"Classical Prosperity" for more than 800 years in the deep South China Sea
Where is "South China Sea I" going? Why did it sink? What are the stories of the crew? Archaeologists are still solving
Our reporters Huang Yao, Deng Ruixuan and Meng Yifei
"The culture of the Chinese nation has evolved over thousands of years, and it is the ultimate in the life of Zhao Song." People have always had endless imagination of the prosperous trade and life scenes of the distant Song Dynasty.
In 1987, a Southern Song merchant ship carrying a large amount of cargo was accidentally discovered in the southwestern waters of Shangxiachuan Island, Yangjiang City, Guangdong. A vivid history of the Maritime Silk Road more than 800 years ago jumped into people's eyes.
In early May of this year, the underwater archaeological excavation project of the Southern Song Dynasty Shipwreck of Nanhai No. 1 in Guangdong won the top ten new archaeological discoveries in the country in 2019. "Thirty-three years to grind a sword", "Nanhai No. 1" has been highly concerned all the way, and finally won the "Fame."
"South China Sea I" has been highly concerned by the industry for many years because it carries rich historical and cultural information on the Maritime Silk Road. Wei Jun, a researcher in the Department of Cultural Relics and Museums at Fudan University, said: "'South China Sea No. 1'used the overall salvage method for the first time to fully display the hull and ship-borne cultural relics, which laid a deep mark on each step of the development of Chinese underwater archaeology.
From the discovery to salvage ashore, "Nanhai I" has experienced 20 years of personnel training, technical experience accumulation and program demonstration. At the end of 2019, the bottom of the "Nanhai I" ship was "first appeared", and the excavation work entered the closing period, which is expected to be completed in 2021. After that, the "South China Sea I" will enter a long period of protection, restoration and research, which is expected to require the efforts of one or two generations.
Experts believe that "South China Sea I" provides the most direct and strong physical evidence for the ancient Maritime Silk Road. Subsequent in-depth research will reveal the details of the Song Dynasty's maritime trade routes, commodity structure, crew life, etc., and provide an experience for the construction of the 21st century Maritime Silk Road.
"Song Dynasty" fished from the sea
Located in the Guangdong Maritime Silk Road Museum on Hailing Island in Yangjiang, Guangdong, an ancient shipwreck lying in a glass "crystal palace" is slowly showing its true colors. Outside the museum, tourists on the Silver Beach in Shili leisurely feel the coolness of the sea water and the boundless waves of the South China Sea; inside the museum, archaeologists are carefully exploring the secrets of this ancient ship.
Surveying and mapping engineer Xiang Qin stepped on the mud in the giant pit and walked between the densely supported wooden ships' steel pipes, fearing that he would hit a ship's board if he was not careful; around the wooden ships, the workers carefully cleaned the hard sea mud. Sporadic porcelain bowls and porcelain bottles "showed their heads"; above them, many colleagues took a water bottle and sprayed the wooden boat with moisture...
This wooden boat that has seen the full outline for the first time is "Nanhai I". This is the Song Dynasty ocean trader ship discovered by China earlier in the age, with a larger hull and more complete preservation.
Cui Yong, the leader of the Nanhai No. 1 Protection and Excavation Project and the deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, who has been in contact with the ship for many years, is particularly calm about the selection of the top ten new archaeological discoveries. It was first discovered in 1987, restarted exploration in 2001, salvaged the ship as a whole in 2007, and began full excavation in 2013... The award was a belated and sure for the "South China Sea I" that has entered the end of excavation.
"It took many years to declare new archaeological discoveries out of prudent considerations. After excavating the hull last year, it was confirmed that the original salvage was really successful." Cui Yong believes that with the official completion of the excavation of "Nanhai I" next year, Tibet The secrets on board may be revealed one by one.
But the industry is quite excited about the award. "Sailing thousands of tons of things without disintegrating them is very prominent in the history of underwater archaeology in the world." Liu Qingzhu, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the overall salvation of "South China Sea I" reflects the importance attached to human culture. Sun Qingwei, a professor at Peking University School of Archaeology and Liberal Arts, has repeatedly evaluated the significance of "Nanhai I" for Chinese underwater archaeology, similar to Yinxu's land archaeology in China.
The cleaned wooden hull has a residual length of about 22.1 meters and a width of about 9.35 meters, and is completely wrapped in a steel caisson. When "South China Sea I" was discovered 23 meters below the sea, most of the hull was deeply immersed in the mud. The visibility under the sea is almost zero, and the hull is easily damaged after removing the silt, and it is extremely difficult to simply salvage the cultural relics.
