Special Edition Featuring DIG-IT! FLINDERS UNIVERSITY ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY SOCIETY VOLUME 9, ISSUE 1 SEACAL Southeast Asian Ceramics Archaeology Laboratory 2 MAY 2025 Journal of the Flinders Archaeology and History Society Dig-it Volume 9, Issue 1 May 2025 Online: ISSN 2203-1898 Print: ISSN 1440-2475 Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia Dig-it is an open access journal. The journal and the individual articles can be freely distributed; however, individual authors and Dig-it must be cited and acknowledged correctly. Articles, figures and other content cannot be altered without the prior permission of the author. Front Cover by Will Cowling and SEACAL team. Legacy of the Maritime Silk and Spice Route , from the collection held at SEACAL, gift of Michael Abbot AO KC. Page 3 by Abbey Rawson. Page 4 by Mitchell McCormick. Contact us: flindersarchsoc@gmail.com https://flindersarchsoc.org/ Acknowledgement of Country 3 JOURNAL OF THE FLINDERS ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY SOCIETY Flinders University and the Archaeology and History Society acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands on which we study, live and work. Our campuses are located on the Traditional Lands of the Arrernte, Dagoman, First Nations of the South East, First Peoples of the River Murray & Mallee region, Jawoyn, Kaurna, Larrakia, Ngadjuri, Ngarrindjeri, Ramindjeri, Warumungu, Wardaman and Yolngu people. We acknowledge their deep connects to land and water, and we pay our respects to elders past, present and future. 4 MAY 2025 Committee Kathryn Pearson Courtney Klenke Kate Roberts Sophie Lee Se’elle Clarkson Abbey Rawson Elara Ferguson-Coyles Sophia Grundoff Charlotte Miller Maya De Jong Lucas Tennent Ann-Maree Anderson Jesse De Nichilo Pallavi Chandran President Secretary Treasurer Dig-it Editor-in-Chief Dig-it editor Dig-it editor Librarian Post-Graduate Representative History Representative General committee General committee General committee General committee General committee If you are interested in joining the ArcHSoc committee, please reach out via email. Acknowledgement of Country Committee Message from the Editors Message from the President ArcHSoc Events Students in the Spotlight Seminar Highlights Introducing SEACAL - A/Prof Martin Polkinghorne and Dr Catherine Morton Reuniting Cargoes - A/Prof Martin Polkinghorne and Dr Catherine Morton Clay Memories - Dr Susan Arthure Photogrammetry and Digital Preservation - Will Cowling Provenance - Jesse De Nichilo Fish Plates, Kendi, and Tin Ingots - Jesse De Nichilo Words from a New SEACAL Volunteer - Casey Hogben Connections to the Past at SEACAL - Mary McKerlie Using Maritime Accretions to Provenance Ceramics - Mitchell Herbert Chinese Guangdong Storage Jars - Simona Sumerling Reglazing Ceramics - Wee Shiang Tay Ceramics in the Post-Despositional Environment - Lillian Briceño Introducing Cileungsi’s Warehouse - Sutenti Reconnecting Batu Itam Communities - Nia Naelul Hasanah Ridwan Diving into History - Zainab Tahir The Tuban Shipwreck and a Dragon Vase - Josephine Priska Taoist Elements in Changsha Ceramic Motifs - Jesica Lerrick In Search of the Origins of a Broken Celadon Bowl - Farah Azzahra Salsabila Decoding the Spur Marks on Ceramics - Reghinaa Shafora 3 4 6 7 8 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 23 24 25 26 27 28 30 32 34 36 37 38 39 5 Contents JOURNAL OF THE FLINDERS ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY SOCIETY O ff the back of the grandeur of Dig-it Volume 8, Issue 2, I had set my expectations super high for our next edition. I knew that with the end of my master’s looming, a knee surgery and a new job, I was going to struggle on my own. So, I am pleased to introduce my two co-editors: Abbey Rawson and Se’elle Clarkson. Now that I had the support of two extremely keen, talented women with me, and the existing template of Dig-it already made, I knew that this edition was going to be extremely high quality. What I did not expect, was the extent of the submissions that we received. Spearheaded by general committee member Jesse, SEACAL organised a few papers to have a ‘centrefold feature’ in the next edition to promote and celebrate the lab. A/Prof Martin Polkinghorne and Dr Susan Arthure took this idea and ran with it, turning a few into a dozen. Then reached out to their international colleagues in Southeast Asia and ultimately produced 21 independently written articles. While we had received many other submissions, we had to give SEACAL the limelight they deserved. The quality of the images and the effort that the team had put into producing these articles just for Dig-it was outstanding, and