9th Century Belitung Shipwreck: “Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds”

[Old Bookaroo]

I think all sides can agree that the battle between treasure hunters and archaeologists is going to be fought for a long, long time.

NPR “Morning Edition” Story just ran (May 4, 2011) an excellent story about the commercial recovery of a 9th Century shipwreck found in Southwest Asia and the fight over whether the Smithsonian Institution should host an exhibit of the recoveries. You can listen to the story and read more about it at:
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/04/135956044/from-beneath-a-smithsonian-shipwreck-controversy

Here are details on the traveling exhibition:
http://www.asia.si.edu/Shipwrecked/

It's important to note that this website includes a section on "Underwater Cultural Heritage – ISSUES RAISED BY THE BELITUNG SHIPWRECK."

Essential background reading on treasure wrecks in these waters include Frank Pope's first-rate Dragon Sea; A True Tale of Treasure, Archaeology, and Greed Off the Coast of Vietnam (2007); Tony Well's comprehensive Shipwrecks and Sunken Treasures in Southeast Asia (2002); and Treasures of the Deep; the Extraordinary Life and Times of Captain Mike Hatcher one of several books written about this area by Hugh Edwards (2000).

Good luck to all,

~The Old Bookaroo

 

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[bronzecannons]

I think all sides can agree that the battle between treasure hunters and archaeologists is going to be fought for a long, long time.

Unfortunately, Old Bookaroo is absolutely correct about that! Sucks too!

Anyway, see below article - which is a reply to these false 'looting' claims. This was sent direct to me from Tilman Walterfang (the owner of Seabed Explorations);

Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds
March 16, 2011 / http://www.asia.si.edu/press/2011/prShipwreckedBackgrounder.asp

Media Backgrounder: Discovery, Recovery, Conservation and Exhibition of the Belitung Cargo

In 1998, fishermen diving for sea cucumbers off the coast of Belitung, a small island in the Java Sea, discovered a mysterious mound rising above the flat seabed. It was found to consist of an ancient shipwreck with an immense cargo of Chinese ceramics. When the ship was recognized as an Arab dhow, scholars realized that this was the first intact proof of a maritime trade route between West Asia (probably the Abbasid capital of Baghdad) and China in the ninth-century CE.

* The objects were discovered in 1998 by local fishermen in shallow waters off the coast of Belitung Island, Indonesia.

* Neither local nor national Indonesian authorities had the resources or expertise necessary to mount a full-scale archaeological excavation and the newly discovered shipwreck was immediately vulnerable to looting and damage.

* At the same time, due to political turmoil caused by the fall of the 32-year-old Suharto regime in May 1998, it proved difficult for the Indonesian government to guarantee the security and safety of the shipwreck location, risking the complete destruction of an archaeological site of substantial promise.

* The Indonesian government recognized the danger to the site and ordered that the cargo be raised as quickly as possible. A license was issued to a local salvage company by the Republic of Indonesia’s National Committee for Salvage and Utilization of Valuable Objects from Sunken Ships (PANNAS BMKT), the government agency with oversight authority for sunken vessels and cargo.

* Indonesian authorities were aware that Seabed Explorations, a German commercial salvage enterprise was already operating in the area. Tilman Walterfang, director of Seabed Explorations, promptly agreed to provide the resources necessary to rescue the Belitung shipwreck and recover its contents. The Indonesian salvage company executed a contract of cooperation with Seabed Explorations.

* Excavation at the site commenced in September 1998 and was conducted over the course of two seasons. These seasons were interrupted by a break during the monsoon period.

* The Indonesian navy was permanently deployed at the base camp during the monsoon and did its best to safeguard the site. Despite this naval presence, fending off looters continued to be difficult.

* Due to the threat of looting, the first season of work focused on the retrieval of the ship’s cargo. During the second season, archaeological work was supervised under direction of Dr. Michael Flecker, an experienced speNothingt in Southeast Asian underwater archaeology. Flecker made records of the boat and site, and supervised the retrieval of organic materials—including samples from the hull—providing scientific documentation that eventually led scholars to understand that the Belitung wreck was the oldest Arab vessel discovered in Asian waters.

* The ship’s cargo contained the largest group of Tang dynasty artifacts ever found. Approximately 60,000 objects were recovered. With licenses from the Indonesian authorities, they were exported to New Zealand and Germany for conservation, research and treatment.

