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Porcelain shipwreck reveals China past
« on: 2002-04-08 04:33:18 » |
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Porcelain shipwreck reveals China past
Source: Times Online
Authors: Allegra Stratton
Dated: 2002-04-08
THE discovery of 11,500 pieces of 15th-century Chinese porcelain in a shipwreck off the coast of the Philippines has forced archaeologists to reconsider trade routes and may reveal new information about the end of Chinese trading.
The discovery of the 75ft Chinese junk of the Ming dynasty near the town of Santa Cruz suggests that the inhabitants of the northern Philippines were rich enough to afford the finest quality ceramics. Previously it had been thought that the trade, which started in around 500BC, had been only in cheap wares.
The discovery was made in April last year by fishermen. Franck Goddio, the archaeologist who excavated Napoleon’s 1798 fleet, began excavation in June in an operation that was kept secret for fear of pirates. After two and a half months, with the porcelain recovered, the 80per cent of the hull that survived was covered in mud and sand to protect it.
Most of the porcelain was intact, protected by careful packing and deposits of fine coral sand over the past 500 years. It is now being held at the National Museum of the Philippines. Experts said that similar Ming porcelain from a shipwreck was sold last year for prices ranging from £30 to £30,000.
The Ming dynasty Chinese were great sailors, but at the end of the 15th century, about the time of the Santa Cruz wreck, the nation turned inward, shunning foreign contact and banning the building of ocean-going vessels. Archaeologists hope that this wreck, coming at the end of the trading period, may give information about this policy reversal.
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