the least we could do was give them an entire feature of their own. Thank you to the SEACAL and Cileungsi teams for being so willing to contribute to Dig-it and thank you for bringing it to an international stage. I hope it sparks a mass interest in the organisation and inspires a future student to join your team. Thank you, Abbey and Se’elle, for doing the majority of the reading and editing, and taking a massive workload off my back. Thank you specifically to Susan Arthure, who came to me in a moment of need to edit and proof-read the entire magazine. And thank you, the reader, for downloading or buying a Dig-it again. This has proven to be a very rewarding experience, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy making it. Happy Reading! Sophie Lee I first became interested in Dig-it when I heard that it would count as an official, peer-reviewed publication that could be included in my academic portfolio. The $50 reward for the associated photo-competition (which I somehow won) wasn’t bad either. At a loss for what to write, I scraped together an article from an old assignment. It was only after submitting it that I had an epiphany: Dig-it was the perfect instrument for me to share my obsession with shipwrecks and maritime culture with people without hijacking conversations and rambling like a lunatic. When I reached out to Sophie about writing an article for the next edition, she counter-offered with a position as an assistant editor, and here we are. - Se’elle Clarkson (not pictured) I have been a bookseller and a writer for eight years, and through my work I have seen the importance of scientific communication and the enthusiasm that people have for learning about history, society and the natural world. I jumped at the chance to work on Dig-it Magazine, and the opportunity to be involved in the process of creating and curating a source of information and entertainment for people with an interest in archaeology and history. It is a pleasure to read the fascinating experiences, passions, projects, and research that our cohort, teachers and affiliates have participated in through Flinders University. - Abbey Rawson 6 MAY 2025 Message from the Editors Message from the President As President, I am working to make ArcHSoc a club that brings people together through a mutual love of archaeology and history. I want to create a club for people to have fun and make connections. T his time last year, I was Secretary for ArcHSoc, and was one of maybe five committee members working to grow the society. At that time, I could have never imagined that not only would I be the President, but I would lead a committee that would amass fourteen people who tirelessly work to make ArcHSoc a successful community for archaeology and history lovers to engage in events and opportunities here at Flinders. This semester, thanks to the hard work of our committee members and the enthusiastic support of our members, we’ve been able to run several successful events. We kickstarted the semester with our Raiders of the Lost Ark Pub Crawl, an Indiana Jones themed event that was attended by new members, fresh first years, mature age students and other clubs and was our first sold out event. We quickly followed the success of that event with our Lecture Launch BBQ, a sausage sizzle event promoting the weekly seminars held on by Flinders lecturers and guests. It was at our AGM where we welcomed two new editors for Dig-it to assist in future publications as well as new committee members and a new Librarian. We celebrated another successful event at our Quiz Night at the Tav, the second quiz night hosted by the lovely Jenna Walsh. We had a massive turnout for the event, one of the largest ones for an event in the last year. In addition, ArcHSoc assisted Jenna with Archaeology Open Day 2025 and provided a sausage sizzle at the event for the second year in a row. In addition to the accomplished events, we’re excited for upcoming events and for our volunteers attending and supporting WAC-10. A special recognition goes to all our members for attending our events and we hope to continue to see you at future ones. As we complete and release this edition of Dig-it, a special thanks goes out to our editing team and the SEACAL team for the hard work to make this possible. We are thrilled to be able to support and promote SEACAL and hope you enjoy the work they’ve been accomplishing presented in this edition. Cheers, Kathryn Pearson 7 JOURNAL OF THE FLINDERS ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY SOCIETY 8 MAY 2025 ArcHSoc Events! Pub Crawl: Raiders of the Lost Bar 28/2/25 9 JOURNAL OF THE FLINDERS ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY