Melaka’s ancient past reaches shore at the 'Port And Pottery' exhibition in UM

At the 'Port And Pottery' exhibition, a visitor walks past an array of large stoneware jars and pots – rescued from Melaka’s coastline – that were important in transporting liquids and solid items onboard trading ships. Photo: The Star/Azman Ghani

The appearance of early boat timbers and other heavy woodwork, washed ashore on a stretch of reclaimed beachfront in the heart of historical Melaka in 2019 was the start of an epic adventure for Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma in reconnecting with his home state.

Amid the scattered merbau driftwood at this excavation site in Pulau Melaka were the remains of a wooden vessel or a barge, which led to further discoveries of ceramic shards, broken bottles, Melaka Sultanate coins and barnacled earthenware.

It was these artefacts from the sea that gave Sharma, an avid metal detectorist and archaeology buff, an opportunity to play out a childhood dream and to also start a self-funded project to help create awareness that old Melaka needs to be further studied, especially its coastal areas.

Exhibits from European countries (from right): a white stoneware saucer from England circa 19th to 20th century, an earthenware jar with two vertical handles from Portugal circa 16th to 17th century, and a shard from a ‘Bellarmine jar’ or Bartmann jug’ with German origins (circa 16th to 19th century). Photo: The Star/Azman Ghani

“I spent quite a bit of time enjoying the sea behind the Assumption Church, Praya Lane (in Melaka), before land reclamation took over the area. The sea always fascinated me. And as a child, I always wanted to be an archaeologist,” says Sharma, 59, with a twinkle in his eye, as he walked us through the beginnings of the Port And Pottery exhibition, now showing at the Museum Of Asian Art (Muzium Seni Asia) at Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur.

Before Port And Pottery came to be, Sharma – the exhibition curator and project lead – worked through the pandemic to recover the artefacts, pack and clean them up and document them.

On the beach

The process of beachcombing and cataloguing (the artefacts) to the opening of the exhibition has taken nearly five years. It all began with lonely drives along empty roads and highways during the lockdowns.

“I applied and got a permit to travel interstate regularly during the pandemic. The authorities understood the nature and urgency of the excavations and I managed to get to work at the sites, driving from my home in Shah Alam to Melaka. We used to head out in the scorching mid-day sun to catch the low-tide. The heat was a factor, so the small team had less than four hours daily to search and collect the ceramics, and other artefacts before heading back to the canopy area to sort out the finds,” he says.

Sharma reckons there are many shipwrecks at other reclaimed sites in Melaka which have yet to be unearthed. Photo: The Star/Azman Ghani

After the heavy lifting beach work (with an excavation permit), Sharma was assisted by a team of volunteers – notably Ong Mei Ching and Junko Mori – that later helped with the database project – cataloguing the ceramics collected from two sites: Pulau Melaka and Syahbandar in Melaka. The preliminary work and research leading up the exhibition was mostly done at the Museum Of Asian Art, which has its own extensive collection of ceramic artefacts from the region.

Things fell into place when Abdul Aziz Abdul Rashid (former head and curator of the Museum of Asian Art), a ceramics expert, proposed the idea for this Port And Pottery exhibition, offering his expertise, and space for the recovered ceramic artefacts to be catalogued.

Later on, these archived materials will be made available to students and researchers for further research, says Sharma.

Apart from the ceramics rescued from the Melaka coast, on display is a small exhibit of ceramics used or kept in Melaka’s Baba Nyonya, Portuguese (Kristang) and Chetti households. A selection of ceramics excavated from six shipwrecks in the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea are also part of the exhibition.

What lies beneath

For someone who is planning to pursue archaeology as a next field of study Sharma already has a headstart in finding leads among his circle of like-minded friends and archaeology enthusiasts.

“For the 2019 shipwreck off Pulau Melaka, my metal detectorist friends informed me that years ago when the reclamation was done people used to find old coins there. So I organised a visit with them. That was when we located the wooden beams protruding out of the mud and sand. I took measurements and felt that the beams were possibly that of a vessel,” recalls Sharma, who has 30 years of conservation, environmental and management experience.

