by On the morning of March 2, the largest overall salvage and protection project of ancient sunken ship in China – the archaeology and cultural relics protection project of Changjiang Estuary No.
2 ancient ship was officially launched in Shanghai.
As early as December 22, 2016, a hull timber of the ancient ship “Changjiang Estuary No.
2″ found in the trial salvage stage was “deposited” in the Chongming District Museum.
This “deposit” is more than five years.
In the stele Gallery of Chongming Museum lies an opaque sink with an air dried wood inside.
At a glance, how can we expect this seemingly ordinary wood to “cross” and appear in front of us for nearly 150 years? Feng Xidan, deputy curator of Chongming District Museum, still remembers the scene when the trailer carried it into the museum – he saw such a long car for the first time, loaded with 22 meter “Changjiang Estuary No.
2″ wooden components, driving all the way into the stele corridor and carefully “landing” the wood just out of the water.
Today, a closer look at the wood can also find traces of shellfish attached to it.
At that time, the wood was covered with moss, algae and shellfish.
For more than five years, no one has complained that the wood hinders the normal visit, but the staff in the museum did not explain more.
First, the archaeological team has not completed the “exploration” in the archaeological sense, and the popular science of the public can only be suspended; Second, although the Chongming District Museum is only a “temporary custody” of cultural relics, in the process of docking with the archaeological team, deputy curator Feng Xidan realized that things are not so simple.
After the discovery of “Changjiang Estuary No.
2″ in Hengsha waters, the archaeological team urgently needs to find a place where trial fishing wooden components can be placed all over Shanghai.
Chongming museum was selected because of its large site and can meet the needs of cultural relics and wood technology protection.
The requirements for the protection of cultural relics and science and technology are harsh, and the whole team needs tacit cooperation.
The wood just fished out from the sea has high salt content.
If it is directly exposed in a dry environment, the remaining chloride ions will damage the interior of the wood.
Therefore, Chongming Museum reinstalls a faucet in the stele corridor to create a water storage environment for wooden components, change water regularly, and carry out a one-year “salt replacement” process.
Although the air drying process is controllable, the archaeological team is still worried about the damage of termites and other organisms, so the Chongming museum will also let the staff check whether there are “unidentified creatures” nesting on the wood every day.
For more than five years, scientific protection has been continuous and uninterrupted.
Every week, a scientific researcher will come to Chongming Museum from downtown Shanghai to observe the state of wood and record relevant data.
Dr.
Zhao Peng, a staff member in charge of specific protection, told reporters: “the reason why we pay attention to its protection is that after the overall salvage work of the ancient ship is completed, this wood will be installed back to its original position to restore the original appearance of the ancient ship.
Ancient China did not pay attention to the archives management of craftsmen, but physical materials can help restore the archives and textual research the history at that time.” It is understood that before the wooden components are officially placed in the “Changjiang Estuary No.
2″ ancient ship, citizens and tourists can see the true face of antiquities in Chongming Museum.
Friendly tips: visiting civilization is very important.
It is not advisable to destroy cultural relics.
The ancient ship No.
2 at the Changjiang Estuary is a wooden sailboat.
It is confirmed that it was in the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty (AD 1862-1875).
The ship type is suspected to be a flat bottomed sand ship widely used for water transportation in Shanghai during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The ship is buried in the middle of the ancient water area, with a depth of about 8.5 meters and a depth of about 8.5 meters.
The ship’s hull is about 8.5 meters.
At present, a large number of exquisite cultural relics such as Jingdezhen kiln porcelain have been found in the cabin.
Purple sand ware, hookah cans made in Vietnam, remnants of wooden buckets, porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty, etc.
have also been unearthed around the hull.
In particular, the “Tongzhi year system” on the bottom of some water porcelain in ancient ships provides an important basis for the dating of ancient ships.
The Yangtze River Estuary No.
2 ancient ship is another landmark discovery of Underwater Archaeology in China after the “Nanhai No.
1″ shipwreck of Guangdong Song Dynasty discovered 35 years ago.
It is one of the ancient wooden shipwrecks with the largest volume, the most complete preservation and the expected huge number of cultural relics on board in China and even in the world.
It is a precious cultural heritage and has extremely important historical, scientific and artistic value.
This archaeology is also one of the important signs that China’s underwater archaeology has entered the world-class level.
Reporter: Liu Liming photographer: Zhu Yuwei editor: Liu Liming..
