Decorated ceramic jar rims. Sa Huyn Kalanay type, provenience unknown. 500 BC to AD 200. Asian Archaeology, U-M Philippine Expedition. UMMAA 48621 (l) and UMMAA 48623 (r). Photo by Grace Baretto.

Among the collection from the 1922–1925 U-M Philippine Expedition (see Object 3) are more than 7500 ceramic vessels and sherds. These include elegant imported porcelains and stoneware vessels traded to the Philippines from China, Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia. They date to the 14th–19th centuries AD. Project director Carl Guthe documented these imported ceramics, but he also collected locally produced earthenware vessels, such as the elaborately decorated jar rim fragments pictured here. Drawing from foundational work on the collection by William Solheim, French archaeologist Aude Favereau has compared ceramics in the collection to ceramic vessels made across Southeast Asia about 2000 years ago (from ca. 500 BC to AD 200). Although collected nearly 100 years ago, the Philippine Expedition Collection continues to contribute to the study of our human past.

Back to Day 18 or continue to Day 20.

In honor of the University of Michigan’s 2017 bicentennial, we are celebrating the remarkable archaeological and ethnographic collections and rich legacy of research and teaching at the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology by posting one entry a day for 200 days. The entries will highlight objects from the collections, museum personalities, and UMMAA expeditions. The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology is also posting each day for 200 days on Twitter and Facebook (follow along at #KMA200). After the last post, an exhibition on two centuries of archaeology at U-M opens at the Kelsey. Visit the exhibit—a joint project of the UMMAA and the Kelsey—from October 18, 2017 to May 27, 2018.