More than 150 years ago, a wooden ship full of Jingdezhen porcelain, purple sand ware, Vietnamese-made hookahs and other valuables was shipwrecked in the Yangtze River Basin. In 150 years, the cause of the shipwreck may be impossible to verify, but the wooden ship that has been sleeping in the deep sea for a hundred years will "wake up". The ancient hull, the mottled traces, will finally reveal the story behind that journey.
On March 2, the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 Ancient Ship Archaeology and Cultural Relics Protection Project was officially launched in Shanghai. Upstream News (e-mail: [email protected]) reporter learned from the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics that 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 hull is buried in 5.5 meters deep silt, horizontally tilted to the left of about 27 °. Judging from the current survey situation, the ancient ship type is suspected to be a flat-bottomed sand vessel widely used in Shanghai during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
This will be the largest overall salvage and protection project of an ancient shipwreck on the mainland.
▲The specific location of the ancient shipwreck is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Image credits/video screenshots
1 "Awakening" after sinking an ancient ship in the Qing Dynasty
Shanghai has been the starting point and one of the important ports of the Maritime Silk Road since ancient times. 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 complex waters, there have been countless underwater treasures and unsolved mysteries.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage, since 2011, according to the deployment of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Shanghai has launched a census of underwater cultural heritage, and collected more than 150 clues of underwater cultural relics in the waters of the Yangtze River Estuary through land surveys and visits, access to literature and other means.
However, for a long time, the muddy water environment has been the bottleneck in the development of underwater archaeology in China, and the waters of the Yangtze River estuary in Shanghai are particularly prominent. In this water where visibility is almost zero, the intersection of rivers and seas, exploring underwater cultural heritage is like finding a needle in a haystack. To this end, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage organized a number of departments to independently develop the "underwater imaging device for muddy waters" that has obtained a national patent, and used unmanned boats, multi-beam, side-scan sonar, shallow stratigraph profiler and magnetometer and other marine geophysical survey equipment to carry out underwater joint surveys of the waters of the Yangtze River Estuary.
Finally, in 2015, when the staff carried out a key underwater archaeological survey of the Chongming Hengsha waters at the mouth of the Yangtze River, they discovered a relatively well-preserved iron shipwreck 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.
Soon after, archaeologists 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 the early salvage, a large number of Jingdezhen porcelain was found on the ancient ship. Photo credit: Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage
2 ancient ships to explore treasures, 60 cm high blue and white porcelain came out
In order to further understand the nature and age of the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship, since 2016, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics and other departments have carried out underwater archaeological exploration and multidisciplinary research on the shipwreck site every year. After more than 6 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.
According to the simulation animation, the yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship is a wooden sailing ship, 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 vessel widely used in Shanghai during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Archaeologists carried out a small-scale clean-up of 4 of the cabins before and after selection, and found exquisite cultural relics such as Neatly stacked Jingdezhen kiln porcelain in the cabins. 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 a professional agency for underwater archaeology to conduct an underwater survey of the ancient ship and its surroundings at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and cleaned up large porcelain such as Yuan Dynasty porcelain and 60 cm high and complete bean blue glaze blue and white vases 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.
▲ Underwater mapping of ancient shipwrecks. Image credits/video screenshots
3 15 years later again salvaged underwater ancient shipwrecks in its entirety
The upstream news reporter learned that the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship is another 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 wrecks with the largest volume, the most complete preservation and a huge 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.
Because the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship is seriously washed by the current, especially with the change of the flow direction of the Yangtze River estuary, the riverbed changes from silt to rapid downward cutting, resulting in the acceleration of the ancient ship to expose the surface of the riverbed, and the hull faces a serious safety threat, which also brings great challenges to salvage.
