Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Brown
History of
Shipwreck Excavation
in Southeast Asia
Roxanna M. Brown
the Belitung wreck revive these old questions 7 Sieveking et al. 1954.
about the origins of blue-and-white and make The first of the two sites known prior to 1974
the discussions ever more interesting.4 involves a small vessel assigned to the thirdfifth
centuries found in the Pontian River, Malaysia.
In 1974, shortly before the Sinan wreck was In addition to being the subject of the earliest
first discovered by Korean fishermen, another report on an antique boat in Southeast Asia, the
shipwreck, this one from the fifteenth century, Pontian vessel remains the oldest known vessel
was discovered by fishermen in the Gulf of Thai- in Southeast Asia.6 The second site involves three
land. Identified as the Ko Khram (or Sattahip) vessels of the eighteenthnineteenth centuries
wreck, it carried a surprising mixture of trade ce- that were discovered together at Johore Lama,
ramics from southern China, northern Vietnam, Malaysia in the 1950s.7
MYANMAR
(BURMA) VIETNAM
LAOS
Hoi An
THAILAND
INDIAN OCEAN
CAMBODIA
Ko Kradat
Binh Thuan
Phu Quoc II
Ko Samui Vung Tau
Singtai
Longquan
MALAYSIA
Xuande
Royal Nahai
Nanyang
Desaru
Turiang
SINGAPORE
INDONESIA
BELITUNG
Maranei
Intan
Java Sea Wreck
INDONES
TAIWAN
San Isidro
PHILIPPINES
Thitu Reef
PACIFIC OCEAN
BRUNEI
MALAYSIA
INDONESIA
INDONESIA
PAPUA-NEW GUINEA
DONESIA
Dutch wrecks in the Indian Ocean off the coast of teentheighteenth centuries.19 For this reason the 18 Green 1977.
Africa for instance, the remains of a Portuguese Belitung wreck offers a further point of signifi- 19 Tripati et al. 2001. More
vessel in the Seychelles, and a few other European cance. It originated in the western Indian Ocean recently, the remains of an
elevenththirteenth-centuries
vessel were discovered on land in
South India; see Pedersen 2003.
Southeast Asia, the exhibition is wide-ranging. from the Maranei wreck,23 which is probably no 22 The Tek Sing was discovered
Aside from Malaysia, assorted shipwreck ma- later than the Yongle reign (14031424), and they in May 1999; see Nagel Auctions
2000.
terials are generally on permanent display in were also the latest coins recovered from two sites
23 Flecker 2001b.
national museums in Thailand (particularly the that belong to the mid- and late fifteenth cen-
Maritime Museum at Chantaburi), the Philip- tury: the Pandanan24 and Hoi An25 ships respec- 24 Loviny 1996.
pines, and Vietnam. Artefacts from a ship that tively. Radiocarbon results, moreover, most often 25 Butterfields 2000.
sank about 1500 discovered off its coast are on give possible time ranges of 150 years and more, 26 One of the nine Butuan boats,
view at the Brunei National Museum.21 with each of those years even the first and last which are otherwise thought to
be thirteenth-century, may be-
in a given range equally possible. In most cases, long to about the fourth century;
It should be mentioned that in the case of Eu- the ceramics recovered can already be dated with see Peralta 1980.
ropean vessels such as the Nassau (Dutch 1606), similar or better precision. Radiocarbon testing
Risdam (Dutch 1727) and Diana (British 1817) is however valuable as collaborating evidence for
that were excavated off Malaysia, both the name the age of a shipwreck.
of the vessel and the exact date of the loss are
known from contemporaneous records. For the So few of the known wrecksites belong to the
many Asian vessels discovered in Southeast Asia, years before the thirteenth century that they can
however, neither a name nor date are known. The be quickly reviewed. The Pontian boat (third
Tek Sing, a Chinese vessel that sank in Indone- fifth centuries)26 and the Belitung wreck (ninth
sian waters in 1822, is an exception.22 The Asian century) are so far the earliest known vessels. As
wrecks are usually given site names, and the date already mentioned elsewhere in this volume (pp.
of sinking must be ascertained from the finds. 3138), the Belitung is also the only known vessel
in Southeast Asia that exhibits Arab/Indian con-
Key evidence for proposing a date of loss includes struction. Although written sources attest that
the specific types and mixture of ceramics recov- vessels from the Indian Ocean made voyages to
ered, along with the range of non-ceramic arte- Southeast Asia and China at least as early as the
facts. Yet, even when there are dated coins and fourthfifth centuries, no remains of these early
radiocarbon test results, the proposed age for un- ships were known before the excavation of the
recorded shipwrecks will always be an approxi- Belitung site.
mation. The ship cannot be earlier than the latest