. The vessel was inadvertently discovered by deep sea fishermen more than 40 m deep near Lena Shoal, Busuanga, northern Palawan. Significant looting followed before the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) and the Far Eastern Foundation for Nautical Archaeology (FEFNA) intervened and carried out systematic excavations in 1997. To learn more about the Lena Shoal shipwreck, please read at https://tinyurl.com/bdfjksu3.

More than 4,700 artifacts were recovered consisting mostly of Asian stoneware and porcelain ceramics along with earthenware pottery, metal, glass, stone, and wooden objects as well as organic materials and ecofacts. The vessel measured 24 m long with a carrying capacity of 100 tons and was made using the South China Shipbuilding Tradition, which combines Chinese (bulkheads and iron nails) and Southeast Asian techniques (keel and wooden dowel). The ship may have sunk during the late 15th to the early 16th century Common Era (CE) based on the analysis of the Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese ceramic shapes and decoration.

Among the Chinese blue and white porcelain retrieved were pouring vessels with unique shapes in the form of ewers and bottles. There are large ewers that are made of thick, white porcelain covered with a thick bluish-glaze except at the foot and the base. The decorations are composed of floral patterns and scrolls while a single ewer is completely covered with blue glaze sans decoration. Also present in limited quantities are duck-shaped ewers with bluish glaze and molded into the shape of a pair of ducks swimming side by side. Liquids are filled in through the opening at the back of the birds and poured out through the beak if it is pierced. The cover may be domed with a knob on the top or shaped like a lotus leaf.

The bottles have globular bodies with necks narrowing at the center, similar to an hourglass in shape and end in an everted rim. The pieces are fashioned from thick, white porcelain and covered in bluish glaze with floral patterns and scrolls. They are classified as water bottles and thought to be copied from a metal prototype from the Middle East. These pouring vessels may have been used during meals and for ritual hand washing that is customary in the Moslem world.

All of these were produced by the private kilns at Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province which rose to prominence in the 15th century as the major ceramic production center in China specializing in porcelain with underglaze blue glaze. They are more commonly known as blue and white porcelain in the western world. The ship may have been part of a fleet of ships engaged in private trade and destined for Islamic markets in southern Philippines, Indonesia or even in the Indian Ocean states.

Your #NationalMuseumPH is now open to the public with minimum health protocols. Please visit our newly upgraded ‘300 Years of Maritime Trade in the Philippines’ exhibition on the second floor of the National Museum of Anthropology building. You may also opt to watch the virtual tour of the said gallery here: https://tinyurl.com/300YearsOfMaritimeTradePH. Please monitor this website and social media pages such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for further information and booking arrangements.

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 Poster and text by the NMP Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage Division

Photos © Franck Goddio and Far Eastern Foundation for Nautical Archaeology (FEFNA)

© National Museum of the Philippines (2021)