Religions > Atheism > The 1,200-year-old sunken treasure that revealed an undiscovered China
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Religions > Atheism |
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"maff" |
| Date: |
14 Apr 2004 05:21:06 AM |
| Object: |
The 1,200-year-old sunken treasure that revealed an undiscovered China |
The 1,200-year-old sunken treasure that revealed an undiscovered China
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=511213
By Tony Paterson in Berlin
14 April 2004
The journey began in a noisy, provincial factory that churns out
concrete pillars for the German building industry. It ended with
cities bidding for the world's largest collection of ninth-century
Chinese treasure
Tilman Walterfang, 47, was works director at the concrete company,
miles from the sea in Germany. Now he presides over a
multimillion-dollar haul of Chinese treasure discovered in the seas of
south-east Asia.
Tang dynasty
http://news.google.com/news?q=%20%22Tang%20dynasty%22&num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=gn
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Tang+dynasty%22&num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&tab=nw&sa=N
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_epq=Tang%20dynasty&safe=images&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&as_scoring=d&lr=&num=100&hl=en
Is the wakening giant a monster?
http://tinyurl.com/iws6
A Blueprint for the Future
http://tinyurl.com/9vga
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| User: "KLM" |
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| Title: Re: The 1,200-year-old sunken treasure that revealed an undiscovered China |
14 Apr 2004 05:37:06 AM |
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On 14 Apr 2004 03:21:06 -0700, (maff) wrote:
The 1,200-year-old sunken treasure that revealed an undiscovered China
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=511213
Beautiful story. But one very puzzling question. Its in 50 feet of
water therefore very close to the coast. Its between Borneo and
Sumatra and therefore definitely in Indonesian waters. So where is
the report of the Indonesian authorities participation in this
archaelogical find? In this time and day no private treasure hunter
can just go in and grab the find. They have to get government
clearance and the necessary permits. The excavation must preserve as
much archaelogical data as possible. The Government will most likely
want to claim ownership of everything, especially an Indonesian
government. Indonesian museum authorities and scientists will want
control, etc.
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| User: "SMChristenson" |
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| Title: Re: The 1,200-year-old sunken treasure that revealed an undiscovered China |
14 Apr 2004 08:16:40 AM |
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On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 03:21:06 -0700, maff wrote:
The 1,200-year-old sunken treasure that revealed an undiscovered China
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=511213
"Until Mr Walterfang's find, archeologists had assumed that 1,200 years
ago, China was a relatively backward country which relied primarily on
agriculture to survive. They had little notion that the Tang dynasty of
the period, had already started to set up maritime trading routes that
were to establish China as the first great sea power, 200 years before the
Spanish, Portuguese and British had theirs."
The now-defunct Lingua Franca in one of their last issues had a drawing of
a Chinese ship that made their contemporary Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria
look like tugboats.
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: The 1,200-year-old sunken treasure that revealed an undiscovered China |
16 Apr 2004 09:52:22 AM |
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On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 08:16:40 -0500, SMChristenson <smchris@visi.com>,
Message ID: <pan.2004.04.14.13.16.39.759369@visi.com> wrote in
alt.atheism;
The 1,200-year-old sunken treasure that revealed an undiscovered China
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=511213
The 1,200-year-old sunken treasure that revealed an undiscovered China
By Tony Paterson in Berlin
14 April 2004
The journey began in a noisy, provincial factory that churns out
concrete pillars for the German building industry. It ended with cities
bidding for the world's largest collection of ninth-century Chinese
treasure
Tilman Walterfang, 47, was works director at the concrete company, miles
from the sea in Germany. Now he presides over a multimillion-dollar haul
of Chinese treasure discovered in the seas of south-east Asia.
Mr Walterfang's fascination with submerged wrecks began when an
Indonesian employee described the translucent, reef-strewn waters of his
native island of Belitung, between Borneo and Sumatra. Treasure, he
said, lay under the waves.
The stories were irresistible. Mr Walterfang packed his scuba gear and
flew to Indonesia with his employee. The trip was intended to be only a
summer holiday diving adventure but it changed Mr Walterfang's life.
He chucked in his job and moved to Indonesia. Swapping central Germany's
grim industrial landscape for white, palm-fringed beaches and the azure
blue Java sea, he lived in a waterfront villa that belonged to an former
Indonesian government minister.
Mr Walterfang read intensively about the rich maritime history of the
region, for centuries among the world's major ocean thoroughfares, which
is still infested with pirates. He made friends with fishermen, divers
so poor they use improvised breathing-masks fed with air pumped from the
surface through garden hoses, instead of gas bottles, to reach the
ocean's depths. Above all, Mr Walterfang dived too.
