Sébastien Le Belzic (in Beijing) / Photo credit: YANG GUANYU / XINHUA / XINHUA VIA AFP
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06:38, May 31, 2023
In China, archaeologists launched this month an exceptional operation to recover relics – mainly porcelain dating from the Ming dynasty – contained in two wrecks sunk at 1,500 meters deep. There would be a total of nearly 100,000 almost intact pieces of crockery sleeping at the bottom of the China Sea.
Baptized “warrior of the deep seas”, the small bathyscaphe, an underwater exploration machine, painstakingly goes up one by one the porcelains whose blue and white color is characteristic of this period. In total, this sunken treasure contains 100,000 almost intact pieces of tableware dating from the Ming dynasty, in the 16th century, and which had been sleeping until then at 1,500 meters deep. Knowing that a single Ming vase has sold for up to 16 million euros at auction, the curious can easily imagine the value that lies in the great depths of the China Sea.
Such a geopolitical treasure
“Through the study of manufacturing techniques, we can not only know more about the development level of the shipbuilding industry at that time, but also reflect the socio-economic conditions,” said Chen Wei, one of the site archaeologists.
This technological feat is not devoid of geopolitical ulterior motives. It is also for China to show that it was ahead in maritime trade and had long had control of these waters now disputed by several neighboring countries of China such as Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.