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Article: The Martaban trade: an examination of the literature from the seventh century until the eighteenth century.(pottery tradition in Lower Burma)
- Article from:
- Asian Perspectives: the Journal of Archaeology for Asia and the Pacific
- Article date:
- March 22, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 University of Hawaii Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE STUDY OF BURMESE POTTERY is an almost virgin field, and the role of Burma in the ancient pottery trade of East and Southeast Asia has hitherto been neglected. This paper seeks to examine the importance of the ports of southern Burma, particularly Martaban, to that trade. Until recently, the few Burmese writers on the subject claimed that all pots known as "Martabans" originated at that port (Than Tun 1972-73). Western scholars, on the other hand, went so far as to assume that "the nomenclature arose from the fact that the port was an important trans-shipment centre for Chinese products to the West, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries" (Brown 1977: 1). Both are ...