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A ninth-century AD Arab or Indian shipwreck in Indonesia: First evidence for direct trade with China
Abstract
A well-preserved ninth-century AD shipwreck was excavated in 1998-9 off the Indonesian island of Belitung between Sumatra and Borneo. The principal features of the wreck include planks joined by stitching with wadding inside and outside the hull, a sharp bow with little rake, stitched-in frames, through-beams stitched to the hull, removable ceiling timbers, a keelson and stringers, and a composite iron and wood anchor. Ethnographic and iconographic evidence suggests that these are the features of ancient Indian and Arab vessels, an origin which is strongly supported by the timber species identified in the wreck.The cargo consisted almost entirely of Chinese ceramics, mostly from the Changsha kilns. This is the first clear archaeological evidence to support historical records which imply that there was direct trade between the western Indian Ocean and China during the later part of the first millennium AD.
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“Approximately a half-century later, the Indonesian Belitung shipwreck, carrying mostly Chinese ceramics, was also a sewn-plank boat in the Gulf tradition; the vessel included one timber native to Africa (Flecker 2001, Horton et al. 2020).”
From Recent Developments in the Archaeology of Long-Distance Connections Across the Ancient Indian Ocean (2023) · cites this paper as Flecker 2001
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Recent Developments in the Archaeology of Long-Distance Connections Across the Ancient Indian Ocean
Abraham, S. A. (2023) · Annual Review of Anthropology · doi:10.1146/annurev-anthro-101819-110124 · Cited by 7
Metadata
- Authors
- Flecker, M.
- Venue
- World Archaeology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2001-01
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 335-354
- ISSN
- 0043-8243
- 1470-1375
- Cited by
- 61
- References
- 0
- Language
- en
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- Flecker, M. (2001). A ninth-century AD Arab or Indian shipwreck in Indonesia: First evidence for direct trade with China. World Archaeology. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438240122811
