Quality, Trade, and Global Ceramic Products: A Quality Analysis of Chinese Longquan Celadon Trade in the Persian Gulf, 1200-1500 AD

The aim of this study is to develop a quality-based analytical framework for Chinese trade ceramics, using Longquan celadon to examine long-term changes in the quality, scale, and organisation of maritime exchange in the western Indian Ocean between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. Archaeological ceramics, owing to their durability, ubiquity, and chronological sensitivity, provide the most consistent and quantifiable evidence for reconstructing long-term patterns of maritime trade. Within this corpus, Longquan celadon emerged as one of the most widely distributed and quantitatively dominant Chinese export wares in the western Indian Ocean, making it an ideal case for investigating trade organisation and its broader social implications.
This thesis introduces a reproducible two-step approach to ceramic quality assessment, integrating systematic visual analysis of fabric, glaze, and manufacturing characteristics with portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis to validate visually defined quality groups and enhance assemblage-based interpretation.
The study combines a comprehensive regional dataset compiled from published evidence covering 103 sites across the western Indian Ocean with detailed first-hand analysis of three selected assemblages: the Williamson Collection, the Siraf assemblage, and the al-Nudud (Julfar) collection. Comparative analysis reveals both regional coherence and local variability in the distribution of Longquan celadon across the Persian Gulf. In quantitative terms, many Gulf sites follow a broadly shared trajectory of expansion, peak, and contraction from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, whereas major entrepôts such as Hormuz and al-Nudud display distinct trajectories. Quality-based analysis indicates that Longquan celadon was embedded within an elite-oriented exchange system, in which high-quality wares proved more vulnerable to political and economic disruption than lower-quality wares. More broadly, spatial variation in ceramic quality reveals a hierarchically organised system of Gulf commerce, in which access to high-value commodities was closely linked to economic power and nodal position within exchange networks. Within this system, core entrepôts concentrated and redistributed imported ceramics, whereas peripheral settlements received more limited and uneven supplies, particularly of high-quality Longquan celadon. By foregrounding ceramic quality as an analytical dimension, this thesis provides a replicable methodological framework and advances understanding of the mechanisms of trade and broader social dynamics within the Indian Ocean world.