If it wasn’t for the high price of sea cucumbers, considered a delicacy in China and Southeast Asia, one of the greatest shipwrecks of the Tang dynasty (which ruled China from 618-907 AD) would still have been undiscovered. In 1998, fishermen diving for sea cucumbers off the coast of Belitung, a small island east of Sumatra in Indonesia, discovered ceramic bowls in the soft sandy sea bed. Realising that these were of value, the fishermen sold the bowls and the location of the find. A German company then obtained the requisite permits to salvage the location and were lucky to find a ship laden with a cargo that was almost intact, albeit covered in coral and marine life. Over the next few months, the contents of the shipwreck were salvaged and put up for sale with the condition that the entire cargo would be sold as a whole rather than piece by piece. After some bargaining, a Singaporean foundation bought the cargo for US$ 32 million in 2005 and is now exhibited at the Asian Civilisations Museum.
$32 million might seem like a high price but the Belitung shipwreck was groundbreaking in two major ways - one, it provided proof of direct trade between China and the middle east as early as the 9CE and second, it brought to light the ingenious ship building technique of Arabian Dhows. Studies are still underway so the shipwreck might still have more mysteries to uncover.
If you were to look at the exhibits today, you would hardly believe the state they were in when salvaged. Salt water can be very corrosive and being underwater for centuries, the cargo was a host for various marine-life. Immense conservation work had to be done in order to bring this cargo back to its pristine state. After salvaging the cargo, most of it was shipped to New Zealand and stored in a warehouse for conservation. The precious pieces were worked on by an unlikely crew of dentists - a profession in which steady hands are a prerequisite to dealing with delicate materials in confined spaces.
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| Fig 1: Marine life growing on ceramics |
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| Fig 2: Coral encrusted ceramic jar |
Carbon dating of some organic items on board (ship’s timber, shipment of star anise and a small piece of resin) and inferences made by scientists has dated the shipwreck to about 830AD, which would mean that she has been lying mostly undisturbed in the sea-bed for about 1200 years. 830s was the period of the two great empires- the Abbasid Caliphate in western Asia and the Tang dynasty in China. There are writings mentioning trade and diplomatic ties between these empires with their capitals in the cities of Baghdad and Xi’an (of the terracotta warrior fame) as early as 7CE but this shipwreck provided concrete proof of their connection.
Ships from the middle east have been sailing the waters around Asia and it was evident from the construction of this ship that she was a traditional Arabian dhow. She was built of African wood and the planks were tied together with coconut fibres without the use of nails or screws. Similar technique of ship-building were used in the middle east until very recently.
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| Fig 3: Replica of the Belitung Ship, originally 18x6 meters
After the findings from the Belitung shipwreck, Oman, which is strategically located on the western side of the Arabian sea and along the ancient maritime trade routes, embarked on an ambitious project to reconstruct a dhow named ‘Jewel of Muscat’. In 2008, the construction of this new dhow began and it was built to exactly the same specifications as the original dhow from the 9CE. To make things a little interesting, the builders decided to use the same tools that would have been used in the olden days, which meant no power tools or nails could be used in its construction.
Oman has a long heritage of ship building so they were up for this challenge. Even today, you can visit workshops making wooden ships. A year back, I visited my parents in Muscat, the capital of Oman, we toured a ship building workshop in the city of Sur. A dhow was being constructed that would serve its life as a floating restaurant. I would recommend you to watch an excellent documentary by National Geographic called ‘Jewel of Muscat’ which documents its construction highlighting the challenges that would have been faced by the original ship builders in ancient times. The website dedicated to this ship is jewelofmuscat.tv.
The Belitung dhow was returning home to the middle east from China and travelling along the popular maritime sailing routes. Scholars believe that she hit a reef and sank in the shallow waters off Belitung - only 2 nautical miles/ 3.7 km offshore in a relatively shallow depth of 17 meters/54 feet. Because of her proximity to the shore, it is believed that the crew were able to swim to safety since no human remains were found. The ship was a modest 18x6 meters but she was laden with jars upon jars of Chinese ceramics estimated to be about 25 metric tonnes. Luckily, the resting place of the ship was a soft-sandy sea bed which prevented the ceramics from damage and of the approximately 70,000 pieces in the cargo, about 60,000 pieces were salvaged.
Fig 4: Mass produced Changsha bowls
The majority of the cargo was cheap, mass produced ceramics called Changsha-ware, named after the kiln region where they were made. Colours on the ceramics were browns and greens and some reds with floral and animal motifs painted on them. These colourful wares were the preference of the foreign markets since in those days, the Chinese preferred a monochrome palette of whites and pale greens/celadon- colors that mimicked precious jade which they believed to have supernatural powers of healing. Some pieces have Arabic words and Buddhist symbols like the swastika glazed on them. Out of all the thousands of bowls, there was only one that could date the cargo. It has an inscription mentioning ‘a summer’s day in 826’ and since this bowl was not a collectable item, its presumed that the ship sailed a few years after that date.
Fig 5: Changsha bowl with Buddhist symbols like Swastika
There were a few precious good on board as well, found deep below deck. High quality and imperial grade ceramics along with a handful of exquisite metal objects made of bronze, gold and silver (figures 6-8). These items were highly valued even in the 9CE and from the workmanship, you can tell that these were probably made for very high ranking clients or used as diplomatic gifts.
  
Fig 8: Precious white-ware lidded jar
Many amazing discoveries have been made with this shipwreck but what astounds me most was the ingenuity of China to cater to the global markets. It mass-produced export items that were specific to the tastes of the foreign markets back in the 9th CE. To produce these quantities of ceramics, there had to have been an organised network of people working together, not just locally but also from far away places. It truly was a well-connected world even 1200 years ago.
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