Details of Blackstone

In 2002, after the domestic cultural relics learned of "Blackstone", it immediately attracted great attention. Mr. Zhang Pu of Nanjing Museum once lamented that "Blackstone" is a rare treasure house, and its treasures are rich in connotation, huge in quantity and well preserved. Since 2002, Yangzhou Museum, Shanghai Museum, Hunan Museum and other domestic cultural and art institutions have put forward purchase intentions, but Blackstone offered 40 million US dollars for the rescue of cultural relics, and proposed that the treasures must be purchased as a whole. In addition, according to the contract, the proceeds from the auction of the treasure by the exploration company must be shared with the Indonesian government, and the distribution plan has not been agreed, so the treasure was not taken out for auction.

SentosaLeisure in Singapore first bought the exhibition rights of the salvaged cultural relics for several years, and then raised funds to buy these precious cultural relics. In 2005, all the salvaged cultural relics were settled in the Lion City (another name of Singapore) in batches. The Lion City was donated by the descendants of the late Deba Qiu, a wealthy hotel businessman, and helped Sentosa Leisure Group raise more than 30 million US dollars to buy it. Although these important cultural relics were not purchased in China, it is a blessing that they finally settled in Singapore, a Chinese cultural circle. According to Chen (who participated in the salvage work) quoted in Li Aihua, the hull of Blackstone is well preserved, and the damaged holes at the bottom of the sunken ship are presumed to be caused by hitting rocks. The structure of the seabed at the sinking site is clay rather than rock, and the fully loaded ship stirs the seabed clay and is buried to form a protective layer. Most of the ceramics carried on the ship are stored in a large pile fired in Guangdong, which contains Changsha kiln porcelain, lead bars and spices.

After the Blackstone was salvaged, researchers were very concerned about where the ancient ship came from and what kind of structure it belonged to. Article 5 of the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics stipulates that all cultural relics left in People's Republic of China (PRC)'s underground, internal waters and territorial waters belong to the state. However, there is no mention of salvaging China treasures overseas. The goods transported by Blackstone basically come from China, mainly ceramics, and the port of origin is undoubtedly China. According to many media reports, Blackstone's hull is basically intact and tied with ropes. Structurally, it is a single-masted seamed sailboat made in India or Arabia. This hull structure is a typical Arabian seamed ship, and nails are not used to make the hull. According to Li Aihua, Blackstone salvaged more than 67,000 cultural relics and ceramics, 98% of which were China ceramics. Strange cultural relics include 65,438+00 pieces of gold wares, which are as beautiful as those unearthed in hejia village, Xi 'an, Tang Dynasty in 65,438+0970. Among them, Hu Renle's octagonal gold cup is 10 cm high, which is slightly larger than the two octagonal gold cups unearthed in hejia village. There are also 24 silverware, 0/8 silver collars and 30 bronze mirrors. The single silver collar weighs 2 kg. Other sporadic cultural relics may be the personal belongings of the crew, including two glass bottles, a lacquer plate (fragments), ivory game equipment (like a piece of land for recreation), inkstone and ink (fragments).

There are about 56,500 pieces of porcelain in Changsha kiln, mainly bowls, followed by pots. Other types of utensils include cups, plates, cans, boxes, cans, smoking stoves, oil lamps and a small number of porcelain sculptures of the Chinese zodiac. There is a porcelain bowl engraved with "July 16th, the second year of Paulie". The design of the bowl heart is close to the Arabic word "Allah", and the year of Bao Li is the year number of Tang Jingzong (826). Some bowls are written with "tea cups", which clearly indicate the purpose of tea set in porcelain bowls. Some bowls are written with the words "History of the Famous Mencius Philosopher in Scarecrow City, Hunan Province", indicating that the products are from Changsha Kiln, with the nature of advertising language, and are equipped with a large number of pictures of flowers and leaves, lotus flowers, birds and rubbing fish. These newly discovered Changsha kiln products greatly enrich the connotation and artistic decoration of Changsha kiln porcelain, and also provide evidence for establishing the status of Changsha kiln porcelain export kiln. The pattern and decoration with Arabic style indicate that Changsha kiln in Tang Dynasty adjusted its product characteristics to meet the market demand in West Asia.