Although the experience of underwater archaeology was not rich at the time, the experts took the risk of proposing an overall salvage plan-making a "container" that can load the ship and the surrounding silt together. Press down with a hollow double-layer caisson to fix the ship, load and surrounding sediment in the well as it is, and then pass a steel structure bottom joist at the bottom of the upper part of the caisson to separate them up and down, and the upper part becomes a caisson, which is lifted and transported.
Almost at the same time, the Guangdong Maritime Silk Road Museum also started construction, and reserved a "crystal palace" for excavation. "If the boat is not picked up, the museum will be built in vain; otherwise, if the museum is not built, the boat won't know where to put it, or it may cause damage." Cui Yong said that the implementation of both projects was risky risk.
After repeated demonstrations, in May 2007, a double-decker well with a length of 35.7 meters, a width of 14.4 meters, and a weight of 550 tons finally "rushed" into the seabed. However, after the key step of threading through the bottom joist through the increase of weight, the first bottom joist with a weight of about 5 tons was inserted and the side bending occurred.
"Everyone at the scene was stunned, and such a thick and hard beam was bent." Lin Tangou, a member of the project mapping team, recalled that at that time, I thought of many ways to reduce the front end of the beam to a small size, use a high-pressure water gun, etc. It took only a few months to successfully thread the first bottom joist. The subsequent "seabed threading" gradually became smoother. "When the water came out, about 5,000 tons of things suddenly changed the sea conditions at that time, and the waves surged."
"After 9 months of salvation, there was not much surprise when the water finally came out, because this is not a lottery, it was made step by step, and this result is inevitable." Cui Yong said that everyone's heart Has been hanging on whether the salvage is complete, "If you excavate to the bottom and found that the bottom joist passed through the hull, it failed." When clearing the sea mud around the hull, the archaeologists found that the port side of the ship was only half a meter away from the inner wall of the caisson.
Adventurous, courageous, and meticulous, Cui Yong and the team have waited for 12 years from salvaging ashore in 2007 to successful verification in 2019. They picked up this mysterious ancient ship with a full load of cargo, traces of ancient lives, and the vicissitudes of years of experience on the seafloor. They presented the picture of the sea life of the Song Dynasty, which had been dust-covered for more than 800 years, in front of everyone's eyes and waited for a crack.
Dissecting the "time capsule"
Sophisticated production technology, advanced navigation technology, familiar routes, originally expected the full cargo to exchange for a lot of wealth, but buried in the seabed before leaving the country, "Nanhai I" everything "solidified". Today, archaeologists complete the unpacking of the unloaded cargo that was supposed to be carried out more than 800 years ago on the salvaged hull.
"'Nanhai Ⅰ'is like a'time capsule', filled with all aspects of life in the Song Dynasty. At the time, the whole salvation was also to study it as a settlement." Cui Yong said that the ship is a small class society and living unit, We must study all aspects of economy and life. Where did this ship set sail and where did it go? What happened and why? "In the past, I had patronized the unearthed things and lost people."
Over more than 6 years of excavation, more than 180,000 pieces (sets) of cultural relics, including gold, porcelain, lacquer, iron, and coins, have been cleared out by "Nanhai I".
"We previously unearthed a goose cage with six complete goose skeletons, and also found the remains of animals such as sheep and chickens, indicating that the crew kept animals on board, and these birds can also provide eggs." This is the same as the Song Dynasty. "Waiwai Lingao" recorded "there are hundreds of people in one boat, one year of grain accumulation, and the wine is brewed among them."
?? Ye Daoyang, a member of the project's warehouse management team, said that he found nut kernels such as olives, pine nuts, and cedar nuts, pickled bayberry, pepper and other seasonings, as well as winter melon seeds and rice... Explaining that the ancients had already Certain experience.
Stone inkstones, seals, bronze mirrors, wooden combs, Guanyin images, weights, weighing pans, touchstones... The Song people's daily life on the ship is more vivid. Interestingly, "Nanhai I" has also unearthed Arab-style accessories, so that everyone has more speculation on the composition of the ship-is there a foreign businessman taking the ship to and from the two places? Or these are the personal belongings of the consignor, just tools to show his rich experience of going south and north...
Over the years, the massive objects unearthed have made archaeologists have more guesses and understanding about the "South China Sea I". From the imprints on porcelain, coins, and ink books, the archaeologists speculated that the "South China Sea I" originated from Quanzhou Port, and may follow the familiar route of the Song Dynasty to Southeast Asia and even the Indian Ocean.