Martaban jars were mainly produced in Myanmar, from around the 15th century, but similar big jars were made in other South-East Asian countries and China for a very long time. Photo: The Star/Aina Amirah

“I prepared a report and submitted it to the National Heritage Department in 2020. In early 2021 the then Commissioner of Heritage and his team visited the site and we had a press conference on the discovery. Then on March 21, 2021, the National Heritage Department led a week-long excavation of the shipwreck, together with Melaka Museum Corporation (Perzim) and my team and I,” he adds.

In November 2020, Sharma was informed of another area along the coast adjacent to the reclaimed land at Syahbandar (Kota Laksamana, Melaka) where large beams and an aggregation of ceramic shards were seen exposed on the mud flats at low tide, close to the mouth of the Melaka River.

The site was visited and secured for excavation, and broken earthenware pots, some broken Thai celadon plates, blue and white porcelain and Martaban jar shards were seen scattered in a small area.

The ceramic pieces collected on the surface of the reclaimed land adjacent to Pulau Melaka, along the canal separating Pulau Melaka and Melaka Raya, and along the beach and mudflats at low tide at Syahbandar were done rather opportunistically.

Among the artefacts recovered at the shipwreck adjacent to Pulau Melaka were tin coins made during the reign of Sultan Mahmud Shah (ruled from 1488 to 1511) and ceramics dating to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Photo: Handout

At Syahbandar and in the canal mentioned, fresh material was recovered at low tide based on what was washed up or exposed on the surface of the mud.

At the Museum of Asian Art gallery, the Port And Pottery exhibition offers a glimpse of how the objects were selected, researched, and conserved. It is exhibiting 120 salvaged items, selected from nearly 910 artefacts – tagged and processed from both Melaka beach sites.

Water vessels, cooking pots

Behind the museum’s glass showcases, these old world treasures, hardened in the kilns of East (mainly China) and South-East Asia, were once containers for traded goods, everyday use items and were also traded products.

Some ceramics were used to store and transport water, fruits, salted meat, ginger, rice, honey, oil, pickles, wine and fish sauce, among other things.

Among the notable items on display in this exhibition are regionally produced earthenware cooking pots, glazed stoneware bowls produced during the Yuan (1271-1368 CE) to Ming (1368-1644 CE) dynasties, Ming Dynasty blue and white porcelain plates, Chinese and South-East Asian stoneware storage jars and bottles, Burmese (Myanmar) Martaban stoneware jars and celadon plates from China, Thailand and Myanmar.

A blue and white porcelain bowl featuring two tiers of motifs like Sanskrit characters - circa 18th century Qing Dynasty, China. Photo: The Star/Azman Ghani

Qing Dynasty (1644-1912 CE) porcelain used by the common people of the time, which are mainly provincial blue and white Chinese dishes and bowls with simplified decoration, were the most recovered artefacts.

“It must be noted that these artefacts were recovered from only two sites in Melaka, and we have already identified ceramics from countries such as China, Portugal, Netherlands, England, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Japan, and even a German bottle, which could have been used on a Dutch ship,” says Sharma.

He also reckons there are many shipwrecks at other reclaimed sites in Melaka which have yet to be unearthed.

But time is of the essence in the historic state – a Unesco World Heritage site – which is fast losing its coastline to reclamation projects.

Exhibition guide and history researcher Junko (right) explaining the various Melaka maps to gallery visitors at the Museum of Asian Art. Photo: The Star/Azman Ghani

In February this year, 26 NGOs and civil society groups banded together to seek the cancellation of a proposed 481ha development of a deep-sea port at Melaka’s shoreline, citing the disruption of ecosystems and loss of biodiversity.

The reclamation project is part of the bigger Melaka Waterfront Economic Zone (MWEZ) plan that seeks to reclaim 10,117ha of land across 33km of the entire Melaka coastline.

In addition, the disappearing coastline harms efforts to conserve Melaka’s cultural heritage.

“Land reclamation along Melaka’s coast has had negative impacts on the environment, coastal livelihoods and material and cultural heritage. It is envisioned that this exhibition will serve to raise public awareness on the rich maritime history, culture and heritage of the state and the urgency to develop Melaka’s coasts sustainably,” concludes Sharma, who hopes to bring this exhibition to Melaka next year.

Port And Pottery exhibition at the Museum Of Asian Art (Muzium Seni Asia) at Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur runs until Jan 31. Open: Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm. Saturday, 9am-4pm. Closed during lunch hour.