SOCIETY Lecture Launch BBQ 6/3/25 Annual General Meeting 14/3/25 10 MAY 2025 Quiz Night 10/4/25 11 JOURNAL OF THE FLINDERS ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY SOCIETY Archaeology Day BBQ 23/5/25 P auline has long been fascinated by caves and their significance to human culture. Since joining Flinders University as a master’s student in the maritime archaeology program, she has made this interest the focus of her thesis. Research into the archaeology of underwater caves currently stands on the threshold: straddling the line between being largely overlooked and emerging as a crucial avenue for understanding Aboriginal cultures in Deep Time. Driven by a broader curiosity for submerged landscapes, Pauline is investigating the most effective methods for identifying caves and rock shelters that may contain archaeological remains in Sahul’s offshore environment. Her research has led her into the world of remote sensing, where technological advances are revolutionizing seafloor imaging and mapping. With increasing access to high-resolution datasets and advanced processing tools, researchers can now explore submerged landscapes with unprecedented accuracy. Although not shy about getting her fins wet if the work calls for it, Pauline firmly believes that the future of protecting submerged cultural heritage in Australia will increasingly rely on the capabilities of remote sensing and GIS technologies to detect significant archaeological features, such as caves, before harm can befall them. R achel Jebb was born and raised on Nukunu country, in regional South Australia surrounded by beautiful views of the Flinders Ranges. She completed her Bachelor of Archaeology at Flinders University in 2023, finding a love for Indigenous Australian archaeology and artefacts. Rachel is currently pursuing a Masters of Maritime Archaeology, exploring interests in submerged landscapes, traditional uses of water and particularly archaeomalacology (study of shells). She has worked across SA and New South Wales, and has had the opportunity to study materials from across Australia. Rachel also has interests in illustration, photography and destroying people in Mario Kart. Rachel’s thesis is centred on Laili Cave, located in Timor Leste, focusing on the marine invertebrate collection in relation to Pleistocene-aged human subsistence, environmental shifts, and human migration; the thesis also applies a new form of quantification, hoping to more accurately identify and interpret molluscan remains. Rachel strongly believes in the narratives and stories of place that archaeology can help uncover, and thinks that shells are an underappreciated maritime powerhouse. Pauline Ramsey Master of Maritime Archaeology - Flinders University Rachel Jebb Master of Maritime Archaeology - Flinders University 12 MAY 2025 Students in the Spotlight W eek One – we started the seminar series with Dr Ursula Frederick from the University of Canberra. Ursula explored graffiti as cultural heritage, by removing the ‘creative or criminal’ debate, a greater focus on the process of creating these marks and places. Week Two – Sean Freeman from Australian Heritage Services talked about his life and experiences working as an archaeologist in Australia. A Flinder’s archaeology graduate, Sean is a leader in the field of archaeology and cultural heritage management and hearing about his life and work was extremely informative. Week Three – Joined by Dr Gail Higginbottom from Bournemouth University, we were taken on a journey through Middle Neolithic, Western Iberia, discussing the dolmen builders and how to locate them. From using the landscape to find the Dolmens to accessing the astrological and solar significance of the sites, this seminar was extremely informative. Week 4 – Flinders’ own Dr Jana Anvari talked through her ongoing field project in Southeast Albania. From research gaps, project setup, preliminary results and the research methods used, Jana’s seminar was informative and in-depth. Giving the audience an insightful understanding of her project, it was also a valuable example to newer students on what ongoing field work would look like. Week 5 – All the way from the University of California – Los Angeles and Polytechnic University in Turin, Professor Wileke Wendrich came in to give her seminar on baskets and basket makers in Ancient Egypt. From showing types of evidence of woven baskets, to weaving techniques, all the way to how the tradition has continued to thrive and evolve over time. This seminar showed how this material and immaterial culture has survived throughout time. Week 6 – Associate Professor Erik Champion from Uni SA took us on a virtual journey of the metaverse and