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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Any Jewelry, post: 10208762, member: 2844&quot;]Jannie&#039;s shard is stoneware, not porcelain. Stoneware means it was utilitarian ware, of which thousands of pieces were shipped along the coast of South Africa.</p><p>Chinese porcelain was shipped around the Cape etc as well, on its way to the Netherlands, but we are talking stoneware here. It is likely that it came from a Dutch or Portuguese ship that was supplied with fresh water and food in one of the Asian ports on its return voyage from East Asia.</p><p><br /></p><p>Arab and Persian traders have been trading with China and SE Asia for thousands of years. But as far as I know they never visited the Cape or the west coast of South Africa, where this piece was found.</p><p>Africa is huge, with a great diversity of cultures. The African kingdoms you heard about must have been the Arab influenced kingdoms in West and East Africa. Some of those were indeed in Mali, but all were very far from South Africa.</p><p>Part of East Africa was colonised by Oman, which had its royal seat in Zanzibar for some time. But again, Zanzibar is far from South Africa.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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