The Belitung Shipwreck
Precious Metal Cargo and Global Trade in Medieval Asia
Location
Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall
Date & Time
March 28, 2018, 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Description
Scholar and curator John Guy explores the unique
insights that shipwreck archaeology can bring to our understanding of
historical trade and exchange. This unprecedented ensemble of late Tang
dynasty ceramics, gold and silver, discovered in the Belitung shipwreck,
throws light on both Chinese arts of the period and those of the
Abbasids in the Persian Gulf, the intended clients for this ill-fated
cargo which sank in the Java Sea in the early ninth century.
John Guy is the Florence and Herbert Irving Curator of the Arts of South and Southeast Asia at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and an elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London, and of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He was formerly Senior Curator of South Asia at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, has served as an advisor to UNESCO on historical sites in Southeast Asia, and worked on a number of maritime excavations in Southeast Asia, most recently a circa 800 CE Arab dhow in the Gulf of Thailand. He has curated numerous international exhibitions and contributed to many publications, including journals, edited volumes and exhibition catalogues. Major books include Lost Kingdoms. Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia (2014), Interwoven Globe. The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500-1800 (co-author, 2013), Wonder of the Age: Master Painters of India (co-author, 2011), Shipwrecked. Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds (co-editor 2010), Indian Temple Sculpture (2007, repr. 2017), Woven Cargoes. Indian Textiles in the East (1998; repr. 2009), Vietnamese Ceramics: A Separate Tradition (Chicago 1997), Indian Art and Connoisseurship (1995), and Ceramic Traditions of Southeast Asia (1989).
John Guy is the Florence and Herbert Irving Curator of the Arts of South and Southeast Asia at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and an elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London, and of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He was formerly Senior Curator of South Asia at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, has served as an advisor to UNESCO on historical sites in Southeast Asia, and worked on a number of maritime excavations in Southeast Asia, most recently a circa 800 CE Arab dhow in the Gulf of Thailand. He has curated numerous international exhibitions and contributed to many publications, including journals, edited volumes and exhibition catalogues. Major books include Lost Kingdoms. Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia (2014), Interwoven Globe. The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500-1800 (co-author, 2013), Wonder of the Age: Master Painters of India (co-author, 2011), Shipwrecked. Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds (co-editor 2010), Indian Temple Sculpture (2007, repr. 2017), Woven Cargoes. Indian Textiles in the East (1998; repr. 2009), Vietnamese Ceramics: A Separate Tradition (Chicago 1997), Indian Art and Connoisseurship (1995), and Ceramic Traditions of Southeast Asia (1989).
