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

Section 3. Recommendations for future work
Further work on Bai Jiao 1
All visible ceramic material has been removed from the wreck
site, while the concretions and timber remain in situ. The
site has been back filled. A extensive survey has taken place
around the perimeter of the excavation site and this has proved
the area to be sterile. The Australian archaeological team
suggest that the remaining material, that is the concretions and
timber should be left in situ. They offer limited information
for the interpretation of the site. The costs of conservation
involved in preserving large iron concretions are enormous,
and almost certainly outweigh the potential information that
their excavation and analysis could provide. It is, however, the
intention of the Chinese team to raise the concretion in 1996.
Further structure may be uncovered in this process, although
excavation (during 1995) below the concretion indicated only
fragmentary wooden remains. Additional ceramic material
could be raised if the resources for conservation and long
term care can be found.
Other wreck sites in the area
A systematic survey and investigation of the other sites
previously recorded (through interviews) in the area is one
of the recommendations of this report. Locating these sites
will require cooperation of the local fishermen and salvagers
in the area.
Figure 42 shows the approximate location of some of
the other ceramic and artefact sites in the area of Dinghai.
The information was collected in 1990 from the leaders of
Dinghai village Chen Yanxun and Hun Bin and reported
by Wu Chunming (1990b). Salvagers in the area have been
questioned as to the sources of the ceramics that they have
retrieved in certain areas.
In 1995, two attempts were made to locate further
shipwrecks sites. Several fishermen from the surrounding
area were employed to identify possible search areas. Of the
two swim line surveys conducted in these areas no evidence
of shipwreck material was encountered. The difficulties of
searching in low visibility, and without the aid of perhaps
magnetometer or side-scan sonar and sub-bottom profiler
means that the chances of finding a site is remote. It is obvious
that searches will have to be more systematic, using available
remote sensing technology in conjunction with information
provided by dredge operators and fishermen.
Several dredgers were visited during 1995 and ceramic
material and timbers were acquired from these (Figure 43).
This material offers just a small sample of the types of artefact
that are found in the region. Most of it dates to the Song
period. Establishing a precise provenance for this material
is impossible.
Including Bai Jiao 1 there are thirteen different sites reported
in the Dinghai area. They include:
ba i Ji a o 2
This site was most recently dived and inspected in the 1995
excavation season. The site appears very disturbed and spread
out across the sea bottom. The predominant ceramic material
retrieved during the inspection included coarse blue and white
ceramic fragments (Figure 44). and several earthenware jar rims
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and fragments. There was no shipwreck structure evidenced
during this survey.
So u t h ba i Ji a o
In 1995 the expedition went to a site near Bai Jiao, just slightly
south of it and adjacent to the mainland and conducted swim
searches in about 5 metres of water. A stone fishing weight
was bought up but no other material was encountered.
lo n G we n Yu 1 & 2
Long Wen Yu (dragon old man shape island) is a long reef lying
to the south-east of Dinghai peninsula, and Guiyu (tortoise
shaped island) is the name given to a small island to the northwest
of it. One site is located 100 metres to the north of Long
Wen Yu and the other is between the two islands. From site 1
the following material has been recovered: 4 Japanese bombs;
a black glazed ceramic bowl (tuhao zhan) and; some pieces
of timber. From site 2: tuhao zhan; one piece of armament on
which three Chinese characters have been stamped (Guo Xing
Fu, meaning ‘mansion of state family name’) dating to the
Ming Dynasty and some pieces of timber. The latter is about
18 metres deep at high tide and 12 metres deep at low tide.
The bottom is a mixture of shell and mud.
qi n G Yu 1 & 2
Qing Yu means blue island and the former site is located to
the south of the island from which a large iron box has been
reported although not recovered. The other site is located to the
north of the island from which a lot of white glazed ceramics
have been collected.
da Ch e n G zh a 1 & 2
Da Cheng Zha is an underwater reef lying to the south of
Dinghai peninsula and Yuzhi Wei island lies to the north west
of this. There are two sites the first of which is located 200
metres south east to Yuzhi Wei and south to Da Chen Zha. The
other is located 700 metres south-east of Yuzhi Wei. From site
1 many white glazed ceramic bowls have been salvaged. The
site is 10 metres deep at low tide and 16 metres deep at high
tide. The sea bottom is shell and mud. From the other site a
section of keel was salvaged in 1985. It was approximately 8 to
9 metres long. Black glazed bowls were also collected here.
Si t e to t h e S o u t h o f t h e k e l P G r o w i n G b e d S
A large bag of Chinese olives were collected from the vicinity
although salvagers would not reveal the whereabouts of this
site.
Gu o n zh o a iS l a n d
On the eastern side of this island the 1995 expedition went to
search for a shipwreck that had yielded timbers, a site from
which a cannon had come, and another which had black bowls.
Various swim searches and a tow search revealed nothing. The
depth was about 5–7 metres and the visibility was very low.
le a d i n G o t
An ingot of about 150 kilograms was recovered but subsequently
melted down. It was described as being a semi-ball shape and
empty inside. Provenance is unknown.
Ethnography of boat building in Fujian province
In the traditional history of China there has not been much
attention paid to the seafaring aspects (although there is an
increasing focus as evidenced by the UNESCO conference
on China’s Maritime Silk Route). What recording has been
done has been the work of the northern Chinese. Most of the