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History's Hinge - 'Ain Jalut

[Jesus of Lubeck]

Hello Bahama and Greetings to Administrator,

I was just now able to view your new post (B5) and have to say that Administrator was kind enough to point us in the right direction.  It is very likely you have a West African bronze cast using the lost wax technique.  The following comments are predicated on the assumption that B5 is a small artifact.  Are you able, by the way, to tell us anything about the size and if the underside of the base of the artifact is flat or if a prong is present?

I can tell you something more about B5 and someone with the correct permissions might be able to do a better job getting a larger, higher resolution image, than the one I uploaded here.

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco contains a solitary example of what its collection describes as an amulet of Ivorian (Ivory Coast) provenance [item: 1990.40.8] In the SF example, which I have posted, there are two figures cast in bronze in what one might describe primitive or rough workmanship.  It is difficult to tell the size of B5, however, it illustrates strong stylistic affinities to the Ivorian amulet. The Ivorian artifact is very small � approximately 5.4cm across the base.  The Ivorian amulet is 20th  century and is not as well executed as B5.  As is becoming Bahama�s habit, the artifact type is rare and not particularly well-documented. There is more about the figures in B5 to consider, but I am pressed for time, unfortunately and will have to post on that area of the discussion later if there is interest.  Two points perhaps worth considering: the Ivorian amulet does not utilize spear and shield in its design and the presence of this weapon suite in B5 may suggest that the object dates to a period when firearms were not in wide-spread use in West Africa (outside of royal units).  Second, there is a strong tradition of matrilinial power among West African culture groups.  In the artistic representation and cultural traditions of this area, it is not unusual to see powerful female forms represented with items associated with male power, such as weaponry. 

It is important to note that this type of amulet, if B5 is such an object, was a piece of utilitarian spiritual technology endowed with a power to ward off evil or protect against certain specific situations.  The production and casting of this type of object was attended by a rather serious set of spiritual rituals of major importance to the power endowed to the amulet.

For the moment, it is difficult to say more about the vessel that carried these artifacts other than to admit that the crew was multi-ethnic and was drawn by choice or by force from the shores of wide geographical span.

Thank you Administration for the Tobacco link.  Indeed, Bahama, very, very, interesting site you have happened upon.  We all will have to ponder how all of this evidence interrelates.  More later and hope to read from more of HH members.

Again, if someone has better access to image 1990.40.8 or a better example of this type of  artifact, it would be gratifying to study a better photo.

Best Regards,

Lubby

[Administration]

Greetings Lubby, Bart and Bahama,

My hypothesis - made merely on casual judgments - is that these artefacts came from a single ship, either Portuguese or with Portuguese cargo, following a sea route from India (possibly Goa), to coastal West Africa (possibly Benin), delivering slaves to the Americas. (There was massive exportation of slaves to Brazil in the 17th century.)

I think we have an Indian brass box associated with tobacco, and bronzework typical of West Africa. To go further than this would, I think, require both archaeological study of the context and expert study of the artefacts.

[Jesus of Lubeck]

Hello Administration, Bahama, and Bart,

I would have to agree with Administration's succinct and well-directed casual judgments.  Much depends on the fragile matrix of the context of the wrecksite and the nuances of the relationship between this context and the artifacts - fascinating as they are in themselves.  To venture beyond Administration's casual hypothesis at our far remove would serve little practical purpose.  A professional expert on the scene would serve you efforts supremely at this point (and perhaps one already is).

Best Regards,

Lubby

[bahamawrecker]

Thanks everybody,
attached one more picture of B5, on it you can see the hand holding it. This gives an idea about its size.
The next picture, an elephant, B6, still from the same site, seems to be of the same origin.

There are a few more artifacts, of which I will post pictures in the coming days.

About the wreck site:

We found this site 17 years ago. For many years we have tried to obtain a permit from the local government to excavate the site and to open a museum where we could tell the story of the ship, its travels and final sinking, and all the other fascinating stories that this shipwreck could tell us. 
We never received a permit, so this site has been sleeping ever since.
Probably Hurricanes and shipping have taken their toll, but for sure there is still a fascinating wreck site well worth excavating.
Unless, of course, if a harbor wall or a Marina has been built on top of it.

