On the morning of March 2, the largest overall salvage and protection project of an ancient shipwreck in the mainland, the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 Ancient Ship Archaeology and Cultural Relics Protection Project, was officially launched in Shanghai, lifting the mystery that the ancient ship had been sealed for nearly eight years since its discovery. This is also the world's first project of archaeological excavation, overall relocation, cultural relics protection and museum construction and display.
Archaeological finds
Shanghai, since ancient times, has been the starting point and one of the important ports of the Maritime Silk Road, and has risen rapidly at the beginning of modern times, becoming a well-known international metropolis and a major port in the world. The Yangtze River estuary in Shanghai is at the mouth of the Yangtze River's "golden waterway" and the central point of China's north-south coastline. Throughout the ages, on this busy route and in the complex waters, there have been countless underwater treasures and unsolved mysteries.
According to the overall deployment of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage has launched a census of underwater cultural heritage since 2011, and collected more than 150 clues to underwater cultural relics in the waters of the Yangtze River Estuary through land surveys and visits, access to literature and other means. However, in this water where visibility is almost zero, the exploration of underwater cultural heritage is like finding a needle in a haystack. For a long time, the muddy water environment has been the bottleneck of the development of underwater archaeology in China, especially in the waters of the Yangtze River Estuary in Shanghai. To this end, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage organized archaeologists and scientific and technological workers from the Shanghai Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Research Center, Shanghai University, the Ningbo Base for the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage and other institutions to carry out cross-border cooperation, jointly tackled key problems, independently developed the "Underwater Imaging Device for Muddy Waters" that won the national patent, developed the "Key Technologies and Applications of Robot Underwater Archaeological Equipment" that won the second prize of the Shanghai Science and Technology Award, and used unmanned boats, multi-beam, side-sweep sonar, shallow stratigraph profilers and magnetometers and other marine geophysical surveying and scanning equipment , to carry out underwater joint surveys of the waters of the Yangtze River estuary.
Kung Fu pays off. In 2015, when the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics organized the Shanghai Municipal Cultural Relics Protection and Research Center to carry out a key underwater archaeological survey in the Chongming Hengsha waters at the mouth of the Yangtze River, a relatively well-preserved iron shipwreck was found through sonar scanning and other technologies, and the archaeological number was "Yangtze River Estuary No. 1". After underwater archaeological diving exploration, it was confirmed that the shipwreck was an iron warship of the Republic of China period. Subsequently, archaeologists expanded the scope of surveying and exploration, and found another large and well-preserved wooden ancient shipwreck in the north of the shipwreck, the archaeological number is "Yangtze River Estuary No. 2". Since then, the prelude to decoding the no. 2 ancient ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River has been opened.
Underwater probing
In order to further understand the nature and age of the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship, under the great attention and specific guidance of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, since 2016, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage has taken the lead in organizing the Archaeological Research Center of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Shanghai Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Research Center, the Ningbo Base and Wuhan Base for the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, the Shanghai Salvage Bureau of the Ministry of Transport, Shanghai University, the Fuzhou Municipal Cultural Relics and Archaeology Task Force and other domestic professional institutions to conduct underwater archaeological exploration and multidisciplinary research on the shipwreck site every year. After more than six years of underwater archaeological investigation and exploration, the basic situation of the No. 2 ancient ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River has been preliminarily explored.
The Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship is a wooden sailing vessel, confirmed to be dated to the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty (1862-1875 AD), the water depth of the water is 8-10 meters, the hull is buried in 5.5 meters deep silt, and the horizontal left tilt is about 27 °. The length of the ancient ship is about 38.5 meters, the width of the ship is about 7.8 meters, and 31 cabins have been discovered. The upper part of the wreck has a complete structure, such as the pointed bow, pile, main mast, left and right sides, and upper deck. Judging from the current survey situation, the ancient ship type is suspected to be a flat-bottomed sand boat widely used in Shanghai during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Through the selection of 4 cabins before and after the small-scale cleaning, it was found that there were exquisite cultural relics such as Jingdezhen kiln porcelain that were neatly stacked in the cabin, and there were many types and large numbers of cultural relics that had been completely or repaired. In addition, a large number of cultural relics such as purple sand ware, hookah canisters from Vietnam, wooden bucket fragments, masts, large hardwood ship timber, iron anchors, brown cables, pulleys, metal drill bits, drill pipes and black minerals have been unearthed in and around the hull. From July to September 2021, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage once again organized underwater archaeology professional institutions to conduct an underwater survey of the ancient ship and its surroundings at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and cleaned up large-scale complete vessels such as Yuan Dynasty porcelain and 60 cm high bean blue glaze blue flower vase that had not been found in previous surveys. In particular, some of the ancient ships have a water porcelain bottom book "Tongzhi Year System", which provides an important basis for the dating of ancient ships.
