About 1,000 pieces of treasure, including Ming dynasty copper coins and decorated pottery, have been recovered from two ancient shipwrecks discovered in the South China Sea, authorities said Thursday.
The year-long recovery operation came after the two sunken ships were discovered on the ocean floor about 5,000 feet below sea level near the northwest continental shelf of the South China Sea in 2022, according to China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage. Archaeologists used a manned submersible called a “Deep Sea Warrior” to carry out the excavation, officials said.
Officials said scientists recovered 890 artifacts from the first shipwreck, including copper coins, porcelain and pottery, while 38 artifacts were found from the second, including wood, turban shells and deer antlers.
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage released images of the recovered treasure, as well as pictures of a submersible using a robotic “claw” to retrieve artefacts from the seabed.
National Cultural Heritage Administration
The wreck and its treasure have clear cultural value, but they also bolster China’s political aims to assert its sovereignty over the region. Beijing claims most of the South China Sea. “Nine-dash line” policy And it has sought to leverage those claims by taking advantage of China’s historical presence in the region.
In 2016, The international court ruled The ruling found that key parts of China’s claims in the South China Sea are illegal, but Beijing has said it will not recognise the ruling.
Six countries – China, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia – claim parts of the area, and the stakes are high. Trillions of dollars’ worth of trade pass through the South China Sea every year, and there are huge reserves of oil beneath the seabed.
Then there’s the shipwreck treasures that China is using to fight its claims.
“The discoveries provide evidence that Chinese ancestors developed, utilized and traveled through the South China Sea, and the two shipwrecks serve as important witnesses to trade and cultural exchange along the ancient Maritime Silk Road,” Guan Qiang, deputy director of the State Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, said on Thursday.
National Cultural Heritage Administration
China’s Ming dynasty, which lasted from 1368 to 1644, was “a period of cultural renaissance and expansion,” according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Extensive landscapes and artworks depicting flowers and birds were “particularly popular, as they celebrated the new dynasty and conveyed its benevolence, virtue, and dignity,” the museum said.
News of the sunken treasure comes just weeks after the discovery of an iconic U.S. Navy submarine that sank during World War II. 3,000 feet deep in the South China Sea Off the coast of the Philippines.