* Seabed Explorations commissioned an international group of scholars to research the finds. The result was two major studies, one on the finds as a whole and a second on the Changsha ceramics that formed the bulk of the cargo. Neither has been published, but these scholars were the principal contributors to Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds, the catalogue that accompanies the exhibition. They include John Guy, curator of South and Southeast Asian Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; François Louis, associate professor, Bard Graduate Center, New York; and Hsieh Ming-Liang, chair, Graduate Institute of Art History, National Taiwan University, Taipei.

* The Republic of Indonesia has declared that the export of the objects was approved by the Indonesian government and conformed to all applicable laws and regulations.

* The conservation of the objects was performed to professional museum standards. German conservator Andreas Rettel, trained at the prestigious center of the RömischGermanisches Zentralmuseum in Mainz, supervised a team of conservators in New Zealand and Germany.

* The efforts associated with the recovery of both ship fragments and cargo have allowed for a radical reappraisal of a Maritime Silk Route to China and West Asia, answering questions on the nature of Asian sea trade with far greater certainty than was possible before.

* In 2005, with the goal of keeping this unprecedented discovery intact for future generations, the excavated cargo was sold to the Sentosa Leisure Group, a statutoryboard under the Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry, for the amount of US $32 million.

* Shortly after the exhibition Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds opened on Feb. 19, 2011, the Singapore Tourism Board announced plans for a future permanent exhibition at a National Heritage Board of Singapore museum that will ensure the cargo will continue to receive a high standard of curatorial supervision and conservation oversight, while providing access for the public and scholars.

* The exhibition now on view in Singapore and proposed for a worldwide tour, including a stop at the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, will be accompanied by a public conference in Washington, D.C., focused on the preservation of underwater cultural heritage.

* Julian Raby, director of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, will be co-convener of Singapore’s first conference on underwater cultural heritage on June 18, 2011.

* The scientific excavation of underwater artifacts is a relatively new field, having come of age in the second half of the 20th century. Today, a number of national and international organizations act in an advisory capacity for issues surrounding underwater cultural heritage management. The organizations have issued several statements outlining best practices. These include the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, which came into force in 2009. Approximately 30 countries are signatories to this convention and some 150 are not, including Indonesia, the United States and Great Britain.

* Some Belitung objects can be found for sale on internet sites. These were likely pilfered from the site before Seabed Explorations began supervising it, or between seasons of excavation. Those currently available are all Changsha bowls, identical to those preserved in Singapore, where the collection comprises some 47,000 bowls.

* For detailed information about Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds and underwater cultural heritage, including the conservation of the finds, see http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/SW-CulturalHeritage.asp.

 

[hamza]

sobertruth
Commented 2 months ago in World
“Lu Caixa wrote in: http://www.iias.nl/sites/default/files/IIAS_NL58_404142.pdf
...The realities of Southeast Asia are harsh. With a dearth of public funds available for maritime archaeology, wrecks discovered have either to be left to looters or excavated in conjunction with commercial interests. There seems to be no other option at the present. However, the degree to which a scientific element is stressed during the excavation can distinguish what is desirable from what should be condemned. The excavation of the Belitung has been acknowledged as an admirable example of what can be achieved under difficult conditions in Southeast Asia. What distinguished the company that carried out the Belitung project from some other commercial operators is that the ship structure itself was properly recorded, the cargo was kept together rather than dispersed, and the finds were well conserved, studied, catalogued, and published. A global exhibition was created and a reconstructed dhow based on information gleaned from the excavation sailed across the Indian Ocean. Few non-commercial excavations have achieved comparable results with a project of this scale and complexity. It is difficult to imagine how this particular project could have been financed or organized without commercial involvement....”

Pamelia Lee, a former senior consultant of the Singapore
Tourism Board who also played a major role in bringing the
artefacts to Singapore, feels that all those who believe in the
protection of underwater heritage must find more realistic and
workable solutions. She asked: “It begs the question: could
Tilman Walterfang, the explorer salvager, be following equally
high conservation and documentation standards, but carrying
out the operation in accordance with the circumstances?”
One suggestion she made is to grade commercial companies
for professionalism, which separates treasure hunters merely
in the game for profit from those who are more responsible
and who fulfil the objectives of UNESCO and the scientific
community. She said: “In my view, it is not the ‘hat’ that is worn,
UNESCO or non-UNESCO, that is important. What is important
is the integrity of the individuals leading the excavation as well
as the depth of thinking and patience of the financial backers.”

