On a normal day in 1998, fishermen in the Waters off Sumatra, Indonesia, were working as usual, diving to the bottom of the sea to collect sea cucumbers, Belitung, which means "conch" in Indonesian, and there are many fishermen living on the island of Belitung, which contains countless fish resources. On this day, a fisherman fished not only sea cucumbers from the 16-meter-deep seabed, but also a clay pot with a simple shape and wrapped in seaweed. This clay pot outlines a once incomparably large network of international transactions.
Artifacts on board
Discover the shipwreck
There are clay pots fished out of the water, learned of this news, a local engaged in shipwreck salvage of the German company immediately moved their minds, the boss Walter immediately arranged personnel to the nearby sea to search, Waterfa was not initially engaged in shipwreck salvage, he is the owner of a cement factory, engaged in shipwreck salvage was initially listened to the Indonesian employees in the factory said, heard that many of indonesia's sea areas have many treasures hidden in the seabed, Walterfa realized that this may be a huge fortune, Walterfa immediately purchased a batch of diving equipment, He took the workers to Indonesia to collect the treasure of the shipwreck.
In 1997, after continuous efforts, Walter and the workers discovered a Ming Dynasty shipwreck, the Yingtan, and in 1998, another shipwreck was discovered, which made Walter fa very excited, and he believed that there were more unknown treasures waiting for him in this area.
After investigation, the employees of the Water Law Company found that there was indeed a shipwreck under the seabed, and there were many items such as porcelain and gold and silver in the ship. Walter was ecstatic to learn of this news, he knew that he would have a large fortune again, he immediately arranged for personnel to salvage the remains, the salvage work lasted for nearly a year, starting in September, but then due to the northwest monsoon, the work could not be carried out for a long time, until April of the following year, the work was restarted, and in June, after salvage, 60,000 ancient cultural relics reappeared.
Water Law
Reappear
After salvage, the employees of the Waterfa Company found the reason for the sinking of the ancient ship, they found a large broken hole in the bottom of the ancient ship, with obvious reef marks, 150 meters northwest of the hull, they found a large black reef, this discovery also confirmed their idea, the ship is likely to hit the reef, and eventually there was a problem, resulting in the sinking here, thinking of this, the ship was named "Black Stone".
The hull of the "BlackStone" is 18 meters long, the keel is still well preserved, the seabed structure in the sunken sea area is clay, not rock, and the full ship is sunk to stir up the clay, and the ship is buried by the soil, forming a certain degree of protection, the ceramics on the ship are installed in a large urn, the spiral is neatly stacked together, the urn is filled with straw, the sealing is very good, these factors make it and some spices and other things can be well preserved.
Salvaged porcelain
The shape of the ship was simulated and restored, found to be an Arab dhow, the wood of the hull was analyzed, and found that the ship used 3 kinds of wood, mostly produced in Africa and South Asia, shipbuilding technology, the ship is "connected" together with a rope to pieces of wood, they use a special palm fiber stitching, and then coated with olive juice for bonding, and did not use iron nails and other things, and the traditional Chinese method of making ships is to reinforce the ship with nails and iron, so that the boat will not seep water, Toughness is also good.
This way of shipbuilding is mostly used in South Asia and other regions, from the above can be concluded that this is an Arab ship, the direction of the ship is from China to the sea, after being filled with exquisite porcelain and other goods, on the way back to die, and finally buried in the sea.
After sorting out the cultural relics of the "Black Stone", it was found that there were many varieties, including ceramics, bronzes, ivory and some gemstones. The largest of these is porcelain, accounting for more than 95%, and the largest of them is a variety of bowls.
There are also some items in the "Black Stone" that prove the time of the sinking of the shipwreck, and there is a porcelain bowl on the outside, engraved with the words "Bao Li Ii Year", the second year of the Bao Li is the era name of Tang Jingzong, which is already the middle and late Tang Dynasty, at this time the Tang Dynasty experienced the Anshi Chaos and Peace, and the national strength began to decline from prosperity to decline.
