• A piece of impressed pottery at the Nong Ratchawat site in Thailand. I’m out in the field today! With colleagues from @seameospafa, Silpakorn University and the Fine Arts Department filming training videos (more details on those soon). It’s nice to be down in the dirt again... #archaeology #thailand #suphanburi #neolithic #ceramics #nongratchawat #thaiarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology #fieldwork
  • My last post of the year on the main website is a bumper issue on the highlights from this past year in Southeast Asian Archaeology. Link in the bio or here:https://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/2020/12/29/southeast-asian-archaeology-2020-year-in-review/
#southeastasianarchaeology #yearinreview
  • Non-archaeology post, BLACK FRIDAY SALE: A couple of special deals for @adobe products and @expressvpn until 28 November. These are software that I actually use in my day-to-day work, so they might be useful to you too. 24% off for Adobe Creative Cloud (more if you’re a student or teacher!) and 3 months free for a 12-month subscription to Express VPN. Link below and in bio:
https://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/blackfriday2020/
  • 1) Bangles from Burial 49, Ban Chiang early-middle period. 2) Bent spear tip from Burial 76. 3) The latest volumes from White and Hamilton on the archaeology of Ban Chiang, a significant Unesco World Heritage Site in Thailand. I’m looking for reviewers for the SPAFA Journal @seameospafa (ideally a Thai and/or a professional archaeologist) if you’re interested, send me a PM. #banchiang #thailand #bronzeage #udonthani #book #upenn #booksforeview #thaiarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology #prehistory #neolithic #thaihistory #บ้านเชียง #unescoworldheritage
  • Entry to Wat Chedi Luang is not much, 40 baht for adults or $US1.30 - but when we entered there was nobody at the booth and the groundskeeper told us to go right in - the lack of tourists meant the inability to pay for ticketing staff. Heritage sites dependent on tourism are taking a beating, like the rest of the industry. We left a small donation to the temple, and at every temple we visited, to help for its upkeep. #covid19 #heritagetourism #archaeotourism #chiangmai #thailand #watchediluang
#วัดเจดีย์หลวง #thaiarchaeology #thaiarchitecture #lanna #lannaculture #southeastasianarchaeology #archaeology #archaeologytravel #oldchiangmai #southeastasia #northernthailand #ancientruins
  • Check out my story for the Night at the Museum event at the Bangkok National Museum - in conjunction with Thai Museums Day on September 19. The museum hosted a tea party with musical and dance performances, followed by guided tours at the galleries. It was a good opportunity to catch the new exhibition ‘San Somdet’ - an exploration of Thai history, archaeology and culture through the correspondence of two princes. #bangkok #thailand #nationalmuseum #nationalmuseumbangkok #nightatthemuseum #sansomdet #thaimuseumday #thaihistory #thaiarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology
  • In Chiangmai yesterday and today and most of my trip was concentrated in the old city of Chiangmai. Wat Chedi Luang, located close to the centre of the city, is easily the largest stupa in the area despite it incomplete state. Built at the end of the 14th century and damaged by earthquake in the 15th century, the chedi once housed the Emerald Buddha that had previously resided in Luang Prabang and is now in Bangkok. H/T to @pathsunwritten for his guides to Chiangmai. The history and archaeology of northern Thailand is unfamiliar to me, what else should I visit, during my next trip to Chiangmai?
#chiangmai #thailand #watchediluang
#วัดเจดีย์หลวง #thaiarchaeology #thaiarchitecture #lanna #lannaculture #southeastasianarchaeology #archaeology #archaeologytravel #oldchiangmai #southeastasia #northernthailand #ancientruins #emeraldbuddha
  • Chedi Chiang Lom, the oldest building in Wat Chiang Man วัดเชียงมั่น, itself the oldest temple in the old city of Chiangmai. The temple was built in 1297, while King Mengrai was building his new city of Chiangmai. The Chedi is similar to Wat Chang Lom in Sukhothai. #วัดเชียงมั่น #chiangmai #chedi #stupa #elephant #thailand #thaiarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology #lanna #buddhism #oldcity #ancientarchitecture
  • The Big Bad Wolf book sale might sound familiar if you live in Southeast Asia (especially Malaysia and Thailand), and this year due to the pandemic they
  • Gold leaf relic from the 11-12th century, found inside one of the Khmer temples in Northeast Thailand (I
Friday, March 5, 2021
SEAArch - Southeast Asian Archaeology
  • ResourcesStart here
    • Disaster Risk Management
    • Virtual Archaeology
  • Countries
    • Mainland Southeast Asia
      • Cambodia
      • Laos
      • Malaysia
      • Myanmar
      • Thailand
      • Vietnam
    • Island Southeast Asia
      • Brunei
      • Indonesia
      • Malaysia
      • Philippines
      • Singapore
      • Timor Leste
    • Peripheral Southeast Asia
  • Subjects
    • Artifact Class
      • Architecture
      • Bones and Burials
      • Ceramics
      • Intangible Cultural Heritage
      • Lithics
      • Megaliths
      • Rock Art
      • Sculpture
    • Subfield
      • Anthropology
      • Bioarchaeology
      • Epigraphy
      • General Archaeology
      • Metallurgy
      • Paleontology
      • Underwater Archaeology
      • Visual Art
      • Zooarchaeology
    • Tourism
      • Unesco World Heritage
    • Museums
      • Exhibitions
    • Religions
      • Buddhism
      • Hinduism
      • Islam
    • Media
      • Podcasts
      • Videos
      • Websites
    • General Archaeology
  • Research
    • Online Lecture Library
    • Journals and Papers
    • Books
    • Archaeology Laws in Southeast Asia
    • Conferences
    • Education
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
SEAArch - Southeast Asian Archaeology
  • ResourcesStart here
    • Disaster Risk Management
    • Virtual Archaeology
  • Countries
    • Mainland Southeast Asia
      • Cambodia
      • Laos
      • Malaysia
      • Myanmar
      • Thailand
      • Vietnam
    • Island Southeast Asia
      • Brunei
      • Indonesia
      • Malaysia
      • Philippines
      • Singapore
      • Timor Leste
    • Peripheral Southeast Asia
  • Subjects
    • Artifact Class
      • Architecture
      • Bones and Burials
      • Ceramics
      • Intangible Cultural Heritage
      • Lithics
      • Megaliths
      • Rock Art
      • Sculpture
    • Subfield
      • Anthropology
      • Bioarchaeology
      • Epigraphy
      • General Archaeology
      • Metallurgy
      • Paleontology
      • Underwater Archaeology
      • Visual Art
      • Zooarchaeology
    • Tourism
      • Unesco World Heritage
    • Museums
      • Exhibitions
    • Religions
      • Buddhism
      • Hinduism
      • Islam
    • Media
      • Podcasts
      • Videos
      • Websites
    • General Archaeology
  • Research
    • Online Lecture Library
    • Journals and Papers
    • Books
    • Archaeology Laws in Southeast Asia
    • Conferences
    • Education
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
SEAArch - Southeast Asian Archaeology
No Result
View All Result
ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