The Belitung Tea Bowl in the Eyes
of an American Scholar
(by Professor Victor H. Mair from the
University of Pennsylvania)
The educational and historical value of
the collection is simply enormous, and
those who have called for the cancellation
of the exhibition are, in effect and in
fact, denying access to the wealth of
information embodied in the Belitung
shipwreck. As a remarkable case in point,
the Belitung chazhanzi (“tea bowl”)
constitutes the single most important and
solid datum for the history of tea in the
Tang period and arguably for the history
of tea in general. So vital is this unique
object from the Belitung shipwreck that
it became the thematic logo for our entire
book (The True History of Tea, written by
myself and Erling Hoh), yet it is only one
out of roughly 60,000 artefacts preserved
and conserved by the excavators.
I shudder to think that, were it not for
their swift, yet rigorous and careful
actions, this inestimably precious
artefact might well have been lost forever
to the depredations of callous looting
and the vagaries of ocean currents.
When we multiply the significance of this
one bowl several thousand-fold, we can
get a sense of the diminution that would
have resulted if the Belitung shipwreck
had not been rescued by the decisive
actions of the excavators. Consequently,
it should be obvious that the detriment
to human understanding of the
past would be of incalculably tragic
proportions.

 

[Ken Yeung]

Hello. Apologies for resurrecting an old thread but it seems the most relevant place to post a link to an article I wrote recently about shipwrecks in Indonesian waters:
Plunder Vs Ethics for Shipwrecked Treasure | Jakarta Expat
Perhaps it may be of interest to some of you. Indonesian authorities tend to blame "foreign looters" for unlicensed excavations, although most of the actual looting is being done by Indonesian crews, generally poorly paid, working for Indonesian dealers and collectors who flout their own country's regulations on maritime heritage.

 

[old man]

Hello. Apologies for resurrecting an old thread but it seems the most relevant place to post a link to an article I wrote recently about shipwrecks in Indonesian waters:
Plunder Vs Ethics for Shipwrecked Treasure | Jakarta Expat
Perhaps it may be of interest to some of you. Indonesian authorities tend to blame "foreign looters" for unlicensed excavations, although most of the actual looting is being done by Indonesian crews, generally poorly paid, working for Indonesian dealers and collectors who flout their own country's regulations on maritime heritage.

Ken, Nice article. Please keep us informed on what is going on in your area. I know Cornelius is an expert on wrecks in your area.

 

[Ken Yeung]

Ken, Nice article. Please keep us informed on what is going on in your area. I know Cornelius is an expert on wrecks in your area.

Thanks. I am no expert. In researching that article, I encountered a lot of conflicting information and opinions. It seems a few excavations are happening now but not a great deal is being reported. The risk of reporting a site to Indonesian authorities is that it will likely be looted/damaged pending the slow process of gaining approval for excavation. Although some salvage firms are doing things by the book/law.

 

[hamza]

Best article ever about the Belitung Shipwreck and the Unesco Convention

I think all sides can agree that the battle between treasure hunters and archaeologists is going to be fought for a long, long time.

NPR “Morning Edition” Story just ran (May 4, 2011) an excellent story about the commercial recovery of a 9th Century shipwreck found in Southwest Asia and the fight over whether the Smithsonian Institution should host an exhibit of the recoveries. You can listen to the story and read more about it at:
From Beneath, A Smithsonian Shipwreck Controversy : NPR

Here are details on the traveling exhibition:
Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds

It's important to note that this website includes a section on "Underwater Cultural Heritage – ISSUES RAISED BY THE BELITUNG SHIPWRECK."

Essential background reading on treasure wrecks in these waters include Frank Pope's first-rate Dragon Sea; A True Tale of Treasure, Archaeology, and Greed Off the Coast of Vietnam (2007); Tony Well's comprehensive Shipwrecks and Sunken Treasures in Southeast Asia (2002); and Treasures of the Deep; the Extraordinary Life and Times of Captain Mike Hatcher one of several books written about this area by Hugh Edwards (2000).

Good luck to all,

~The Old Bookaroo

UNESCO AND THE BELITUNG SHIPWRECK: THE NEED
FOR A PERMISSIVE DEFINITION OF
“COMMERCIAL EXPLOITATION”
http://docs.law.gwu.edu/stdg/gwilr/PDFs/45-4/6- Coleman Note.pdf