No. 237 Maritime Archaeology in the People's Republic of China ...

Introduction
Jeremy Green
This report is an attempt to gather together a series of studies
on shipwreck archaeology that has been conducted by various
Australian teams in China over the last fifteen years. The
projects concern three main maritime archaeological aspects:
the Song Dynasty Shipwreck in Quanzhou, the training of
Chinese archaeology students in maritime archaeology and
the investigation of the Bia Jao site in Ding Hai. Various
organziations have supported this work including the Western
Australian Department of Resources Development, the
Australian International Cultural Foundation, the Australian
Research Council, the Australia–China Council and the
Australian Academy for the Humanities. In China we have
been supported by the Museum of Chinese History, the Fujian
Museum, the Museum of Overseas Communication History
and the University of Ximen. I would like to acknowledge
Dr Peter Burns of the Department of History at Adelaide
University who was responsible for getting many of these
projects underway.
The Song dynasty ship dating from about 1277 and
known as the Quanzhou Ship is an extremely important
archaeological find. It represents the earliest example of an
almost complete Chinese ship and has important implications
in the understanding the development of Asian shipbuilding.
The ship was discovered in 1973 whilst dredging a canal at
Houzhou, about 10 km from Quanzhou. The find was carefully
studied and an excavation took place between 7 June and 31
August 1974. The ship was dismantled and transported to
Quanzhou, where it was rebuilt under a temporary shelter in
the grounds of the Museum adjacent to the Kaiyuanxi Temple.
Between 1977 and 1979 a building was constructed within
the grounds of the temple which included the ship, a display
area and administrative quarters. In 1988 a new Museum
was constructed in the outskirts of the city which housed the
administration of the Museum, however at the time of our
last visit (1995) the ship rests in the old museum site and
there are long term plans to eventually relocate the vessel in
the new museum.
The excavation of the Quanzhou ship has been reported
previously, initially in a series of four reports in the Chinese
archaeological journal Wen Wu (Song Shipwreck, 1975 a, b,
c & d). These reports have also been reviewed by Salmon &
Lombard (1979), translated into English by Merwin (1977)
and reported briefly by Keith & Buys (1981). A more detailed
report of the ship and its history was published by the Museum
for Overseas Chinese History (1985). In January 1983, one
of the authors (Green), at the invitation of the Overseas
Communications Museum, and sponsored by the Australia-
China Council, inspected the Song Dynasty shipwreck at
Quanzhou. During this visit a number of photographs of the
hull were taken and discussions were held with the technical
committee responsible for the study of the ship (Green, 1983a).
A second visit was made in August 1887 when, with the
assistance of Museum staff, measurements were made of the
hull. A third visit was made in July 1993 with Paul Clark of
the Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territories and
Karen Millar of the Department of Maritime Archaeology of
the Western Australian Museum when further information was
obtained about the vessel (Green, et al, 1993). In September
1994 a visit was planned by Green with Paul Clark and Nick
Burningham of the Department of Maritime Archaeology of
the Western Australian Museum, but due to personal problems
only Clark and Burningham visited Quanzhou. During this
visit measurements were made of the internal structure of
the vessel using a remote measuring system and the team
were allowed to enter the vessel and inspect the interior.
Subsequently, Burningham and Green compiled a technical
report on this work. In addition translation of the Museum of
Overseas Chinese Communication History (1985) report has
been undertaken. Since the last visit, Burningham and Green
have been working on the plans and preparing this report.
The first part of this report describes the initial discovery
of the site and the excavation as determined from the
archaeological reports and from discussions with staff at the
Museum of Overseas Communication History. In addition the
work of the four study trips is described in detail, together with
a review of the current information available on Chinese and
Asian shipbuilding. The report concludes with a description of
the Quanzhou ship as it now exists reconstructed in the Museum
and a discussion of some aspects of the hull construction. The
report is based on the Chinese reports, the authors examination
of the ship, the results of the analysis by Burningham and on
discussions by the various authors with the director of the
Museum, Mr Zhuang Bing Zang, Mr Wang Zeng Yu who
was responsible for the reconstruction and members of staff
of the Overseas Chinese History Museum. It should be noted
that some difficulty was experienced with the discussions in
China, since the Chinese interpreters were often not familiar
with shipbuilding terms. In addition many of the terms have
no simple English equivalent, so this is not a criticism of
the competence of the translator rather an indication of the
complexity of the problem of dealing with technology in a
culture that is unfamiliar to a writer. The authors took great care
to confirm that the information was correct, but acknowledge
that errors have almost certainly crept into this report and since
it was not possible to verify all the facts, the report should be
treated with some caution.
Following this is a report on the first season of excavation
on the Bai Jao site at Ding Hai and a report on the ceramics
from the area by Paul Clark (unavailable at present), followed
by a report by Sarah Kenderdine on the second excavation
season on Bai Jao.