Marine archaeologists have recovered thousands of artefacts believed to date back to the Ming dynasty from a 400-year-old shipwreck in Malaysian waters, local media said on Sunday.
More than 6 000 pieces of porcelain estimated to be worth between 700 ringgit ($184) and 1 400 ringgit each were salvaged from the wreck off the eastern Terengganu state.
”Unfortunately hundreds of years of immersion destroyed most of the cargo,” Department of Museums and Antiquities Director General Adi Taha said. ”We believe the 21m vessel sank after an explosion or was blown up by a rival ship.”
Twenty percent of the findings were in their original condition, while the rest were broken or in pieces, Bernama news agency quoted Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Rais Yatim as saying.
The ship is believed to have been built in the Philippines by the Portugese and used for trading in Chinese porcelain.
The porcelain may have been produced at the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen and Zhangzhou in China during the 17th century, Adi said.
Some of the bowls showed the mark of Emperor Chenghua, who ruled from 1465 to 1487, and some others showed the reign mark of Emperor Chia-Ching, who ruled from 1522 to 1566, he said. The Ming dynasty dates from 1368 to 1644.
A long keris, or sword, of Malay origin was also recovered from the wreck.
”The keris could have belonged to a Malay who was hired by the ship owner to help navigate the South China Sea or a gift from a Malay dignitary,” Rais was quoted by the Star newspaper as saying. — Sapa-AFP