Source: CNN 20210303

Indonesia reverses course, to allow treasure hunting by private investors and foreigners again

March 5, 2021
0
35

...

Source: Saw Tun Lin, SPAFA Journal 20210119

[Paper] The Buddhist Decorative Glazed Tiles of Mrauk U: The Arakanese Appropriation of Islamic Glazed Tiling

March 4, 2021
0
75

...

Source: SOAS

[Talk] Why do we know so little about the Goddess and her worship among the ancient Khmers?

March 2, 2021
0
60

...

Online Lecture Library

New in the Online Lecture Library (Feb 2021 update)

February 26, 2021
0
91

...

POPULAR

  • IPPA2022 Logo

    IPPA 2022 – Call for Sessions

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • [Call for Papers] International Conference on Material Culture (ICMC) 2021

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • PH National Museum receives valuable Philippine artifact

    57 shares
    Share 57 Tweet 0
  • A short history of Indonesia

    1 shares
    Share 1 Tweet 0
  • UNESCO statement on a reported construction project near the World Heritage site of Angkor in Cambodia

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Buy me a coffeeBuy me a coffee

If you found this site useful, you can help support it by buying me a coffee!

Home » Indonesia » The Belitung Shipwreck

The Belitung Shipwreck

Tags: Belitung shipwreckceramicsChangsha wareMaritime Silk Roadmaritime trade and communicationMichael Flecker (person)silverSrivijaya (kingdom)Sunda Straittalks / presentationsTang Dynasty (kingdom)trade and communication networksunderwater archaeologyunderwater cultural heritage
0
SHARES
220
VIEWS
The Belitung Shipwreck

Earlier this month, I was able to catch a lecture about the shipwreck laden with Tang Dynasty treasures that sunk off Belitung island in the 9th century. What was it about this shipwreck that made it so spectacular? What treasures were stored aboard the ship and where was it headed? And what did the Belitung Shipwreck tell us about maritime trade n Asia and Southeast Asia at that time?

 

The Belitung Shipwreck was discovered in 1998 – like most shipwrecks, this one was discovered by chance by some fisherman. The wreck rested on relatively shallow waters – about 17 metres below the sea-level and recovery of the wreck took about two years. It is currently the oldest shipwreck in Southeast Asian waters.

The majority of the cargo (some 60,000 pieces) recovered consists of ceramics, most of which are Changsha ware. Changsha ware was mass produced for export in Tang China, and the dates imprinted on a couple of the bowls place the shipwreck from between 826 and 850AD. Other significant finds from the wreck include lead ballasts, some pieces of resin which would have come from Sumatra, pillow-shaped silver ingots, a number of gold vessels and several rare pieces of high-fired blue-and-white, white ware and Yue wares.

The wreck’s construction strongly suggests that the ship was of Arab or Indian origin: stitched hull planks, the lack of wooden dowels or iron fastenings and later, the identification of the wood type. Combined with the large number of export ware, this find suggests the existence of a Maritime Silk Route, a direct trading link between China and the Arab lands as early as the 9th century.

