Underwater excavation of ancient shipwrecks cannot rely entirely on manual labor. Some simple tasks can be done by machines.
Therefore, in the first few days, the underwater team members spent most of their time firing "water cannons."
Water cannons use high-pressure water cannons to break away the solid sea mud covering sunken ships.
At this time, the team members were still taking their time, waiting for the turbid water to float away so they could start work accurately.
But after the 10th day of excavation, the situation took a turn for the worse.
Every time they used air pumps to pump out mud, they became anxious because the mud flow made everything unclear.
The air pump in underwater exploration is equivalent to the hand shovel in field archeology. Without it, it is difficult to extend the work downward.
Now the team members have to give it up frequently.
During the long blind man-and-elephant inspection process, the team members discovered that the wreckage was 14 meters long, 3 meters wide, and 1 meter high. It was missing above the deck, and the head and tail were missing.
Apart from that, there is not much gained. After all, Chen Wenzhe does not want to salvage the entire sunken ship.
Besides, the ship was severely damaged, and he just needed some specific parts to study it.
Especially the cockpit and some key parts of the warehouse.
Of course, it is not easy to obtain the accurate position of the hull.
Because the originally clearly divided compartments of the sunken ship were difficult to find again after the visibility decreased.
It was not until about forty days after the excavation that the visibility finally recovered, and photography, drawing and other work could be carried out relatively normally.
At this time, the machine can be started at full power and the porcelain can be salvaged on a large scale.
When a horizontal layer of porcelain comes out of the water, the "exploration" investigation continues, photography, videography, surveying and mapping, and a new round of excavation procedures starts again.
Blue and white porcelain has always been the focus of this sunken ship.
A common saying circulating in the archaeological community in my country is, "One ship has ten tombs."
The cabin volume is unparalleled, representing an impressive number and variety of cultural relics.
No one can avoid the economic value of cultural relics. You must know that Gao Qijing and the others received a commission for their harvest on this ship.
Although the commission ratio is very small, the rewards are huge!
By the end of the excavation work, a total of 1,287 cultural relics had been recovered, including some of the Kangxi blue and white dishes that had just been harvested.
As the porcelain was released one after another, the identification work also began.
Most of this part of porcelain belongs to the blue and white type, with elegant color and uniform texture.
Although there is no official kiln identification, Chen Wenzhe can confirm that these are fine products from Jingzhen folk kilns during the Kangxi period.
On this day, during the strongest astronomical tide of the year, the team members pumped out mud and cleaned various areas around the sunken ship, and mapped out new data.
The excavation has entered a critical stage, as their plan is to examine the shape of the sunken ship's bottom and clear out any scattered artifacts from the mud surrounding the ship.
On this day, in the "East Sixth District", a wooden box buried deep in the sand was opened.
It contained "Clark porcelain", and it was discovered and immediately fished out of the water.
Only this time, I found several piles of large blue and white porcelain plates that were intact and painted with flowers and plants.
These large plates are placed close to each other, or bottom to bottom, obviously maintaining the original posture when they were shipped more than 300 years ago.
Since the seabed sediment in this area is relatively solid, the team members first removed the sediment and surrounding debris, and then slowly took out 55 blue and white porcelain plates step by step.
After coming out of the water, Chen Wenzhe discovered that the eucalyptuses painted on these porcelain plates were flowers and plants from the Mediterranean region, not the native flowers found in traditional Chinese porcelain designs.
Based on this, it can be inferred that this is a batch of porcelain that is not much different from the Clark porcelain discovered on Wanjiao No. 1, and it must be specially customized porcelain by European businessmen.
Clark porcelain is what our country's blue and white porcelain is called in Europe. In fact, it specifically refers to this kind of export porcelain that is deeply loved by European princes and nobles.
In addition to this batch of Clark porcelain, some flower goblets and goblets were also recovered from the sunken ship.
These porcelains are all covered with lids according to European customs, and there is even an exquisite European-style small vase for the dining table.
After discovering a large number of intact porcelain, as more extensive excavation began, the team members discovered several large blue and white porcelain jars buried in the sand.
After the water was released, it was discovered that one of the porcelain jars was about 60 centimeters high and was the most popular "general jar" during the Kangxi period.
This general jar is painted with a basket full of flowers and the word "福". It is named according to the meaning of Chinese porcelain and is the "Ten Thousand Flowers Presenting Auspiciousness" style.
The other two porcelain jars, one is a blue and white porcelain jar and the other is a multicolored porcelain jar, are both masterpieces of porcelain with exquisite patterns.
Maybe it's because it's hidden in a wooden box, maybe it's because it's buried in sand, but most of the porcelain that comes out of the water is as clean as new.
Looking at the porcelain in each room, Chen Wenzhe laughed.
Such situations are very rare, but not unheard of.
For example, a large number of brand-new porcelains were salvaged from the Wanjiao No. 1 shipwreck mentioned earlier.
The same situation as this time, if some of the lost porcelain has entered the antique market.
Whether it is porcelain found in the sea or antique, it will definitely not be recognized in the market.
At the very least, some ordinary buyers may not believe it is from the Kangxi period at first because it looks too new.
Unfortunately, because the glaze color distribution of some multicolored porcelain is opposite to that of blue and white porcelain, it is overglaze color, that is, the color is painted outside the glaze layer. After more than 300 years of seawater immersion, it has permanently lost its luster.
Of course, there is also a good thing. After Chen Wenzhe's preliminary statistics, they found that the number of more than a thousand pieces of porcelain was not too large, but there were many types of porcelain.
After preliminary statistics, a total of more than 50 types of vessels and more than 100 types of decorations were found.
After identification, Chen Wenzhe believed that all the porcelain came from Jingzhen.
About 50% of the utensils are made of high-quality kaolin, and the level of craftsmanship is no less than that of official kilns.
This is definitely not simple, because even during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, there were not many porcelains fired entirely with high-quality kaolin clay.
What's more, the production tasks of the official kilns back then were very heavy. How could it be possible to produce porcelain and sell it to foreigners?
In fact, due to insufficient production capacity, the imperial kilns at that time also ordered certain porcelains from some private kilns in order to complete the tasks assigned by the palace.
Then add the official kiln's inscription and offer it as an official kiln utensil.
This is enough to show that the production quality of some private kilns is not inferior to that of official kilns.
Of course, what represents the official kiln is the high-quality kaolin clay it uses. This is the foundation.
Chen Wenzhe believes that this batch of porcelain is not inferior to that of official kilns because of this.
Because from some damaged porcelain, it can be seen that the soil inside is very complicated.
A piece of porcelain painted with a dragon pattern similar to that of the official kiln vaguely proves this point.
If we say that this batch of porcelain is not from official kilns, but from private kilns, it can explain a lot of problems.