Maritime Trade in the Philippines During the 15th Century CE

The Elemental Analysis of Glass Beads

“…The hybridity of the vessels was in relation to the building materials from Southeast Asia but the craftsmanship of Chinese (Manguin 1984). This scenario of hybrid ship and mixed ceramic cargoes we noted earlier in our shipwreck case studies of the Pandanan and the Santa Cruz (Orillaneda 2016a(Orillaneda , 2016b. These correlations of ship construction technique and ceramic cargo help maritime archaeologists to narrow shifting patterns in shipping (i.e., Green et al 1987;Maarleveld 1995;Orillaneda 2011), largely by means of ceramic seriation as the method to observe changes in cargo and date the shipwreck.…”

“…An excavation was conducted in 1996 at the northeastern section of Pandanan Island, southern Palawan (Dizon 1996) on a shipwreck with a Chinese-Vietnamese hybrid hull (Dizon 1996b:11;Orillaneda 2016aOrillaneda :85, 2016b. The site date range was derived from late 15th century Chinese and Vietnamese ceramics and a Chinese Yong-Le (1465-1487 CE) copper coin (Dizon 1996b;Orillaneda 2000).…”

“…The site date range was derived from late 15th century Chinese and Vietnamese ceramics and a Chinese Yong-Le (1465-1487 CE) copper coin (Dizon 1996b;Orillaneda 2000). Other cargo on board included stone implements, metals (e.g., iron caldrons, bronze gongs, firearms, bronze cannons) and glass and carnelian beads (Brown 2004;Cayron 2006:29;Dizon 1996a: 66;Orillaneda 2000Orillaneda , 2016a. For this study, representative samples of 28 black and 13 red glass beads were analyzed with LA-ICP-MS.…”

“…In 2003 an excavation off Santa Cruz Island, close to Zambales of Luzon (Orillaneda 2003), was conducted on a shipwreck hull identified as a hybrid South China Sea Shipbuilding Tradition (Goddio et al 2014:8, 10;Orillaneda 2003;Orillaneda 2012Orillaneda , 2016aOrillaneda , 2016b. The shipbuilding technique is seemingly Chinese but the materials are from the Southeast Asia archipelago (Orillaneda 2016a). Pointedly, scholars surmise the ship was built by Chinese diaspora in the Philippines (Goddio et al 2014:8, 10;Manguin 2001:15) or Thailand (Flecker 2005;Orillaneda 2016b).…”

“…The site date range was derived from Chinese, Burmese, Thai and Vietnamese porcelain and stoneware jars of the late 15th century (Dizon 2003). Alongside these ceramics were a variety of other materials: tin, copper and iron ingots from the Malaya Peninsula or eastern Sumatra, cast iron bowls, shipused cooking iron cauldron and plate, net weights and weighing scales, bronze gongs, brass and copper spiral bracelets, bronze cannons, metal box, bronze crown, three corroded Chinese coins (Fahy 2014;Goddio et al 2002;Orillaneda 2016b), green glass bracelets (Orillaneda 2016b:52), organic implements of wood and stone, and glass and carnelian beads (Orillaneda 2001;Orillaneda 2016a). For this study, representative samples of 4 blue, 10 yellow, and 12 black glass beads were analyzed with LA-ICP-MS.…”