"Among the tens of thousands of coins that have been unearthed, we have interpreted all the years and found that the latest one is from the period of Chunxi. At the same time, we guessed this ship based on the "Gui Mao" ink book on a porcelain jar. The earliest departure of the ship may be 1183 AD." Xiao Dashun, a member of the project excavation team, said why the merchant ship sank offshore in familiarity with the route. There have been various speculations in the industry over the years.
"The cargo ships at that time sailed with the help of the northeast monsoon every October and returned in the spring of the following year." Cui Yong said that the voyage season can rule out the influence of typhoons, but the occasional strong northeast monsoon can also cause ships to be destroyed. The long-standing and unpredictable natural factors are not known, but he believes that the way the cargo is loaded on the ship may be a major reason for the sunken ship.
As a result of immersion in seawater for too long, the hull decks unearthed were almost gone, with 15 cabins of varying depths exposed. The bulkhead allows each cabin to form a tight compartment, which is not only a water-proof cabin, but also helps to load cargo in an orderly manner. In order to save space, the porcelain was carefully packaged and stacked in bundles, suits, pairs, etc., reflecting the Song people's rich loading experience and smart business methods.
As a sharp-bottomed blessing ship, "Nanhai I" puts porcelain on the bottom near the keel, and iron is placed on top, which not only improves the comfort of the ship, but also reduces the loss rate of porcelain cargo. But heavier and heavier also makes the ship "resistant" when it encounters strong winds.
It is not easy for the ancients to go to sea to make a living, and the use of space is naturally "comparable", but the carefully calculated profits also include the risk of death. "The people who went to sea at that time were full of the joy of making money. Obviously this boat could not wait for the money." Cui Yong said that the ancients left precious wealth to future generations in this tragic way.
"The most important artifact is this ship"
Outside the "Crystal Palace" glass wall, many children stood on tiptoe trying to see exactly what the people inside the wall were doing, and their eyes were full of curiosity. Although they may not be able to fully understand the mystery, the rare scene is already in their minds.
As a heritage museum, the transparent design of the "Crystal Palace" allows everyone to "see" the mysterious archaeological excavation process and realize the concept of "excavating, protecting and displaying" at the beginning of the design. Standing outside or on the top of the "Crystal Palace", people can clearly see archaeologists excavating, measuring, cleaning, loading... The excavated cultural relics are soaked in various solutions, and a box of boxes is placed around for several times. "It's rare to see such'original ecology' cultural relics," said a visitor.
Overall salvage lays the foundation for migration protection. Wei Jun believes that the "South China Sea I" put protection and excavation in the same time period, and preserved the various information in the archaeological process to the maximum extent, which is also a change in archaeological concept. And to do all this, there have been countless arguments between experts.
After the "Nanhai I" was salvaged ashore, a mystery urged people to dig the sunken ship. But the mud filled in the huge caisson was wrapped in a mass of unknowns, and no one dared to start easily. "I advocated excavating completely underwater, and the pressure of protection will be lower, which is beneficial to the archaeological display and the construction of underwater archaeology." Cui Yong recalled that the three options of land, underwater and saturated water were opposed to each other at the time. unprecedented.
After two trial excavations in 2009 and 2011, the expert group finally decided to implement the "saturated water excavation method" in the caisson. On the one hand, it is convenient to use mature field archaeological technology, and at the same time, it can prevent the damage to the hull and ship-borne cultural relics caused by the dramatic changes in the environment. "Now it seems that this method is better." Cui Yong said, he "actively admits defeat" in the excavation plan.
After the full excavation began, the site was divided into excavation group, cultural relics protection group, surveying and mapping group, engineering group, etc., interlocking and cooperating with each other. Tourists outside the glass wall look lively, but the doorways inside the wall are intricate and intricate. More and more skilled cooperation has gradually accelerated the excavation progress. In the past few years, 10,000 to 10,000 pieces (sets) of cultural relics were excavated and extracted each year. By 2018, more than 100,000 pieces (sets) were excavated at once.
"The large number of cultural relics that have been cleared immediately turned the pressure on the protection. The problems of different types of cultural relics are complex and complicated, which puts forward the requirements of'general practitioners'." Chen Yue, a member of the project protection team, said that these cultural relics have been soaked in the sea for more than 800 years, which is different from the unearthed land. The desalination of more than 100,000 pieces of porcelain alone is a major project that rotates day and night. At the same time, the splicing and repair of massive debris, the reinforcement of lacquer ware, and the separation of adhesive metalware also test the wisdom and patience of cultural relics protection workers.
