Qianjiang Evening News HourLy Reporter Ma Li Synthesized
On March 2, the largest wooden ship, the most complete preservation and huge number of cultural relics found in the mainland underwater, officially began to be salvaged. The archaeology and cultural relics protection of the "Yangtze River Estuary No. 2" ancient ship were launched at the same time.
On March 2, the launching ceremony of the salvage of the "Yangtze River Estuary No. 2" ancient ship was held at the Waigaoqiao Wharf in Shanghai. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ren Long
The "Yangtze River Estuary No. 2" ancient ship overall migration project and other proportions of the test site taken on January 26. Xinhua News Agency (Courtesy of Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage)
The Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship is a wooden sailing ship, which is confirmed to be dated to the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. The water depth is 8-10 meters, and the hull is buried in 5.5 meters of deep silt, with a lateral left tilt of 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.
2021 "Yangtze River Estuary No. 2" ancient ship multi-beam sonar sweep composite map. Xinhua News Agency (Courtesy of Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage)
Li Qun, vice minister of culture and tourism and director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said that the newly revised "Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Protection and Administration of Underwater Cultural Relics" will be implemented soon, and the "Yangtze River Estuary No. 2" is by far the largest ancient ship archaeology and cultural relics protection project at home and abroad, and it is also the world's first archaeological and cultural relics protection project implemented simultaneously in the excavation, overall migration, cultural relics protection and museum construction, which marks a major breakthrough in underwater archaeology on the mainland and contributes Chinese technology, Chinese experience and Chinese solutions to the world's underwater archaeology.
After more than ten years, the mainland has once again launched a large-scale underwater archaeological operation to salvage wooden ancient shipwrecks and carry out related cultural relics protection work. Previously, the Song Dynasty ancient ship "Nanhai No. 1" was salvaged out of the water in 2007, which caused a sensation in the world.
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 the discovery of the shipwreck, archaeological institutions have conducted underwater archaeological exploration and multidisciplinary research on the wreck site every year. For example, by selecting 4 of the cabins before and after the selection of a small range of cleaning, it was found that there were neatly stacked Jingdezhen kiln porcelain in the cabin. A large number of artifacts such as purple sand ware, Hookah jars from Vietnam, fragments of wooden buckets, masts, large hardwood ship timber, iron anchors, brown cables, pulleys, metal drill bits, drill pipes and black minerals have also been unearthed in and around the hull.
"Yangtze River Estuary No. 2" ancient ship out of the water cultural relics (file photo). Xinhua News Agency (Courtesy of Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage)
"Yangtze River Estuary No. 2" ancient ship part of the water cultural relics (file photo). Xinhua News Agency (Courtesy of Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage)
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.
Why is archaeological salvage of the shipwreck being launched this year?
According to underwater archaeological surveys in recent years, 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 is facing a serious safety threat. In order to prevent the natural and man-made destruction of the No. 2 ancient ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the relevant departments decided to carry out overall salvage and protection.
Shanghai will use the world's first scheme , "Arc Beam Non-contact Cultural Relics Overall Salvage Technology" to salvage the ancient wooden sailing ship. Wang Wei, chairman of the Chinese Archaeological Society, believes that this current world-leading high-tech underwater archaeology program has truly realized the integration and development of cultural relics protection and scientific and technological innovation, and contributed to the construction of archaeology with Chinese characteristics, Chinese style and Chinese style.
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.
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