GUANGZHOU, CHINA—Xinhua reports that more than 140,000 artifacts have been recovered from a Song Dynasty (A.D. 960–1279) shipwreck discovered in the South China Sea in 2007. Cui Yong of the Guangdong Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology said the merchant ship measured about 72 feet long and about 30 feet wide. It carried a cargo of porcelain, gold, silver, copper, iron, bamboo, and lacquered wood items, as well as copper coins. The remains of plants and animals have also been found. The vessel itself has been moved to the Maritime Silk Road Museum in Yangjiang, where it is being conserved. To read about an informative item recovered from a different Song Dynasty shipwreck, go to “Artifact.”
Song Dynasty Shipwreck In South China Sea Conserved
News March 20, 2019
Recommended Articles
Features September 1, 2011
Pirates of the Marine Silk Road
A shipwreck in the South China Sea advances China's emerging field of underwater archaeology
Digs & Discoveries May/June 2024
Hunting Heads
Digs & Discoveries September/October 2023
A More Comfortable Ride
-
Features January/February 2019
A Dark Age Beacon
Long shrouded in Arthurian lore, an island off the coast of Cornwall may have been the remote stronghold of early British kings
(Skyscan Photolibrary/Alamy Stock Photo) -
Letter from Leiden January/February 2019
Of Cesspits and Sewers
Exploring the unlikely history of sanitation management in medieval Holland
(Photo by BAAC Archeologie en Bouwhistorie) -
Artifacts January/February 2019
Neo-Hittite Ivory Plaque
(Copyright MAIAO, Sapienza University of Rome/Photo by Roberto Ceccacci) -
Digs & Discoveries January/February 2019
The Case of the Stolen Sumerian Antiquities
(© Trustees of the British Museum)