So here is my question:

How should we proceed about this wreck site?

Bahamawrecker

[Bart]

How should you proceed?

From the artifacts alone, it appears to me that the site is worth more attemps to have it excavated. The answer of how best to proceed, or not, may well depend upon which country you are referring to.

Some questions which you need to clarify for yourself - Must it be you/your team who proceeds, or are you willing to allow someone else to proceeed and excavate? Often enough, public pressure can be utilized in your favor, and that may necessitate some public education first. One of the most powerful tools in your favor are the artifacts you already posess. Document and publicize what you have done already, and let it be known what you wish to do now.

What were the reasons for not issuing an excavation permit, if any were given? How has the situation changed since 17 years ago? More information would help us in better answering the question more specifically.

Bart

[Jesus of Lubeck]

Hello Bahama, Bart, and Administration,

My home desktop system has gone to the Happy Hunting Ground- too much writing?  In any event, I will have limited access to the HH Website for a day or two.  Bahama - really wonderful finds.  Thank you again for sharing.  I have more information on tobacco in 17th century India which I hope to post.  The West African (Bight of Benin) bronzes are also historically interesting.

I agree with Bart and also suggest that you look to see if any University has longstanding and ongoing archaeological field operatons in the country in question.  Usually the University and the project or program archaeologist(s) have the necessary relationships with the local Ministry of Culture to propose undertaking excavation projects that add to the cultural heritage of the country where the site is located.

Again, if I appear to slow down on posting comments, it is only due to a technical problem not lack of interest.

Best Regards,

Lubby

[Administration]

I spent quite some time in the Benin area (80s and 90s) specifically to study that culture and built quite a collection of their bronzes. Perhaps I will post on this separately.

Future progress
Bart and Lubby gives good advice. It is possible (even usual) for university archaeologists to work initially in strict confidence - they are keen to protect a site from looting. Some are also used to working with non-archaeologists, especially in excavation.

If there is no local university with the needed requirements, then I can refer you to an institution or two who may be interested in taking this forward with you. Contacting Yellowboat via email could also be useful.

Cheers!

[bahamawrecker]

Thanks, Bart, Lubby and Administration,
It is wonderful to get your help.

We would love to get help for the excavation of this shipwreck. Actually there are 2 shipwrecks that sank together. We have a lot of historic information about the other one, but only just one statement about this one, where it says that it came from the Indian Ocean.
We never got a refusal from the government about the excavation, just no interest and a merry run around for several years, until we gave up. The government was fully informed about the shipwreck in their harbor 17 years ago but has not done anything about it.

The shipwreck being in the harbor, in view of everybody, no work can be done without everybody knowing it.
This means that, once started, all work has to be executed diligently, without interruption, otherwise the site will get plundered.

We would like to be involved in a scientifically organized excavation of the site and retain the publishing rights for ourself.
Similar to the "Mary Rose" project, we would like the sport diving community given a chance to participate in the field work, as well as other volunteers help for cataloging and preservation of the artifacts.
We would like to be able to build a museum where we could let the shipwrecks tell their story.

Please feel free to ask questions.


Additional information

The wreck site:

The site lies within the protected waters of a harbor.
The bottom is clay, sand and mud.
No part of the shipwreck is visible above the mud.
Visibility in the water is a few feet at most, but often only inches or nil.
Maximum depth is 50 feet.

The island where the harbor lies, changed hands several times over the centuries.
The harbor was sometimes a busy commercial hub, where trade of every kind, including slave trade, flourished.
It is also known to be a place where pirates could sell their ill gotten goods without many questions asked.
Among other pirates, Captain Kidd is supposed to have sold some of his plunder there.