what that might mean for archaeology in the future. His seminar included how technology could be used to make places, artefacts and culture more accessible, for both researchers and the public. Week 7 – Professor Renaud Joannes-Boyau from Southern Cross University joined us to discuss how direct fossil dating has changed our understanding of the past and how these geochemical advances can help aid research in the future. Week 8 – Flinders’ own Dr Aaron Camens discussed the recent discoveries up in Lake Callabonna. Full of megafaunal specimens, every excavation trip brings in exciting material. Aaron was able to fill in the audience with what exciting work has been completed so far and what is hopefully yet to come. Definitely a space to watch. Week 9 – Associate Professor Martin Polkinghorne gave an insightful seminar on what caused the ‘collapse’ of Angkor. With twenty-five years of research, we took a journey through the changes in social and climatic environments through time that permanently altered the city of Angkor. 13 JOURNAL OF THE FLINDERS ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY SOCIETY Co-hosted by Chelsea Wiseman and Ian Moffat, the archaeology public seminars are back for 2025. These free public seminars are held weekly during the semester on Thursdays from 3 to 4 pm both in person at the Humanities North Theatre 2 and online. From exciting new research to new perspectives on old thoughts, these weekly seminars always offer the opportunity to learn what is happening in the world of archaeology, direct from the researchers themselves. Seminar Highlights Courtney Klenke ArcHSoc Secretary Above: Assoc/Prof Martin Polkinghorne gives his talk on Angkor. (Image: Ann-Maree Anderson) I t is with great pleasure that we introduce the Southeast Asian Ceramics Archaeology Laboratory (SEACAL) at Flinders University. SEACAL is a recently established facility for teaching and research of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) and Southeast Asian archaeological ceramics. Funded by the Australian Research Council Linkage grant ‘Reuniting Orphaned Cargoes: Underwater Cultural Heritage of the Maritime Silk Route’, we hold more than 2300 ceramic vessels which date between the 9th and 20th centuries. These vessels were removed from the seafloor without the application of archaeological methods and as a result we no longer know which shipwrecks the vessels are from. Our research objective is to reunite our vessels to their shipwrecks and restore their context. 14 MAY 2025 Introducing SEACAL Assoc/Prof Martin Polkinghorne – Chief Investigator Dr Catherine Morton – SEACAL Research Fellow Above: The Thursday team at SEACAL. (Image: SEACAL) Back: Jesse De Nichilo, Will Cowling, Amir Saiffuddin Middle: Catherine Morton, Zainab Tahir, Simona Sumerling Front: Susan Arthure, Martin Polkinghorne, Nia Naelul Hasanah Ridwan, Wee Shiang Tay F or centuries, Southeast Asia, with Indonesia at its core, was the epicentre of the most extraordinary expansion of global trade ever witnessed. Indonesian waters were an artery of international trade, acting as both a transit point and a destination, facilitating the exchange of ideas, religions, languages, and goods. Today, they hold the history of global maritime trade in their treacherous depths where thousands of vessels from China, India, Japan, the Gulf States, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, England, and Southeast Asia were lost at sea along with their cargoes. But this story is incomplete because many objects of trade, and the shipwrecks from which they originated, were salvaged and dispersed without adequate archaeological recording of the details of their find-spots. Separated from their origins and dispersed from each other, many trade ceramics from the Maritime Silk and Spice Route have become ‘grey’ or ‘orphaned’ cultural objects that have been recovered unethically, illegally or in some other problematic way— for example, underwater cultural heritage that has been commercially salvaged rather than scientifically excavated. Trade ceramics, especially those manufactured in China, were originally produced to be exchanged, and they remain the most durable shipwreck artefacts. As cultural objects, they can hold deep religious, political, and social significance. Our project aims to reconnect these trade ceramics, some dating from as early as the 800s, with the shipwrecks where they originated and the coastal communities that are their contemporary custodians. This is a joint initiative between Flinders University and Indonesia’s Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. Thanks to: Australian Research Council Linkage Program (LP210200165), Michael Abbott AO KC, Alastair Hunter OAM, Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries – Republic of Indonesia (Kementerian Kelautan dan Perikanan). 