Archaeologists introduced that the current salvage methods of global underwater shipwreck archaeology mainly include the extraction of shipboard cultural relics after dismantling and salvaging the shipwreck, the use of cofferdam pumping for archaeological excavation and then salvage of the shipwreck, and the special caisson will be shipwrecked, cultural relics and their surrounding seawater, sediment in accordance with the original state of the one-time lifting and salvage of the overall salvage. 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.
"Due to the extremely high turbidity of the Yangtze River estuary, the underwater visibility is almost zero, and the working time of the flat tide is very short, it is impossible to complete scientific underwater archaeological mapping and photography operations." At the same time, the time and cost required for underwater archaeology and the construction of cofferdams are enormous, and post-cofferdam archaeology will also obstruct the waterway for a long time. Therefore, after listening to expert opinions, assessing the risks faced by the shipwreck, and comprehensively analyzing the three archaeological and protection methods, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics decided to adopt the overall salvage method of the No. 2 ancient ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River. According to the archaeologists, the overall salvage can migrate the shipwreck in the shortest time, the lowest cost, and the greatest retention of historical information.
After determining the salvage method, 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 as a major project in China's underwater archaeology. This is also the second time after 15 years that the mainland has carried out overall salvage of underwater ancient shipwrecks.
▲The ancient ship type is suspected to be a flat-bottomed sand boat widely used in Shanghai during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Image credits/video screenshots
4 Pack the ancient ship in its entirety with a giant caisson
The salvage method is determined, and the salvage method is also crucial. The upstream news reporter learned that in view of the high sediment content and fast water flow speed at the mouth of the Yangtze River and the particularity of the ancient ship and its surrounding environment, the Shanghai Salvage Bureau of the Ministry of Transport, which is responsible for the salvage task of the ancient ship, adopted the world's unprecedented innovative solution - arc beam non-contact cultural relics overall migration technology to salvage the ancient shipwreck.
Previously, the Shanghai Salvage Bureau had already completed an equal proportion of salvage tests at sea using the technology in January this year. At that time, 22 giant "arc beams" will be driven by the top-entry transmitter frame, forming an arc-shaped caisson with a length of 51 meters, a width of 19 meters and a height of 9 meters at the bottom of the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship, and wrapping the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship and its attached thick sediment and seawater "without leaking". According to estimates, together with the weight of the salvage equipment itself, the total weight of the caisson is nearly 10,000 tons.
"This technology especially combines the nuclear power arc beam processing technology, tunnel shield boring process, immersed pipe tunnel docking process, 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. The archaeologist said.
After the caisson comes out of the water, in order to smoothly escort the 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 can 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 tasks by the end of 2022.
5 Proposed exhibition research of the Ancient Ship Museum
The upstream news reporter learned that the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship filled an important gap for the discovery of large wooden shipwrecks in this historical period of the mainland, and provided important empirical evidence for the study of the "Maritime Silk Road" and the "Golden Waterway" of the Yangtze River.
The relevant person in charge of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage said that the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship is a physical witness to Shanghai's use as a trade and shipping center in East Asia and even the world in modern times. At the same time, the yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship is well preserved and rich in cultural relics, 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 archaeology 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, sets a new benchmark for the world's muddy underwater archaeological technology, and is one of the important symbols of China's underwater archaeology entering the world-class level.
For the follow-up research and display of ancient ships, the official information of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics said that the preservation of the No. 2 ancient ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River is extremely complete, 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.
In addition, in the "Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for The National Economic and Social Development of Shanghai and the Long-term Goals for 2035" released in January 2021, the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 Ancient Ship Museum was also listed as a major public cultural and sports facilities 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.
According to the plan, the old dock, which is a historical building, will 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.
"Carry out the archaeology, protection and museum construction of the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship, which is the world's first project of archaeological excavation, overall migration, cultural relics protection and museum construction and display." This has also enhanced the influence and discourse power of Chinese archaeology, especially underwater archaeology, in the international archaeological community. The relevant person in charge of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics said.
Upstream journalist Shi Tingting Editor Cai Haiyan