November 2, 2016

"On a normal day in 1998, some fishermen off of Billiton Island on the east coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, dived into the waters to harvest sea cucumbers as they did every day.

What the fishermen harvested were not only sea cucumbers, but a stoneware jar covered with sea weed and coral. This marked a prelude to the most fabulous marine archaeological discovery ever made in Southeast Asian sea areas.

Four years ago I got a chance in Singapore to view these treasures salvaged from the wreck of an Arabian dhow called Batu Hitam that has been sunken for over 1,000 years. Among around 60,000 items are wares made of copper, porcelain and gold. A porcelain bowl bears an inscription of date 'the 16th day of the seventh month of the second year of the Baoli reign,' or 826 AD in the Western calendar. That was Tang Dynasty (618-907), the most open period in Chinese history."

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http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1015481.shtml 

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