15 JOURNAL OF THE FLINDERS ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY SOCIETY Reuniting Cargoes: Underwater Cultural Heritage from the Maritime Silk and Spice Route Assoc/Prof Martin Polkinghorne – Chief Investigator Dr Catherine Morton – SEACAL Research Fellow W e hold approximately 2300 artefacts in the SEACAL collection, each of which requires a condition report. Condition reporting is the process of examining and documenting the physical state of an object. It’s a critical part of managing a collection, whether for a university lab, gallery, or museum. Assessing the condition is done for a variety of reasons – to monitor the object over time, to track its condition when accessioned into a collection, to note any conservation needs, and to document the state of the object before it goes out for exhibition, and especially after it returns. At SEACAL, I lead a small, skilled team of volunteers, mostly students from the archaeology program, all with a deep interest in ceramics, commerce, and/or curation. We are systematically working our way through the collection, prioritising vessel types according to the research aims of the project and of postgraduate students. We begin by recording each object’s identification details, including its unique inventory number, its country of origin, period of production, material type, motifs and stylistic features. Then we move on to describing its condition. This includes its structural stability, surface wear or damage, and any evidence of it having spent time in a maritime environment. We take photos each time, highlighting and annotating features of interest. From this, we identify any conservation treatment or additional research that should be carried out. We currently have many ideas for future postgraduate projects! Think of condition reports as an honest record documenting the use-life of an object. We touch and assess every vessel, examining it from all angles, just as the potters of the past did, resulting in any repairs it may have had. We use all our senses, but supplement our observations with archaeometric methods such as microscopy, photogrammetry, CT scanning, and isotopic analysis. Clay Memories: Reporting on the SEACAL Ceramics Dr Susan Arthure SEACAL Research Fellow Figure 1: SEACAL condition report forms 16 MAY 2025 I began work as the Digitisation Officer for SEACAL in March 2025, but I’ve been volunteering in the lab since late 2022. Earlier this year, I completed my Master’s thesis which focused on the elemental analysis of a special part of the SEACAL collection, 15th – 16th century Vietnamese blue-and-white jarlets. At SEACAL we have been incorporating multiple digital preservation techniques to manage and analyse the ceramics in the collection. One of the main techniques we’ve been using is photogrammetry. This is the process of using photography to collect information and physical data from an object and place. It allows for photorealistic 3D models to be generated through the overlaps present between photographs. First, a large number of photos are taken from multiple angles around an object, in this instance a ceramic vessel, and then combined. This process is repeated for both the top and bottom of the vessel. This creates separate models which are then combined based on their similarities. Through the process of photogrammetry, we can produce a digital collection of the SEACAL vessels, allowing them to be digitally preserved in their current state. As well as producing 3D models, the data collected through photogrammetry is being used as the basis for machine learning. This is a way of carrying out stylistic analysis of objects using large datasets – machine learning can be used to differentiate between different categories of objects. Here at SEACAL, it will allow us to analyse and compare data from the SEACAL objects, where the provenance is unknown, with similar objects from known shipwrecks. Photogrammetry and Digital Preservation Will Cowling SEACAL Digitisation Officer Figures 1-3: Stages of image development using photogrammetric processing (Image: SEACAL) 17 JOURNAL OF THE FLINDERS ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY SOCIETY S EACAL is principally concerned with provenance, a term used here for the known source of an object which is comprised of where it was found, and where it was originally made. Provenance allows archaeologists to trace the social, political, and economic history of an object, and situate it within the greater narrative of an assemblage. When an artefact is orphaned