Value significance
The Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship is another milestone major discovery in China's underwater archaeology after the "Nanhai No. 1" shipwreck of the Song Dynasty in Guangdong Province discovered 35 years ago, and is one of the ancient wooden shipwrecks with the largest volume, the most complete preservation and the estimated number of ship-borne cultural relics found in China and even in the world, and is a precious cultural heritage with extremely important historical, scientific and artistic value.
Archaeological work is an important work to display and construct the history of the Chinese nation and the treasures of Chinese civilization. After several generations of archaeologists have continued to struggle, the mainland's archaeological work has made great achievements, extending the historical axis, enhancing historical credibility, enriching historical connotation, and activating historical scenes. The discovery of the No. 2 ancient ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River fully reflects the historical significance and practical role of archaeological work in discussing history with matter and increasing trust with history.
From the national level, the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship has filled an important gap for the discovery of large wooden shipwrecks in this historical period of the mainland; provided important empirical evidence for the study of the "Maritime Silk Road" and the "Golden Waterway" of the Yangtze River; enriched the important connotation of the construction of the "Belt and Road", "Maritime Power" and Yangtze River culture; and added important weight to the joint application for the "Maritime Silk Road".
From the perspective of Shanghai, the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship is a physical witness of modern Shanghai as an east Asian and even world trade and shipping center, enriching the cultural connotation of Shanghai, a national historical and cultural city; increasing cultural self-confidence for Shanghai to strengthen the "four major functions", deepen the construction of "five centers" and enhance the soft power of the city; and to enrich the cultural resources by launching the "Shanghai culture" brand and polishing the "Jiangnan culture" business card.
From an academic point of view, the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship is well preserved and rich in cultural relics on board, which has very important scientific value for the study of shipbuilding history, science and technology history, maritime communication history, ceramic history, economic history and other disciplines in China and even the world.
From a technical point of view, the underwater archaeological work of the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship has made key technological breakthroughs and achievements in the environment of zero visibility, which provides a new method for the global underwater archaeology research in the complex muddy waters of the estuary coast, opens up new ideas, sets a new benchmark for the world's muddy water underwater archaeological technology, and is one of the important symbols of China's underwater archaeology entering the world-class level.
Salvage migration
Underwater archaeological surveys in recent years have shown that the No. 2 ancient ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River has been seriously washed by the current, especially with the change of the flow direction of the Yangtze River estuary, the riverbed has changed from silt to rapid downward cutting, resulting in the acceleration of the ancient ship to expose the surface of the riverbed, and the hull of the ship is facing a serious safety threat.
In order to prevent the natural and man-made destruction of the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship, experts suggest that it is necessary to salvage the water as soon as possible and move it into a fixed place for archaeological excavation, cultural relics protection, research and display and utilization. At present, there are three main ways of salvage of global underwater shipwreck archaeology: one is to extract the cultural relics on the ship and dismantle and salvage the shipwreck; the second is to use the cofferdam to pump water for archaeological excavation and then salvage the shipwreck; the third is the special caisson to salvage the shipwreck, cultural relics and the surrounding seawater and sediment in accordance with the original state of one-time suspension and transportation.
Due to the extremely high turbidity of the estuary of the Yangtze River, the underwater visibility is almost zero, and the working time of the flat tide is very short, it is impossible to complete the scientific underwater archaeological mapping and photography operations; the time and cost of underwater archaeology and the construction of the cofferdam are huge, and the archaeology after the cofferdam will obstruct the waterway for a long time. Overall salvage, on the other hand, can migrate shipwrecks in the shortest time, at the lowest cost, and with the greatest retention of historical information. Therefore, after fully listening to the opinions of experts, assessing the risks faced by the shipwreck, comprehensively analyzing the three archaeological and protection methods, and reporting to the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage decided to adopt the overall salvage method of the No. 2 ancient ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River to protect this precious underwater cultural heritage to the greatest extent.
In October 2021, the General Office of the State Council issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Protection of Cultural Relics and Scientific and Technological Innovation", which included the No. 2 ancient ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River in China as a major project in underwater archaeology in China. This is the second time after 15 years that the mainland has carried out a holistic salvage of underwater ancient shipwrecks. Previously, the "Nanhai No. 1" was salvaged as a whole in December 2007, causing a sensation in the world.