He followed a lead provided by his fishermen friends who had presented
him with a handful of broken pottery they had gathered during a dive.
Donning his black, neoprene wet-suit and diving bottle he plunged 50ft
down to a reef off Belitung.
"I landed on what looked like an ordinary section of coral reef," Mr
Walterfang told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine. "But it was actually an
underwater mound the size of a small hill that was built almost entirely
of tens of thousands of pieces of well-preserved ceramic pottery."
That was six years ago. His discovery was the second of three wrecks -
the third being the Tang - which has turned out to be an undersea
treasure trove of such massive historical significance that Shanghai,
Singapore and Doha in Qatar are vying with each other to buy the cargo.
The 60,000 pieces Mr Walterfang collected from the seabed, include
porcelain ceramic wine jugs, and tea bowls, embossed golden and silver
chalices and plates found to be 1,200 years old.
The treasure was part of a huge cargo of eighth-century porcelain that
traders from the Chinese Tang dynasty had put aboard an Arab dhow for
export to Malaysia, India and what is now Saudi Arabia. The dhow's
remains, found among the treasure, suggest the ship was wrecked on the
treacherous underwater reefs of Indonesia's Karimata straits on its
outward voyage through the Java sea.
Until Mr Walterfang's find, archeologists had assumed that 1,200 years
ago, China was a relatively backward country which relied primarily on
agriculture to survive. They had little notion that the Tang dynasty of
the period, had already started to set up maritime trading routes that
were to establish China as the first great sea power, 200 years before
the Spanish, Portuguese and British had theirs.
Yet the "Batu Hitam wreck", as Mr Walterfang's find is described, has
forced them to alter their perception of ninth-century China radically.
John Guy, curator of the Indian and South-east Asian section of the
Victoria & Albert Museum said: "Sometimes things happen which
dramatically broaden the limits of our knowledge. The discovery of the
Tang period wreck is such an event."
Archeologists say the Batu Hitam wreck provides incontrovertible
evidence that, 1,200 years ago, China had started sea trade as an
alternative to the then well-established Silk Road that extended from
China through Asia to the Arab world. The overland route was fraught
with problems: in the eighth century the Chinese had not yet developed
the skills to bake pottery to present levels of durability, so many of
their exports arrived at their destinations shattered and broken.
Export by sea became the logical alternative. Yet, as the Batu Hitam
wreck has established, the Chinese were at first forced to rely on the
expertise of Arab seamen who had perfected the dhow as an ocean-going
vessel, to export their goods. But the wealth China created through its
maritime exports enabled the country to build its own navy. By 1237,
China was the predominant global sea power, with 52,000 seamen manning a
vast fleet.
Tilman Walterfang's collection including blue, and green and white
porcelain pieces, 22 silver and seven gold chalices and plates is now
stacked in a closely-monitored aircraft hangar in New Zealand. The banks
of shelves containing the priceless objects are 15ft high.
The first clues to the age of the treasure were provided by inscription
on the bottom of two glazed bowls recovered from the wreck which dated
them as being from the "16th day of the seventh month of the second year
of the reign of Emperor Yingsong", which established 826 as the date.
A second clue came from the remains of an aniseed and raisin concoction
that had been hermetically sealed from the ravages of time and water in
an earthenware jug. Radio carbon analysis in New Zealand showed that the
contents dated from between 680 and 890.
A third clue was an inscription under the heavily corroded metal of a
bronze mirror which established the item had been smelted "100 times" in
the city of Yangzhou on the Yangtze river in December, 758.
Evidence that the cargo played a key part in China's eighth-century
global export drive was provided by a chemical analysis of the wreck,
which showed that the 90ft vessel was built of Indian and African wood
as an Arab dhow.
Michael Flecker, the Australian archeologist who worked on the wreck
said: "We can assume the ship was manned by Arabs and Indians who had
intended to sail back from Yangzhou to one of the caliphates of the Arab
world when they were wrecked in a storm off Belitung."
Final proof that the treasure was authentic was provided by 81-year-old
Professor Doc Geng Baochang, the deputy director of Peking's Forbidden
city and China's foremost expert on antique ceramics. He believes the
treasure belongs to China.
Yet Shanghai is the only Chinese city bidding for the collection.
Archaeologists hope the eventual buyer of the treasure, which is now in
the final stages of desalination, will showcase the collection in its
own museum to display the unique time capsule from China's golden age.
© 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
Stoney
"Designated Rascal and Rapscallion
and
SCAMPERMEISTER!"
When in doubt, SCAMPER about!
When things are fair, SCAMPER everywhere!
When things are rough, can't SCAMPER enough!
/end humour alert
alt.atheism military veteran #11
{so much for the 'no atheists in foxholes' rubbish}
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