As far as we know, no salvage has been done in modern times, but it seems that some cannon were removed after the ship sank.
The only intervention we did ourselves, was to swim over the bottom with metal detectors. When the detector indicated we dug with our hands to reach the artifact. All artifacts that were perishable were buried again.
The few artifacts that we removed to enable us to identify the wreck site, are the ones shown here.

Attached, artifact B-7, still from the same site.

Bahamawrecker

[Bart]

Bahama;

" We never got a refusal from the government about the excavation, just no interest and a merry run around for several years, until we gave up. "

There could be several reasons for this... no money to start or be involved in such a project, no means or capability of performing such a project, no comprehensive plan was given them on how the excavation was to be carried out, or a combination of all of them. A different  approach is now required, it seems to me. Put together a presentation/plan as best as you can and approach a third party, as suggested, until you find someone interested enough to move forward with it.

" We would like to be involved in a scientifically organized excavation of the site and retain the publishing rights for ourself. "

Certainly your experience is just that, your experience, and no one can take that from you. Access to data may need to be written into any agreement you make, if you need to have it for your book. Or you will need to make provision to document everything that you are involved in in order to create your own data.

In the B-7jpg, I see what appears to be a thin leather strap over the left shoulder of the dancer, with a buckle? high up on the arm. Is anything attached to this strap, hanging at the right hip? It is a very detailed object, and appears to be cast.

"Indian brass box associated with tobacco"

This seems to be a bit early for tobacco, but that possibility remains.

Bart

[bahamawrecker]

Bart,
Thank you for the reply.
Attached B-7b the dancer from behind.
Well, many years have passed. We have found other extremely interesting sites in the mean time.
However, this site does have a special attraction and I really would love to have another go at it. But age has slowed me down quite a bit. I could only face the huge enterprise if I find 
enough help.
This is what made me think of a group of volunteers who make it their joint effort.
Probably the right kind of proposal would be welcome to the government today, although I am not sure if this site, being situated in dirty, poor visibility water will be received with great excitement.
Time will tell...

[Bart]

I think if you find a young, enthusiastic group with the right mind-set, it may happen yet. Would it be possible for an ROV to do some of the work there, in your opinion?

I was hoping the dancer would have a small brass container attached to the leather strap. :-)

Bart

[Bart]

Scientists Take Underwater Robot On Black Sea Expedition

Science Daily � Using a novel underwater robot, University of Delaware marine scientists will help reveal the mysteries of the Black Sea's geology and maritime history, including ages-old shipwrecks, during an international expedition that is now underway.

Using a novel underwater robot, UD marine scientists will help reveal the mysteries of the Black Sea's geology and maritime history, including ages-old shipwrecks, during an international expedition that is now underway. (Credit: Jon Cox)

The Institute for Exploration and the Institute for Archaeological Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography are leading the mission, which will conduct geological and archaeological research in the Aegean and Black Seas--waterways that have served as major trade routes for centuries.

Robert Ballard, professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, and president of the Institute for Exploration, is the principal investigator on the research cruise, which will include a multidisciplinary team of scientists from several nations.

�This is a truly exciting expedition that will shed light on important geological features in the Mediterranean while also uncovering vital information about ancient trade routes and the maritime history of the Black Sea,� Ballard said.

Perhaps best known for locating the sunken ocean liner Titanic in 1985, Ballard has received numerous honors for scientific research and public education. He was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree by UD in 2001.

Last year, in partnership with the Department of Underwater Heritage in Ukraine, Ballard's research team located numerous shipwrecks in the Black Sea, including a vessel from the Byzantine period that will be revisited and explored during this expedition.

The research vessel NRV Alliance will serve as the scientists' home, lab and the platform from which remotely operated vehicles with high-definition cameras will be deployed to provide high-resolution images of the deep.

From the Ukrainian research vessel Flamingo, Art Trembanis, UD assistant professor of marine and Earth studies, and graduate students Adam Skarke and Stephanie Nebel, together with colleagues from the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire and Ballard's own team, will operate the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) DOERRI (pronounced �Dory�), which stands for �Delaware Oceanographic and Environmental Research Remote Instrument.�

�My students and I are tremendously honored to be participating in this unprecedented project,� Trembanis said. �We are working with a real pioneer in the field of ocean exploration--a hero and mentor to an entire generation of marine scientists, myself included,� he noted.

