The Cirebon shipwreck is a late 9th to 10th-century

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

discovered in 2003, in the

Java Sea The Java Sea ( id, Laut Jawa, jv, Segara Jawa) is an extensive shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf, between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south, Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east. Karimata Strait to its no ...

offshore of

Cirebon Cirebon (, formerly rendered Cheribon or Chirebon in English) is a port city on the northern coast of the Indonesian island of Java. It is the only coastal city of West Java, located about 40 km west of the provincial border with Central J ...

West Java West Java ( id, Jawa Barat, su, ᮏᮝ ᮊᮥᮜᮧᮔ᮪, romanized ''Jawa Kulon'') is a province of Indonesia on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

. The shipwreck contains a large amount of Chinese

Yue ware Yue or Yueh ( ) may refer to: Places * Guangdong, abbreviated (), a province of China * Yue Nan (), the Chinese name for Vietnam * Zhejiang, commonly abbreviated (), a province of China Languages * Yue Chinese, a branch of Chinese, spoken ...

, and is notable as important

marine archaeology Maritime archaeology (also known as marine archaeology) is a discipline within archaeology as a whole that specifically studies human interaction with the sea, lakes and rivers through the study of associated physical remains, be they vessels, s ...

evidence of the

Maritime Silk Road The Maritime Silk Road or Maritime Silk Route is the Maritime history, maritime section of the historic Silk Road that connected Southeast Asia, China, the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian peninsula, Somalia, Egypt and Europe. It began by the 2n ...

trading activity in

Maritime Southeast Asia Maritime Southeast Asia comprises the countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor. Maritime Southeast Asia is sometimes also referred to as Island Southeast Asia, Insular Southeast Asia or Oceanic Sout ...

Discovery, location and findings

Local fishermen in the

acquired fragments of Chinese ceramics in their fishing nets back in 2003. These ceramics were found at a depth of about 54 metres, located about 100 kilometres from the port city of Cirebon. The wreck was salvaged by a private company in 2004 to 2006. About 250,000 artefacts were recovered, 65% of which consisted mainly of Chinese ceramics dated from

Five Dynasties period The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (), from 907 to 979, was an era of political upheaval and division in 10th-century Imperial China. Five dynastic states quickly succeeded one another in the Central Plain, and more than a dozen concu ...

of 10th-century

Imperial China The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the '' Book of Documents'' (early chapt ...

, and also other ceramics from other parts of Asia. 10% was Near East and Indian glassware and gemstones, and the rest consisted of ingots, iron and other metals.

Sunken ship

The ship was identified as a Western-Austronesian vessel of about 30 m length, possibly built in the area around the

Straits of Malacca The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula ( Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, co ...

. A number of repairs visible on the remains of the hull imply that the vessel had been in use for a considerable time before her sinking. The site of her foundering lies on a straight course from the Bangka Straits of southern Sumatra to the area around today's

Semarang Semarang ( jv, ꦏꦸꦛꦯꦼꦩꦫꦁ , Pegon: سماراڠ) is the capital and largest city of Central Java province in Indonesia. It was a major port during the Dutch colonial era, and is still an important regional center and port today ...

on Java. The stowage pattern of the cargo signals that most of the stoneware and ceramic cargo had been taken aboard in ports of Southern China, most possibly

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...

, where around that time the Nanhan Kingdom, one of the Ten Southern Kingdoms during the era of the Five Dynasties, was coming to an end; Fine Paste Ware kendis and vases from the

Satingpra Sathing Phra ( th, สทิงพระ, ) is a district (''amphoe'') in the northern part of Songkhla province, southern Thailand. Geography Neighboring districts are (from the south clockwise): Singhanakhon of Songkhla Province; Pak Phayun ...

Kra Isthmus The Kra Isthmus ( th, คอคอดกระ, ) in Thailand is the narrowest part of the Malay Peninsula. The western part of the isthmus belongs to Ranong Province and the eastern part to Chumphon Province, both in Southern Thailand. The ...

area found in the higher layers of the site imply a stop there; Middle Eastern glasswares and semi-precious stones and Malay tin were added at a stop in one of the southern Sumatran ports of the Srivijayan federation. An analysis of the Chinese coins in the cargo allows pinpointing the sinking to around 970 CE.

Auction

The salvaged artefacts were auctioned in 2006, subsequently salvagers split the sale 50-50 percent with Indonesian government. Considering the importance of this find for the studies of economy and trade history, also marine archaeology; experts, historians and archaeologists urged the Indonesian government to keep and preserve most of the wreck's contents intact. The government decided to keep 10 percent of the 76,000 recovered artefacts intact as the collection of Indonesian museum.

References

External links

Cirebon Wrecks, Marine Heritage Gallery
{{Austronesian ships 10th-century artifacts 2003 archaeological discoveries Shipwrecks of Indonesia Shipwrecks in the Java Sea Cirebon 2003 in Indonesia

Discovery, location and findings

Sunken ship

Auction

See also

References

External links