UN-Sunken Treasure: Salvaging the 'South China Sea-I'

World
Europe

Raising a thousand-year-old ship is a delicate undertaking, and usually isn't even attempted. But after ten years of work, a wooden ship from the Song Dynasty resurfaced, loaded with valuable relics. Here's what it looked like.

More than 30 meters long and nearly 10 meters wide, the South China Sea One is a sunken merchant vessel from the Song Dynasty about a thousand years ago. It was first discovered near Taishan in Guangdong Province in 1987.

It's estimated that there were 60 to 80 thousand pieces of historical relics on board. Salvage operations did not start until April 2007. Six different schemes were drawn up before a final plan was approved to lift the shipwreck as a whole. The ship was brought to the surface without resulting in any more damage. The vessel has been sitting in the Silk Road Museum in Guangdong ever since.

CUI YONG, DEPUTY DIRECTOR GUANGDONG PROVINCIAL INSTITUTE OF CULTURAL RELICS & ARCHAEOLOGY "The salvage operation was successful. The ship was first covered in a box and then entirely lifted up. Both the ship body and the porcelain in it were well preserved, which is good for the unearthing and sorting work that followed."

Ten years of sorting have revealed more than 20-thousand objects on board. These include pieces of porcelain, gold and silver wares, lacquer-wares, animal and plant samples, and a huge number of copper coins. Preventing further decay on the ship has been a challenge.

CUI YONG, DEPUTY DIRECTOR GUANGDONG PROVINCIAL INSTITUTE OF CULTURAL RELICS & ARCHAEOLOGY "To keep those relics on board would look good. But to protect them, we got them off the ship. Different materials require different preservation methods. For example, ceramics and metals should not be treated the same way. The ship itself is made of wood, so preserving it is an important task for us."

The ill-fated ship and its contents are proving to be of great value to research on ancient China's ship-building techniques, ceramics, and culture. It's also proof of the abundance of riches that moved through the ancient Silk Road. SW CGTN