On March 2, the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 Ancient Ship Archaeological Relics Protection Project was officially launched in Shanghai, which is another milestone major discovery of underwater archaeology on the mainland, why is the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 Ancient Ship so important?
First of all, to understand the origin of this ship, Shanghai is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, where trade is luxuriant, and there are countless relics quietly under the waters of the Yangtze River, and the visibility of the Yangtze River waters is very low, and trying to explore these underwater relics is like finding a needle in a haystack. In 2015, when the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage conducted an underwater archaeological survey, it found a relatively well-preserved iron wreck through sonar detection, named "Yangtze River Estuary No. 1", and then found another larger and well-preserved wooden wreck in its north, named "Yangtze River Estuary No. 2", and it was this wooden wreck that started the overall salvage archaeological operation on the 2nd.
The Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship is a wooden sailing ship, which was built around the time of the Qing Tongzhi period, and according to the detection of the ship type, it should be a flat-bottomed sand boat widely used in maritime transportation in the Ming and Qing dynasties. At present, many cultural relics such as purple sand ware, minerals, pulleys, porcelain and so on have been removed from the ship.
Why is such a shipwreck so important? First of all, its cultural relics, historical value is extremely high, this is a maritime cargo ship, has been salvaged up a large number of Ming and Qing porcelain, in the diver launch salvage operation found that the ship's 31 warehouses are almost fully loaded, the number of cultural relics in this shipwreck is huge.
Secondly, the history behind this ship has also made countless experts and scholars curious, who built this ship, whether the ship has a name, where it will sail, where the goods carried come from, where to go, why it will capsize, a series of questions have appeared in people's minds. The archaeology of this shipwreck can not only reveal the origin of the ship, but also reveal to people the shipbuilding industry, trade, industry and people's lives at that time.
Moreover, the overall salvage of the ship may help people restore the true appearance of the sand boat. Sand boats are one of the four ancient ships in China, which have been used since the Tang Dynasty, and there are sand ships as cargo ships in Zheng He's voyage to the West. Sand boats are one of the most important ships for water freight in ancient times on the mainland, although they were widely used at that time, leaving detailed written and pictorial records, but sand boats did not leave physical objects to the present people. Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 may become the first physical sand ship cultural relics.
It is reported that the wreck salvage plan will adopt the technology of building tunnels, just like "grabbing dolls" to "catch" the ship from the bottom of the water, to maximize the protection of the hull and the integrity of the internal cultural relics, even the mud and water together to the shore, so that the wreck unveiled its mysterious veil.
Yangzi Evening News | Purple Cow News reporter Shen Zhao
Image source Xinhua News Agency