How to formulate the most scientific, safest and most efficient overall salvage plan for the yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship and its surrounding environment? The Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics, together with the Shanghai Salvage Bureau of the Ministry of Transport and other professional institutions, has carried out research and repeatedly analyzed and learned from the overall salvage experience of Guangdong's "Nanhai No. 1". Due to the high sediment content and fast water flow speed at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the overall salvage method of "Nanhai No. 1" could not be used for the salvage of the underwater ship.
To this end, the Shanghai Salvage Bureau of the Ministry of Transport, which is responsible for the salvage task of the ancient ship, organized a scientific research team to carry out joint research and adopted the world's first technical solution - "arc beam non-contact cultural relics overall migration technology" to salvage this ancient shipwreck. Previously, the Shanghai Salvage Bureau had successfully completed the offshore equal proportion salvage test using the technology in January this year.
At that time, 22 giant "arc beams" will be driven by the top-entry transmitter frame, forming a huge arc-shaped caisson at the bottom of the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship, the caisson is 51 meters long, 19 meters wide and 9 meters high, which can wrap the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship and its attached thick sediment and seawater "dripping without leaking", plus the weight of the salvage equipment itself, the total weight of the caisson is nearly 10,000 tons. This technology especially combines the processing technology of nuclear power arc beam, tunnel shield boring technology, immersed pipe tunnel docking technology, and the use of hydraulic synchronous lifting technology, integrated monitoring system and other current world's most advanced high-tech. At the same time, these technologies are also the first time to be applied to the field of cultural relics protection and archaeology, and truly realize the integration and development of cultural relics protection and scientific and technological innovation. Relying on China's high-end manufacturing capabilities, such high-tech solutions can maximize the protection of the originality and integrity of underwater cultural heritage and ensure the safety of cultural relics.
After the caisson came out of the water, in order to successfully escort the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship to the Huangpu Riverside storage site, the Shanghai Salvage Bureau also tailored a "central opening" engineering ship for the caisson, and the caisson could be tightly embedded in its open middle. Subsequently, the engineering ship will "embrace" the yangtze River estuary No. 2 ancient ship to the destination. According to the plan, the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship is expected to complete the salvage and relocation task by the end of 2022.
The overall salvage and migration project of the No. 2 ancient ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River integrates the world's most advanced salvage technology, technical route and equipment manufacturing in one, forming the hardest core fifth-generation salvage process in history, which is unprecedented in the world today.
Protect exploitation
Historical and cultural heritage not only vividly tells the past, but also profoundly affects the present and the future; it belongs not only to us, but also to future generations. To protect and inherit historical and cultural heritage well is to be responsible for history and the people.
The yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship is extremely well preserved and the number of cultural relics on board is large, which is enough to support the construction of an ancient ship museum with great world influence. To this end, in the "14th Five-Year Plan for The National Economic and Social Development of Shanghai municipality and the Outline of Long-term Goals for 2035" released in January 2021, the No. 2 Ancient Ship Museum in Yangtze River Estuary was listed as a major public cultural and sports facility construction project in Shanghai in the "14th Five-Year Plan". At present, the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have officially decided to choose the site of Yangpu Binjiang Shanghai Shipyard, making full use of the two old docks and preserved historical buildings to prepare for the construction of the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 Ancient Ship Museum.
In the future, the old dock, which is a historical building, will also be "gorgeously transformed" into an archaeological base for shipwrecks and an ancient ship museum. Archaeologists will gradually uncover the many unsolved mysteries of this ancient shipwreck of the Qing Dynasty here. At the same time, it will also be a living museum, which can simultaneously carry out archaeological excavations, cultural relics protection and display education, as well as archaeological and intangible cultural heritage living experiences, and scientific research on international underwater cultural heritage.
Carrying out the archaeology, protection and museum construction of the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship is not only an excellent practice for the mainland to enhance the influence and discourse power of Chinese archaeology, especially underwater archaeology, in the international archaeological community, and to "strive to build archaeology with Chinese characteristics, Chinese style and Chinese style"; it is also an excellent practice for Shanghai to practice the important concept of "People's City" and promote the integration of high-quality development of culture and tourism. Shanghai will benchmark the highest international standards and the best level, insist on leaving the best resources to the people, and build the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 Ancient Ship Museum into an ancient ship museum with world influence, a research center for global first-class underwater archaeology, a display window for the international shipping and trade center, and a cultural landmark of the People's City "Life Show Belt", so that more citizens and tourists can experience the charm of underwater archaeology, understand the deep nourishment of Chinese civilization, and feel the warm expression of the people's city.
Author: Li Ting
Editor: Tong Weijing
Editor-in-Charge: Fan Xin
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.