SHANDONG PROVINCE, CHINA—A 70-foot-long shipwreck with a cracked hull has been unearthed at a construction site in eastern China, according to a report in Live Science. The vessel is thought to have been used for river journeys during the Yuan Dynasty, some 700 years ago, before it sank and was covered with silt. Archaeologists from the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and the Heze Municipal Commission for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments, said they unearthed a captain’s cabin containing lacquerware; crew quarters containing porcelain jugs, net sinkers, scissors, oil lamps, and bronze mirrors; cargo compartments containing grain; and a kitchen/control room containing a stove, pot, and ladle all made of iron, and a tiller. The researchers also discovered a cabin they think had been used as a shrine, based upon the incense burner and Buddhist stone figurines known as arhats, or individuals who have attained enlightenment, that they found there. For more, go to “The Buddha of the Lake.”