and stripped of its archaeological context, its provenance is either disarticulated or lost entirely. As a result, archaeologists are often hesitant to work with grey artefacts and the ethical and analytical issues they pose. This does not mean, however, that an artefact which has lost its provenance is worthless to archaeology. It is the goal of SEACAL to challenge these assumptions by employing archaeological science to test if provenance can be re-established. In doing so, our intention is not to minimise the issues around orphaned artefacts, including validating unethical salvage practices. Rather, our goal is to empower communities of origin by providing the tools and frameworks they need to restore their agency in confronting these challenges and reclaiming their cultural heritage. Recovering provenance is a theoretical exercise as much as it is technical. It is achieved though comparative analysis, where inferences are drawn based on the material, stylistic, and historic parallels between two or more like artefacts. This is the principle of the ‘provenance postulate’, that there are both qualitative and quantitative differences in artefacts and their raw materials that are greater between different objects than like ones. The challenge comes from how artefacts and materials disclose their provenance to varying degrees. Among the ongoing provenance projects in SEACAL, each material under investigation has unique considerations which require different techniques, mainly falling into typological and geochemical approaches. This can be further divided into whether a provenance project is trying to re- establish the findspot or place of manufacture. Orphaned ceramics that were mass-produced trade wares might be able to be matched to shipwreck cargoes using photogrammetry and machine learning, to detect patterns in painted motifs down to the characteristic brush strokes of individual potters. Linking orphaned ceramics to in-situ non- diagnostic ceramic sherds could be achieved by matching readings in the elemental composition of the ceramic temper. Identifying potential shipwreck find spots for shell-encrusted orphaned ceramics might be achieved by comparing the oxygen isotope signatures of the shells to those of molluscs that live and grow in certain regions, depths, and temperatures. Finally, tin isotope analysis, which requires matching the isotopic signature of tin ingots with the signature of samples of tin ore taken from possible mining areas, could be strengthened by comparison with tin ingots from similar Southeast Asian contexts. The resources required for provenance analysis underscores the strength of the SEACAL – Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries collaboration. Access to Cielungsi’s collection of over 300,000 artefacts from known shipwrecks is invaluable for SEACAL’s development of analytical methods, and in turn we aim to provide Cielungsi with the tools necessary to employ these methods in their own research on their collection. Provenance Jesse De Nichilo SEACAL Honours Student 18 MAY 2025 Above: Signs of time spent in a marine environment (Image: Will Cowling and SEACAL) 19 JOURNAL OF THE FLINDERS ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY SOCIETY T he plate you can see in the photo is a Sukhothai ‘fish plate’. Named for their decorative fish motifs, these plates were trade ceramics produced in a short 17-year period between 1450 and 1487 CE in the Ayutthaya Kingdom of Thailand. During this period Thailand produced some of the most widely exported ceramics in all of Southeast Asia. This was to capitalise on a ban on the export of Chinese ceramics that started in the early Ming Dynasty and has come to be known as the ‘Ming Gap’. In the early 1400s, Imperial China shifted its foreign policy from financing merchant enterprise to implementing a strict ban on private maritime trade. Figure 1: A Sukhothai ‘fish plate’ from the SEACAL Collection. (Image: SEACAL) Thai Fish Plates and the ‘Ming Gap’ Jesse De Nichilo SEACAL Honours Student This ban resulted in the Chinese monopoly on the ceramics market in Southeast Asia collapsing from a peak of nearly 100% of exports before 1325 CE to just 30% by 1487 CE. Demand for quality ceramics remained high, however, and the export of fish plates from the famed Sukhothai kilns of Ayutthaya throughout Southeast Asia is seen as a proactive strategy by the maritime kingdom to assert itself in the market. Tens of thousands of Sukhothai fish plates have been found on shipwrecks and archaeological sites across the Maritime Silk Road, representing the rise of the Ayutthaya Kingdom to a great industrial and commercial empire in the late 15th century. 20 MAY 2025