"However, the most important cultural relic is this ship, and it is also the most difficult to protect." Li Naisheng, leader of the project protection team and deputy director of the Cultural Relics Protection and Restoration Institute of the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage, paid special attention to the restoration of the hull. The ancient shipwrecks more than 800 years ago are rare, but most of the cabins of the "South China Sea I" loaded with a lot of ironware have been corroded by the iron condensate. After the water is released, the environmental changes make the rust accelerate to breed and spread. Cellulose is degraded to varying degrees.
As a result, the excavation on the spot was more cautious. The wooden boat is supported by steel tubes that cross horizontally and longitudinally, are covered with plastic on the outside, and are covered with foam on the contact points. Above the wooden boat, the closely covered spray system sprays the solution from time to time to fix the moisture on the surface and inside of the wood, inhibit the microbial population that degrades the wood, and effectively prevent corrosion. The protection team also timely assessed the damage of dozens of monitoring points of the hull and adopted targeted protection measures.
"After the excavation of cultural relics, we will gradually wash away the mud and surface condensate on the hull, mainly to remove the big problem of rust." Li Naisheng said that during this period they will implement subdivision protection to completely remove the rust cabin and other cabins. Separated to avoid "cross infection". After nibbling the "hard bone", the hull can be filled, reinforced, dried and repaired.
Li Naisheng said that these complex processes are very important, but only cleaning, desalting and derusting will take about 3 to 5 years. Filling and strengthening and drying will take more than 10 years. The entire protection process may require one or two generations of archaeologists and cultural relics. Work together to protect workers.
At the same time as the long cultural relics protection, another work is also proceeding in an orderly manner. Every day, as long as the hull clears an extra layer, Xiang Qin and his colleagues must conduct real-time mapping and collect "point cloud data" and "texture data". They began to prepare for this work more than 10 years ago, and they have been excavating to this day. "The working surface of the hull is narrow and there is a lot of support, especially the port side is particularly narrow, and people who are slightly fatter can't get through." Xiang Qin told reporters that it is expected that the overall three-dimensional digital results of the cabin will be made next year. Currently, they have to measure whether the hull has shifted or contracted once a week, and at the same time, a large number of cultural relics are also waiting to "harvest" their own mapping data.
"We hope to do our best to restore this ship." Cui Yong said that the 3D laser scanning can reversely restore the "Nanhai I", not only can the cultural relics be dismantled, but also know how to "put" back as it is. "This can provide technical and experience guidance for future excavations. At the same time,'South China Sea No. 1'will also be a powerful cultural relics comparison system. If similar cultural relics unearthed unearthed elsewhere in the future, the answer may be found here."
"South China Sea I" and Chinese Underwater Archaeology
American writer Gary Kinder wrote in the work "Looking for the Golden Ship" describing the shipwreck of the "Central America": "Shipwreck is the script written by God in half, and the period must be completed by those shipwreck salvagers." "South China Sea I The period of "No." is particularly long and difficult.
Cui Yong has never forgotten the moment when he first dived into the sea and photographed "South China Sea I". On one day in April 2002, Cui Yong entered the sea for the first time as usual, but the low visibility seabed suddenly ushered in a clear water mass on that day. "I saw the boat in one go." Pressing his excitement, Cui Yong carefully photographed the front and back of the boat's exposed part, fearing that the movement would slightly disturb the "Qing Ming" in front of him. This 20-minute video later became the only video of "South China Sea I" underwater. "There has never been such a clear time again."
Cui Yong was one of the first underwater archaeologists in China. He still maintains the habit of diving every year. Most of the colleagues who participated in the first training with him played an important role in the industry. More than 30 years ago, all this was still blank.
The beginning of Chinese underwater archaeology originated from an accidental opportunity. In 1984, a British treasure robber found a sunken ship in the South China Sea and auctioned porcelain on the ship in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. At that time, the two Chinese experts took US$30,000, but after a few days they had no chance to raise their cards. After returning to China in frustration, the report they wrote received national attention, and Chinese underwater archaeology began here.
In 1987, Cui Yong and a group of equally young archaeologists joined my country's first batch of underwater archaeology training. After studying literacy by Japanese underwater archaeologists and studying in an archaeology training class jointly held with Australia, they basically mastered the knowledge and technology of underwater archaeology, but this is far from enough to excavate the "South China Sea I". It wasn't until they accumulated experience through underwater archaeological projects such as the Yuan Dao shipwreck in Suizhong, Suizhong, Liaoning, that they gradually got the bottom of their hearts.
