On the morning of March 2, the yangtze river estuary no. 2 ancient ship archaeology and cultural relics protection project, the largest overall salvage and protection project of the ancient shipwreck in the mainland, was officially launched in Shanghai, lifting the mystery of the ancient ship No. 2 in the Yangtze River Estuary for nearly eight years since its discovery.
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 discovered 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.
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.
The Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship is another milestone major discovery in China's underwater archaeology after the discovery of the "Nanhai No. 1" shipwreck of the Song Dynasty in Guangdong Province 35 years ago. The "Nanhai No. 1" is about 24 meters long and has more than 180,000 cultural relics. The Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship is larger than the "Nanhai No. 1", is currently one of the largest, most complete preservation, and huge number of ancient wooden shipwrecks found in China and even in the world, and is a precious cultural heritage with extremely important historical, scientific and artistic value.
Text/Photography: Ye Chenliang
Editing: Wang Tianci
Editor-in-Charge: Wang Wei
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