Interpretive Challenges in Island Southeast Asia’s Early Maritime Networks: Based on Chinese Texts and Mediterranean Artefacts

Krisztina Hoppál1*, Bérénice Bellina2, Harry Octavianus Sofian3, Shinatria Adhityatama4, and Laure Dussubieux5

Research on Mediterranean contacts with Island Southeast Asia has increasingly relied on isolated finds and textual allusions, yet both categories require a more critical analytical framework. This paper reassesses Indonesia’s role within early maritime networks by examining two interrelated types of evidence, selected for their relevance in reconstructing long-distance connectivity: pre-5th-century Chinese accounts and Mediterranean-identified archaeological materials. Chinese textual references to regions associated with present-day Indonesia provide essential testimony but pose substantial interpretative challenges. Their retrospective compilation, schematic geography, and ideologically inflected descriptions require analysis as culturally constructed representations rather than straightforward historical records. The material evidence presents similarly complex challenges. Certain Mediterranean-identified objects demonstrably arrived in Indonesia long after antiquity, highlighting the risks of equating non-local artefacts with ancient trade. In other cases, traditional archaeological methods are insufficient to establish provenance, particularly for artefacts with simple morphologies, making compositional analyses essential. This raises further questions about whether Roman origin – if confirmed – had any significance within the receiving communities. In addition to reassessing these evidential categories, this paper also addresses a broader and often overlooked issue: the apparent absence of early Mediterranean materials in Indonesia compared to their documented presence in other parts of South and Southeast Asia. By combining source criticism with contextualised material analysis, it proposes a renewed interpretative framework for understanding how Mediterranean-interpreted evidence from Indonesia is classified, contextualised, and mobilised within broader regional narratives.