Journeys Along the Silk Route: Chinese Bronze Mirrors in the Java Sea

Cultural and commercial maritime activity via the Silk route between China and the western Indian Ocean was confirmed with the underwater discovery of the early ninth-century Belitung shipwreck, also known as the Tang or Black Rock (Batu Hitam in Indonesian) shipwreck, in the Java Sea. Alongside its numerous ceramics, metalwares and coins, the shipwreck cargo offers significant archaeological material evidence for the circulation of Chinese bronze mirrors as popular trading goods in the Tang Dynasty (618–907) and Abbasid Caliphate’s (750–1258) trade markets. Scholars have argued that the meanings, uses and features of Han-era (202 BC–220 CE) and Tang-era bronze mirrors together inspired early Islamic bronze mirrors whose production developed and extended into the medieval period. Might the popularity of Chinese bronze mirrors, like those found in the Belitung wreck, as imported, exclusive material objects have paved the way for the local production of bronze mirrors in the medieval Islamic world?