The recovered porcelain also includes 200 pieces of Yue kiln celadon produced in Zhejiang, 350 pieces of northern white porcelain, 200 pieces of northern white glazed celadon and more than 700 pieces of coarse celadon fired at the mouth of Guangdong local kiln. There are many mysteries on Blackstone. Take white glazed celadon as an example. The style of white glazed green painted pottery porcelain salvaged from the water is similar to that of similar products fired in Gongxian County, Henan Province and Hebei Province. But "Blackstone" salvaged a cauldron with a long handle, which was 1 m high and had a slender and strange shape. No products of the same shape have been found in China. A white glazed green faucet of the same size was salvaged from the same boat and looked like a pot cover. In addition, the two bowls and plates in this batch of white glazed celadon are engraved with the words "Ying" and "Jinfeng" at the foot respectively.

Many batches of porcelain with the word "Ying" have been found in the past. More than 20 bowls engraved with the word "win" have been found in Yao Xing site in Neiqiu, Hebei Province, and such bowls engraved with the word "win" have also been unearthed in Daming Palace site in Xi. In the fifth year of Tang Xiantong in Yixian County, Hebei Province (864), a white porcelain note with the word "Ying" was unearthed from Sun Shaoju's tomb. White porcelain with the word "Ying" has been unearthed in Ximing Temple in Chang 'an, Tang Dynasty and Qingyuan Temple. These "Ying" porcelains unearthed in China and handed down from generation to generation are all white porcelains, all carved on the bottom of the utensils, dating from the middle and late Tang Dynasty. The research community generally believes that it is a product of Xingyao in Hebei Province, and it is made by Royal Dayingku. Xi collector Zhang Guozhu has a piece of Yao Xing white porcelain bowl in Tang Dynasty. The bottom of the bowl is engraved with the word "Daying", which was collected from the construction site of Anjinhao Road, Xi. It was verified that the word "Ying" was indeed the porcelain of the Royal Daying Library. The white glazed celadon plate of "Blackstone" is engraved with the words "Ying" and "Jinfeng", which shows that it is closely related to Xing Kiln and deserves further study. A large number of gold and silver vessels, the word "English" and the white glazed celadon donated when the Blackstone sank seem to reveal the unusual characteristics of this Arab merchant ship: it is likely to carry diplomatic envoys or have diplomatic missions, and on the way back, it carried the Royal Camp Library as a document for the distribution of national gifts.

Porcelain salvaged from the Blackstone shipwreck includes blue-and-white plate in Tang Dynasty, Xing kiln plate, white glazed blue-and-green porcelain, Yue kiln porcelain, Changsha kiln porcelain and so on. The most precious are three blue-and-white porcelains of the Tang Dynasty, which are the earliest and most complete blue-and-white porcelains discovered in China so far. However, it is debatable that these three blue-and-white plates are verified as kiln products in Gongxian County, Henan Province, and their patterns are similar to those of Tang blue-and-white pots, bowls and pillows found in Yangzhou. From the enlarged picture, the blue-and-white painted lines in the glazed erosion area do not exist. The blue-and-white porcelain of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China in the north has an over-glaze blue-and-white process, in which cobalt is coated on the glaze with a mixed glaze, and cobalt is melted in the glaze when fired. Whether Blackstone is also a blue-and-white porcelain painted with this mixed glaze remains to be further discussed. Since 2003, Henan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and China Institute of Cultural Relics have made new excavations in Huangyeyao Site in gongyi city (formerly known as Gongxian), Henan Province. Unearthed products include white glazed celadon, Tang Qinghua holding pot fragments, etc., and the origin of Tang Qinghua was solved through archaeological excavation. In the future, comparing the products of Blackstone with those of Huangye Kiln in Henan and Yao Xing Kiln in Hebei will help to solve the problem of unknown sources of some ceramic products of Blackstone.