In the first year of the Bao calendar, the 23-year-old poet Du Mu wrote "Afang Gongfu", which was used to warn the emperor to enrich the country and strengthen the army, at this time the corruption problem of the Tang Dynasty was continuous, the local feudal towns were very arrogant, and there were tubo, Uighurs and other countries outside, in 824, tang Muzong, who was less than 30 years old, died because of obsession with Dan medicine, Du Mu hoped that Tang Jingzong, who succeeded him, could exert great efforts to make Tang Jingzong return to the prosperous world, but Tang Jingzong was also addicted to fun, ignoring state affairs, and finally was murdered at the age of seventeen. At this time, the Tang Dynasty was in a state of turmoil, but the skinny camel was bigger than the horse, compared with the surrounding countries, the Tang Dynasty was still standing on the top of the world, the national strength was strong, and the Silk Road at this time, because the place was not peaceful, the town was divided, and it was relatively unsafe. Maritime Silk Road trade was more stable and favored in comparison. At that time, changsha kilns, which participated in the market at low prices and large sales, combined with Yangzhou and Guangzhou through water transportation, allowed new exports of porcelain.
Restoration model of the Blackstone
There are also some left on the black stone, such as rosin, fennel and other items, after identification, it can be determined that it is the items of the early 9th century, which can prove that this ship is most likely the ship that sank after 826 AD during the Tang Dynasty, and it can also confirm that this should be the ship of Arab merchants, who will be rich in products from West Asia, spices, wood and other items, through India, Southeast Asian islands, come to China for trade, buy beautiful porcelain and bronze and other products that are scarce for them, and then return from the same way. Or sell these products to more Western countries for profit.
The exact route of the ship is no longer known, and there are many opinions that it may have departed from Yangzhou Port, because the vast majority of the ships were porcelain from Changsha kilns. But some people think that it may be from Guangzhou, and starting from Guangzhou can reduce a lot of costs.
These porcelains have a variety of patterns, there are birds, flowers and green leaves, lotus patterns, etc., some porcelain also wrote simple Arabic characters, some of these words are like some, some are different from the text, which may be the craftsman does not understand the Arabic script, just according to the style given by the merchant to imitate, just like copying painting, some craftsmen are more familiar, some craftsmen do not understand, according to the painting, resulting in some words do not look like, but from the text of the craft, the beautiful momentum still exists, It can also be said that there were already similar "customized" products at that time, and they would choose to make what they liked in order to adapt to the market in West Asia and other places.
There are also some porcelain on the ship, showing the extraordinary features of this ship, there are some porcelain with the word "Ying" on it, these porcelain, also found in The country, are usually considered to be fired in Hebei, most of them are royally made, porcelain for royal use, these items appear here, indicating that the ship is likely to carry some other missions, diplomacy, etc., on the way back with these treasures as heavy gifts.
There are also several pieces of South Asian bronze mirrors and other items on the ship, from the quantity point of view should be the daily necessities used by the crew, salvaged on the ship, the most valuable is 3 pieces of Tang Dynasty blue and white porcelain, blue and white porcelain prevailed in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, before Yangzhou had found a number of blue and white porcelain pieces, but there is no strong evidence to prove that the Tang Dynasty also had blue and white porcelain, the emergence of these 3 pieces of blue and white porcelain, proved that the end of the Tang Dynasty not only had blue and white porcelain, and even spread the blue and white porcelain overseas, while the emergence of blue and white porcelain, but also showed a very high level of craftsmanship, They use imported cobalt materials low iron and low manganese, and are not the same as the low manganese high-speed rail cobalt materials used in the Yuan Dynasty.
Artifacts of the BlackStone
The Maritime Silk Road is spectacular
In 2002, at an academic conference held in Shanghai, the domestic cultural relics industry learned of the existence of the "Black Stone", immediately attracted the attention of countless people, in the face of the "Black Stone", many museums have extended an olive branch, hoping to recover this batch of treasures, well preserved, have put forward their own purchase intentions, not only domestic, foreign countries have also offered prices, such as Japan, Singapore and other countries.
But unfortunately, the Water Law lion opened his mouth, sat on the ground, and made a demand for 40 million US dollars in one breath, and it must be purchased as a whole, not sold separately, and the contract also requires that this "treasure" be shared with the Indonesian government, 40 million US dollars, but an astronomical number, according to to today's conversion, the value has reached more than 200 million yuan, such a price makes many museums sigh.
In the end, an institution called "Sentosa" in Singapore first obtained the exhibition rights of the salvaged cultural relics, and then spent a lot of effort to purchase all the "treasure" cultural relics. The artifacts finally made their home in Singapore in 2005.
After a few more years, in 2011, the artifacts finally returned to the public eye and were exhibited at the Museum at Marina Bay in Singapore during the Spring Festival. These relics, which have been hidden for thousands of years, truly show their charm here.
In 2020, these cultural relics came to the Shanghai Museum for display and opened to the public, through them, we can see the wisdom and ingenuity of the ancients, which witnessed the history of the ancients conquering the waves and fighting on the rough sea, and also showed the grand situation of the Maritime Silk Road.