The 83-inch-long, 240-pound DOERRI, which Trembanis designed, will map the seafloor of the Black Sea off Sevastopol, Ukraine, on missions up to 14 hours long and to depths of approximately 200 meters (656 feet).

�As a child, I remember waking up early on Saturday mornings not to watch cartoons, but to catch the latest National Geographic Explorer episode that Dr. Ballard might be hosting, and now I find myself fulfilling a childhood dream to work alongside Dr. Ballard and his expert team of researchers. It is truly exciting,� Trembanis said.

The DOERRI carries a sophisticated sensor system including devices to measure salinity, temperature and oxygen levels and two types of advanced sonar systems for mapping the seafloor. Multiple computers and safety features work in tandem to keep the systems operating, and to safely return the vehicle back to the ship at the end of each day.

In many ways, DOERRI may serve as the scientists' �agent into the unknown� much like the AUV's namesake, the cartoon fish �Dory,� did in the Disney film Finding Nemo.

�Just like her eponymous namesake, we hope that DOERRI will be a finder of lost things,� Trembanis said. �We hope DOERRI will provide unrivaled data that will allow us to discover very ancient shipwrecks, previously unknown, on the Black Sea floor,� he noted. �Along the way, DOERRI will also give us new insights into the dynamics of dissolved oxygen and internal waves that help to shape and mold the seafloor.�

Shipwrecks in the Black Sea often are remarkably well-preserved due to the waterway's chemistry. Nearly 90 percent of the Black Sea is a no-oxygen �dead zone,� where only a few bacteria live.

�At depths beyond 150 meters, the Black Sea is not unlike a giant natural bell jar from which life-supporting oxygen has been entirely removed,� Trembanis said.

A major advantage of AUVs like DOERRI, Trembanis said, is that they allow researchers to literally become more immersed in the marine environment.

�By severing the cord to the surface, we become more a part of the environment we are studying because we can approach things just as a curious fish might do,� Trembanis said. �In real terms, the AUV provides capabilities to get below the influence of surface conditions and get closer to the features on the seafloor we wish to study without actually touching or disturbing anything around us. Furthermore, we can ask the robot to do critical but perhaps monotonous tasks over and over again--tasks that give us great scientific data, but tasks that would seem boring to human operators.�

Locally, DOERRI has been used in a variety of research in Delaware's coastal waters, including nearshore areas of Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean and in Delaware's Inland Bays.

While this will be the DOERRI's farthest trip from home so far, it likely will not be its last. Trembanis said the leading-edge robot already is scheduled for another international mission, to explore the coral reefs off Bonaire, early next year.

The expedition is supported by NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration, the Office of Naval Research and the Richard Lounsbery Foundation. Participating institutions include the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, University of Texas, Institute for Classical Archaeology, Naval Meteorological and Oceanography Command, University of Delaware, University of Massachusetts at Boston, University of New Hampshire and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of Delaware.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070815173122.htm

[Jesus of Lubeck]

Hello Administration, Bart, and Bahama,

Here are some brief comments on the spread of the cultivation and trade in tobacco in 17th century India.

As Administration noted with respect to Africa in a previous post, the Spanish and Portuguese are likely to have introduced the cultivation and smoking of nicotinia tabacum to Asia.  Primary sources indicate that tobacco first came to the Indian subcontinent in Iberian vessels in the last years of the 16th century.

Scholars note that tobacco is nowhere mentioned in the Ain-i-Akbari, the administrative compendium of the court chronicler for the Moghal ruler Akbar (1556-1605).  This suggests that tobacco was not a major portion of the Moghal tax base during this reign.  Akbar, however, was aware of and introduced to tobacco, although he appears to never have taken smoking up as a habit.

