Cultural relics of the Yangtze River Estuary No.2 ancient ship leaving the water： showing the multiculturalism in the early days of Shanghai’s port opening.
Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai, September 6th Title: The cultural relics of the No.2 ancient ship in the Yangtze River estuary: presenting the multiculturalism in the early days of Shanghai’s opening.
Xinhua News Agency reporters Sun Liping and Ding Ting
"Dimethyl Chuantu" Cup, "Green Blowing" Glazed Porcelain, Blue and White Ear "Dowry Bottle" and even Vietnam hookah & HELIP; … In recent years, the ancient ship No.2 at the Yangtze River Estuary, which is sleeping under the north harbor channel in the northeast of hengsha island, Chongming, Shanghai, has been flooded with cultural relics.
On September 6th, the Shanghai Cultural Relics Protection Research Center announced a batch of water cultural relics after cleaning and preliminary textual research. Most of these porcelains are trade exchange porcelains, and they are well-made. They are like jigsaw pieces scattered on the seabed, which "collage" a vibrant and culturally diverse social life picture for people in the early days of Shanghai’s opening.
According to Zhai Yang, deputy director of Shanghai Cultural Relics Protection Research Center, more than 600 pieces of ceramics have been cleaned up from the preparation of the overall relocation and salvage project of the Yangtze River Estuary No.2 ancient ship. Archaeologists extracted and cleaned up some ancient ship-related cultural relics in the early stage of underwater investigation and overall migration pretreatment. Most of these porcelains are produced in Jingdezhen kilns, and some may be produced in Yixing kilns in Jiangsu and Yaokou in Fujian.
Carefully holding up a green glaze cup of Jingdezhen kiln in Tongzhi, Zhai Yang said that this cultural relic can be named "001". The green glazed cup is small and exquisite, and the bottom has the inscription of "Tongzhi Year System". Zhai Yang said that the bottom payment of this water cultural relic played an important role in dating the ancient ship No.2 in the Yangtze River estuary.
Zhai Yang is showing a green glazed cup of water cultural relics. Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xiang photo
At the bottom of the green glazed cup, there is a sketch of "Tongzhi Year System". Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xiang photo
"Jingdezhen Kiln began to burn green glazed porcelain in Xuande period of Ming Dynasty, and introduced European technology in the early Qing Dynasty to create a kind of ‘ Western green utensils ’ Enamel is different from traditional green glaze, and it is glazed by blowing glaze. This green glazed cup is slightly brown due to long-term corrosion by seawater. However, its own imprint of cultural exchanges outside junior high school in Shanghai is still vivid. " Zhai Yang said.
Compared with the "foreign" green glazed cup, the pastel "Dimethyl Chuantu" cup of Jingdezhen kiln in Tongzhi of Qing Dynasty is particularly antique. This pastel cup depicts two crabs walking with their crab claws open and reeds between them. Experts explained that two crabs mean "dimethyl"; Reed is homophonic. In the Qing Dynasty, the "second place" in the imperial examination, that is, the fourth place in palace examination, was called "Biography", which entrusted people’s earnest wishes for "to be no.1" at that time.
The "Dimethyl Biography" cup from the No.2 ancient ship in the Yangtze River Estuary symbolizes to be no.1. Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xiang photo
The underwater archaeological team also found a huge white and blue-and-white Panasonic Costus ear bottle piled in Jingdezhen kiln of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty. This porcelain bottle is 60 cm high, with a plump shoulder and a bulging belly. There are double lion earrings on both sides, and the body of the bottle is painted with a picture of Panasonic in blue and white. Experts explained that this style was popular in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, and it was mostly used for dowry, commonly known as "dowry bottle" among the people. Surprisingly, when archaeologists cleaned and collected the thick silt in the bottle layer by layer for further research in the future, they took out a total of 50 blue and white dragon cups from the "dowry bottle" in succession.
The picture shows the huge "dowry bottle" in Qing Dynasty. Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xiang photo
Archaeologists took out 50 blue and white dragon cups from the "belly" of porcelain bottles. Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xiang photo
The staff extracted the silt from the water cultural relics for archaeological research. Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xiang photo
There are Vietnamese hookah cans in the cultural relics of the ancient ship No.2 in the Yangtze River estuary. Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xiang photo
On March 2nd this year, National Cultural Heritage Administration and the Shanghai Municipal Government jointly announced the official launch of the archaeological and cultural relics protection project of the No.2 ancient ship in the Yangtze River Estuary. It has been made clear that the No.2 ancient ship in the Yangtze River Estuary was a trading merchant ship during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, and it was also a wooden sailing boat with the largest volume, the most complete preservation and a huge number of cultural relics on board. Recently, underwater archaeologists have found both rudder and iron anchor in the north of the ancient ship, which provides reference data for the "largest volume and most complete preservation" of the ancient ship No.2 in the Yangtze River estuary from another side.
The rudder stock of the No.2 ancient ship in the Yangtze Estuary is about 5.6 meters long and 42 centimeters in diameter, and it is also wrapped with 52 iron hoops with a width of about 7 centimeters, presumably to reinforce the rudder stock. The tiller is made of three pieces of wood surrounded by iron hoops, the longest of which is 6.26 meters. In addition, the iron anchor of the Changjiang Estuary No.2 ancient ship is a four-claw anchor, about 3.3 meters long (excluding iron rings), and it is also a relatively large ancient four-claw iron anchor found in China at present.
Rudder of the Yangtze River Estuary No.2 ancient ship. (Photo courtesy of Shanghai Wenbao Center)
Four-claw iron anchor of the Yangtze River Estuary No.2 ancient ship. (Photo courtesy of Shanghai Wenbao Center)
The Yangtze River Estuary No.2 ancient ship is expected to be salvaged before the end of this year. After that, according to the ancient ship archaeology and cultural relics protection plan, the cultural relics and archaeologists will carry out all-round research on the formation process, construction technology and route of the ancient ship site, explore the scientific, historical, artistic, social and cultural value of the ancient ship to the greatest extent, and gradually uncover many puzzles of the Yangtze River Estuary No.2 ancient ship.