Dr Rosemary Scott, who gave the lecture on the Belitung Wreck in June goes even further to suggest that the wreck is possibly the most important wreck uncovered to date because the evidence strongly suggests the presence of a Maritime Silk Route, rather than through the role of intermediaries like Srivijaya. Besides the ship’s construction, other evidence for this direct link include the small number of Changsha ware inscribed with “salaam” and other Arabic verse, and the presence of the rare ceramics, all of which have a close association with the imperial court. This in turn suggests the importance of this particular cargo as a form of royal tribute. While Changsha ware is found just about everywhere in the ancient world (all the way to India, Persia and the Near East), the Yue and Xing wares have been found only in a handful of Near Eastern sites, including the ancient city of Samarra in Iraq.

An interesting point about the Belitung shipwreck was its location. Ships plying between China and India would have come down the Malacca strait, into the sphere of Srivijaya influence. Ships would possibly call at the Srivijayan capital at Palembang, before sailing to the Riau islands and up north again to China. The Belitung shipwreck is located a little too far south. Given that the majority of the shipwreck’s cargo was mainly for the Persian market rather than the coastal ports of Srivijaya, the ship would bypass the major Srivijayan markets and take an alternative route through the Sunda Strait (between Sumatra and Java), before heading northwest to India – stil Srivijayan territory, but not as important as the ones along the Malaccan strait..

The material for this post was based on my notes during the talk on the Belitung Shipwreck by Rosemary Scott at the National University of Singapore Museum in June 2007, as well as a 2001 paper by Dr. Michael Flecker in World Archaeology.
Books about shipwrecks in Southeast Asia:
–The Archaeology of Seafaring in Ancient South Asia by Himanshu Prabha Ray
– Shipwrecks and Sunken Treasure in Southeast Asia by T. Wells

Subscribe for Southeast Asian Archaeology news updates


Comments 3

  1. Nemi says:
    12 years ago

    I think that if we take into account Muckelroy’s theory on shipwreck formation it is very bold to base a theory such as the one proposed by Scott. When a ship sinks it is usually a slow process and generally is the consequence of bad weather. Currents and winds could have taken the ship where it lays now. It would be necessary to study the dispersion of the artifacts. Flecker, a guy whose expertise I respect, does not give a detailed plan of the location of the items (at least I haven’t found such map in any of his articles nor in his website). If there is such map, then Scott should use it to interpret the site. Then again, I wasn’t there, did she use these argument in her work?

    By the way, one can purchase the ceramics of the Belitung wreck in Ebay…quite sad!

  2. noelbynature says:
    12 years ago

    I don’t remember her using a mp of the wreck to interpret the site – your comment is more informed than mine. =D

    it’s amazing the amount of antiquities one can get off the internet. try searching srivijaya and see what pops up!

  3. Nemi says:
    12 years ago

    It’s a shame, I saw a couple of china bowls in a shop in front of the British Museum. It’s not so much the object itself, but the way it was obtained that bothers me. Looters will stop at nothing and will destroy the context of the site just to get hold of something they can sell in Ebay.

    By the way, while I was in Angkor I found some really interesting red paintings of boats! I asked the people at EFEO and they confirmed that they have never seen them before! Two points for me! 🙂 I’m so excited! I pasted the images in my Flickr, I’ll upload them in my web in the next few days. 🙂

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

SEAArch - Southeast Asian Archaeology

© 2019

Navigate Site

  • Resources
  • Countries
  • Subjects
  • Research
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe
  • About

Follow

No Result
View All Result
  • Resources
    • Disaster Risk Management
    • Virtual Archaeology
  • Countries
    • Mainland Southeast Asia
      • Cambodia
      • Laos
      • Malaysia
      • Myanmar
      • Thailand
      • Vietnam
    • Island Southeast Asia
      • Brunei
      • Indonesia
      • Malaysia
      • Philippines
      • Singapore
      • Timor Leste
    • Peripheral Southeast Asia
  • Subjects
    • Artifact Class
      • Architecture
      • Bones and Burials
      • Ceramics
      • Intangible Cultural Heritage
      • Lithics
      • Megaliths
      • Rock Art
      • Sculpture
    • Subfield
      • Anthropology
      • Bioarchaeology
      • Epigraphy
      • General Archaeology
      • Metallurgy
      • Paleontology
      • Underwater Archaeology
      • Visual Art
      • Zooarchaeology
    • Tourism
      • Unesco World Heritage
    • Museums
      • Exhibitions
    • Religions
      • Buddhism
      • Hinduism
      • Islam
    • Media
      • Podcasts
      • Videos
      • Websites
    • General Archaeology
  • Research
    • Online Lecture Library
    • Journals and Papers
    • Books
    • Archaeology Laws in Southeast Asia
    • Conferences
    • Education
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2019

Want more Southeast Asian Archaeology?
News in your inbox, twice a week

  • Also s

 


×
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.