It was during the reign of Akbar�s successor, Jahangir (1605-1627) that tobacco cultivation and use becomes widely documented in the historical record.  Because it is likely that Bahama�s artifacts relate to the late 17th century, further comments will concentrate on Indian tobacco during this period.

As a primary source for the tobacco trade in India in the 17th century, the Factory Records of the English East India Company are the most accessible due to the convenience of having been written in English (if one is familiar with the paleography).  From these records scholars have identified two major centers of Indian tobacco cultivation.  In western India Gujarat, utilizing Surat as a major market and port city, was the leading producing center during the 17th century.  This western Indian tobacco market also exported the product to Gombroon and other ports on the Indian Ocean-Red Sea-Persian Gulf littoral.

Along India�s eastern coast, Andhra developed as the major 17th century tobacco-growing region.  The chief port in this area was Masulipatam in the kingdom of Golkanda.  This is a general snapshot of the 17th century Indian tobacco economy, so it should be understood that a significant amount of tobacco was grown in a wide range of areas across India.  English factors report finding quantities of tobacco as far south as Madras.  The southern Indian tobacco did find its way to the Sind area and Goa, however, the bulk of the southern export product was transported to Achin in Sumatra and thence into Java.

Also of note is that with the English occupation of Bombay (now Mbai) after 1665 resulted in an explosion of tobacco revenues accruing to the English in that area.

Of possible interest to Bahama and readers interested in the Indian artifacts he was gracious enough to present for our viewing are the comments of historian B.G. Gokhale on the influence of tobacco on other aspects of Indian industry.  Dr. Gokhale writes:

Tobacco also stimulated two other industries, metalware and pottery.  The two principal means of smoking tobacco were the hookah and the chilim.  The hookah is an elaborate contraption in three parts.  One is the metal bowl which acts as the tobacco burner and perches atop the stem connecting it with the other part, a metal bowel filled wit water.  Finally there is the stiff or flexible tubing surmounted with a mouthpiece through which the smoke is drawn from the top of the bowel and through the water container.  The aristocrats fancied highly-worked and decorated metal bowels and water containers which provided employment for the hundreds of metal workers.  The aristocrats also sported decorated metal boxes which held tobacco plugs in satisfactory moisture.  These became additional items for the metal and jewelry workers to manufacture.  The poorer folk used burners and water-bowels of clay from which the more plebeian chilim was also made.  The chilim was a short pipe with a wide opening, a tapering cylindrical body with a narrow mouthpiece which was covered with a cloth while smoking.  Thousands of such chilims provided an additional business for the potter [end quote]

Thus, during the 17th century between the reigns of the Moghal emperors Jahangir 1605-1627) and Aurangzeb (1658-1707) � whose reign would be of particular interest to Bahama � tobacco cultivation and smoking wrought a massive transformation on the material culture of India and the utilitarian objects surrounding the culture of tobacco use.

I have uploaded a portrait of Aurangzeb and a very fine example of an Islamic hookah bottle from the 18th century to illustrate the level of metalwork characteristic of such objects used by the elite classes of Moghal society.

I would love to write on B-7 and have a post on south Indian bronze and lost-wax casting ready to go if it is of any interest.  I heartily agree with Bart that B-7 is a very well executed bronze cast using the lost-wax method and clay forms.

I would very much benefit from Administration�s intent to share the Benin post with HH and will put in a vote in strong favor of that.

My computer will be up and running on Saturday, much to my relief.

Work consulted for these comments:

B. G. Gokhale
Tobacco in Seventeenth-Century India
Agricultural History, Vol. 48, No. 4. (Oct., 1974), pp. 484-492.


Best Regards,

Lubby

[bahamawrecker]

Thanks Bart for the feedback.
The site being in the protected water of a harbor and shallow, it presents little problems for the divers, except of the mud. Any little disturbance produces a great cloud of mud that reduces the visibility. This gives a robot little chance. For a diver, it takes some time to learn how to avoid stirring up the mud and how to work in spite of the reduced visibility. It becomes more of a feeling matter than a seeing matter.