"Later we successfully carried out the overall salvage. It took more than 30 years from the discovery of the ship to the completion of the excavation, which is unique in the world." Cui Yong believes that every step of the development of underwater archaeology in China has the "South China Sea I" ". "If you encounter a well-preserved shipwreck in the future, this model can be used for reference, but the specific method is not the most important, and the purpose is to extract the information to the maximum."
At present, Chinese underwater archaeology has formed a relatively perfect cultivation system. Jiang Bo, director of the Institute of Underwater Archaeology of the Underwater Cultural Heritage Protection Center of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said that in principle, training courses are now held every 2-3 years. Currently, 8 training courses have been held, and a total of 145 underwater archaeologists have received corresponding Qualifications. "Since 2017, we have recruited international students from countries along the "Belt and Road" to participate in the training. Members from countries such as Cambodia, Thailand, and Iran have joined us and obtained certificates."
"Previously, the techniques and methods adopted by China for ancient shipwreck archaeology were universal methods for learning from foreign countries. With the advent of the'Nanhai I', China has gradually developed a set of advanced technical methods in order to excavate and protect cultural relics." Wei Jun said that with the addition of disciplines such as marine engineering, environment, meteorology, surveying and mapping, and the increasing use of modern science and technology, the multi-disciplinary underwater archaeology has expanded the field of archaeological research and has a deeper understanding of cultural relics and ancient society.
Knowing the Ancients and Exchanging Civilizations on the Silk Road at Sea
"Tens of tens of millions of miles from east to west can be reached by stairways to reach its roads..." If no accidents sank, "Nanhai Ⅰ" should have been loaded with rich Southern Song specialties and converged with countries along the Maritime Silk Road. "The ancient Chinese Maritime Silk Road has a high tide and a low tide. The Song Dynasty, especially the Southern Song Dynasty, was considered to be a peak state." Wei Jun said.
In the vast volume of historical documents, there are many accounts of the Maritime Silk Road and my country's ancient trade. However, ancient important export commodities such as silk and tea are not easy to preserve, and most of the export porcelain is scattered abroad. "Nanhai I" undoubtedly provides a rare research on the history of shipbuilding, ceramics, shipping, trade, etc. on the Maritime Silk Road Samples.
"Many of the cleaned utensils are novel in style, advanced in technology and have a foreign style, which shows that the handicraft production in the Song Dynasty has been driven by the development of the Maritime Silk Road and overseas trade, and there have been export products produced specifically for the needs of the international market. China, Fujian, Guangdong, and other porcelain-producing areas have produced custom-made, processed and other production methods that are in line with the international market." Li Qingxin, director of the Guangdong Ocean History Research Center of the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, said that during the Tang and Song Dynasties, China was in the world Trade undoubtedly plays an extremely important role.
"A lot of coins were found on the ship. The ancient Chinese coins that flowed into Southeast Asia were the Song Dynasty. Although it was because the economy was developed and the overseas trade was prosperous at the time, Song Qian was also beautifully made. It is also an important reason." And the region has served as the universal currency of international trade. Due to the large amount of Chinese copper coins entering the international trade, it also triggered the "money shortage" of the Song Dynasty.
Despite the developed trade and rich commodities, there are few records of commerce in the ancient times that emphasized agriculture and restrained commerce. How ancient merchants lived on ships is difficult for today's people to know from historical data. "'South China Sea No. 1'provides us with very fresh information. Through the physical objects, we can study the destination, crew and merchants it sails, and also have a deeper understanding of the economic and cultural exchanges between countries and regions. "Wei Jun said that the study of "Nanhai I" is still in its infancy, and the secret of the ship can only be slowly revealed after archaeological data is further released."
In addition to revealing the story behind the "South China Sea I", Wei Jun believes that historical accumulation has laid a good foundation for the study of the Maritime Silk Road and the current construction of the "Belt and Road". Through the "South China Sea I", we can gain a deeper understanding of the development of the Maritime Silk Road.
Through the "South China Sea I", we can see the prosperity reflected by the ships coming and going on the Silk Road for thousands of years. "The traditional Maritime Silk Road is a channel for the exchange of materials between the eastern and western coastal countries and a link for cultural exchanges." Li Qingxin said that in the long history of history, the tone of the Maritime Silk Road is peaceful exchanges, mutual benefit and win-win. China’s development has promoted trade and mutual learning among ethnic groups along the east and west coasts and along the route.
"The Maritime Silk Road is not just a cultural resource. The historical memory uncovered by the "South China Sea I" can inspire us to form a good interaction with the countries along the Belt and Road, and provide help for the construction of a community of human destiny." Wei Jun said .