Lubby,
Fantastic research, many thanks. Please continue with your very useful contributions. I think you are on the right track. There appears to be a strong Indian connection.

Administration,
thanks for the feedback. I would love to see more information about African bronze casting, since it seems that we have a part of the artifacts coming from Africa.

Again many thanks for all the help

Bahamawrecker
 

[Jesus of Lubeck]

Hello Bart, Bahama, and Administration,

In the face of Bahama�s increased posting of artifacts and my own small technical problem, we advanced without discussing B2, the fluted cylindrical container.  While I was again astonished to see that you found a bronze or copper alloy Indian statue, it is still worth discussing the utilitarian brass objects (B1 and B2) a bit before moving onto the very beautiful and dramatic (B7).  Keep in mind that these comments only pertain to the lost-wax process utilized in the artistic traditions of Asia and Oceania.

B1 and B2 allow the comparison of two examples of the container metalwork present in Bahama�s assemblage, it has already been suggested that the method by which these objects were formed was through lost-wax casting.  It has also been observed that B7 was produced using the same process.  However, while there is a general similarity in process between these three pieces, there is an equally great divergence with respect to craftsmanship and technique.  B1 has been the subject of several posts, so these observations will start with B2, the fluted hinged cylinder. 

The really interesting characteristic of this artifact, at least from one point of view, is that its form represents a synthesis of one of the most basic and elemental shapes found in lost-wax (cire perdue) casting in almost every area of the world where cultures practice this art.  This basic shape is that of the bell.  In the case of B2, the object�s design appears to have resulted from casting and combining two bell-shaped pieces and hinging them together.  B2 also possesses some distinctive clasp loops that evoke basic but rigorously practiced lost-wax technique.

Here is a brief field report excerpted from American ethnographer Fay-Cooper Cole�s observations of the traditional lost-wax casting techniques practiced on the island of Mindanao.  Cole was an assistant curator of Malayan ethnology and had accompanied the  R. F. Cummings Philippine expedition (1906-1909).  I have included Cole�s figures from the 1913 published report of the expedition that show the steps of constructing casts for small brass or copper bells.  Of particular interest is the form of the hooks or loops which appear similar in some respects to those present on Bahama�s (B2) artifact.

Cole:

Among the men, as with the women, certain industries are monopolized by a few individuals. In this community no men stand higher in the estimation of their fellows than do the smiths and the casters of copper. The writer spent many hours watching I-o, the brass and copper worker of Cibolan, while he shaped bells, bracelets, and betel boxes at his forge on the outskirts of the village (Plate XXVII). Feathered plungers, which worked up and down in two bamboo cylinders, forced air through a small clay-tipped tube into a charcoal fire. This served as a bellows, while a small cup made of straw ashes formed an excellent crucible. The first day I watched I-o, he was making bells. Taking a ball of wax the size of a bucket shot, he put it on the end of a stick (Fig. 26a), and over this moulded the form of a bell in damp ashes obtained from rice straw (b). When several bells were thus fashioned they were dipped in melted wax and were turned on a leaf until smooth, after which an opening was cut through the wax at the bottom of each form (c). Strips of wax were rolled out and laid in shallow grooves which had been cut in the sides of the bells and were pressed in, at intervals, with a small bamboo knife (d). The top stick was then withdrawn, leaving an opening down to the wax ball inside. Into this hole a thin strip of wax was inserted and was doubled back on itself so as to form a hanger (e). For three days the forms were allowed to harden and were covered with several coats of damp straw ashes. Finally they were laid in a bed of the same material with a thin strip of wax leading from each bell to a central core (f). [FIG. 26] The whole, with the exception of the top of the central wax strip, was covered with a thick coating of damp ashes, and when this had hardened pieces of copper, secured from broken gongs, were placed in the crucible, melted and poured into the open end of the clay form. The molten metal took the place of the wax as it was dissolved and flowed to all parts where it had been. After being dropped in water the form was broken open, revealing six nearly perfect little bells which were ready for use as soon as the ashes were removed from them. The same method was used for all other casting. Clay forms were made as desired, were covered with wax, and the final coating of ashes applied before the casting. The workers in copper and brass are under the care and guidance of a spirit, Tolus ka towangan, for whom they make a yearly ceremony, Gomek towangan.

[I have uploaded Cole's illustration of the Davao clay bell mould as well as a detail of the forming of the wax bell shapes below]

Cole�s notation of I-O�s method describes the lost wax casting practice of a tribal group who appear to have retained their indigenous technique and customary forms with little or no outside cultural influence. The bells fashioned by I-O on Mindanao are basic and their outer surface is smooth and without decorative motif.  Bahama�s pieces represent something altogether different, although much of the basic technique is the same.

B2, if cast from the lost wax process, is the result of a technique more advanced but founded upon the methodology recorded by Cole.  Given that B1 and B2 were produced by shaping wax and creating a clay mould around this wax model, the ultimate cast metal object tells art historians and archaeologists a great deal about the artisan�s (and perhaps the culture�s) approach to clay modeling.  Of key importance is whether the clay model shows signs of incised or relief work in the execution of design motif.  Scholars continue to debate this subject, however, the basic line of approach is that cultures with a strong tradition of carving or working stone favor relief designs in the motifs related to decorating the clothing and other details found in the clay mold.  Conversely, cultures with a strong tradition working in ceramic arts tend to favor incised decorative motifs in the clay mould used for lost-wax casting.   Much of this relief vs. incised debate has dealt with the classification of the high-end bronze casting related to objects like B7.  Not much work appears to have been done with classifying utilitarian objects.  I have some reservations about the general points made above, particularly in the case of India and Southeast Asia where artisans from different social levels and cultural areas often worked within the same urban setting or geographical region.  Caution should be the watchword.  Nevertheless, here is an excerpt from a discussion on the International Gupta style and its relevance to the underlying clay technique found in the lost-wax moulds.

Sherman E. Lee, a scholar of Javanese art, believes that the tendency to utilize incised decorative patterns in lost wax casting is a trait characteristic of southern India and the Indonesian archipelago.  Lee�s comments are focused on the high-end bronze casting associated with Buddhist and Hindu statuary.  Objects as small and as utilitarian as Bahama�s appear to have not received the same level of scholarly attention.  However, what Lee goes on to write may have general importance to our topic:
These characteristics [incised decoration and plasticity]�are related to modeling in clay rather than carving in stone, and are arrived at not only because the original modeling was done in a wax or clay medium, but through the influence of a terracotta style found over much of the geographic area with which we are concerned [Java] (Lee, p. 277).

So when analyzing Bahama�s B1 and B2 artifacts, it is immediately apparent that B1, our tobacco associated container, follows an incised decorative technique in the crafting of the original clay mold, B2, with its fundamental two-bells form, also appears to rely on incised motif in order to create its fluted design.  This decorative approach to the preparation of the clay moulds for B1 and B2 differs significantly from the technique employed the maker of B7�s clay mould.

These are, of course, comments made at first blush, and the very nature of these artifacts makes classification difficult, but these are some characteristics to bear in mind as Bahama�s finds begin to speak.  B7 is unusually interesting in this regard and I hope a post on that artifact will be welcome.  Also, the above post is not an attempt to assign a specific geographic provenance to the artifacts; only a discussion of artistic techniques and influences.

Works consulted for these comments:

FAY-COOPER COLE
Assistant Curator of Malayan Ethnology

THE WILD TRIBES OF DAVAO DISTRICT, MINDANAO

FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY.
PUBLICATION 170. ANTHROPOLOGICAL SERIES VOL. XII, No. 2.
The R. F. Cummings Philippine Expedition
GEORGE A. DORSEY Curator, Department of Anthropology CHICAGO, U. S. A.
September, 1913

Sherman E. Lee
An Early Javanese Bronze, the Gupta International Style and Clay Technique Artibus Asiae, Vol. 19, No. 3/4. (1956), pp. 271-278.

Best Regards,
Lubby