Shinan ship

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| Ship image = Reconstructed ship (35305628254).jpg

| Ship caption = Remains of the Shinan ship

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{{Infobox ship career

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| Ship country = Yuan China

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| Ship name = Shinan ship

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| Ship fate = Sank c. 1323

| Ship notes = Surviving part of the ship's hull exhibited in a museum

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{{Infobox ship characteristics

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| Ship type = cargo ship

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| Ship length = {{convert|32|m|abbr=on}}

| Ship beam = {{convert|10|m|abbr=on}}

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| Ship notes = cargo capacity ~200 tons

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{{Location map

| South Korea

| lat = 35.020833

| long = 126.085000

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| caption = Shinan ship find site}}

{{Infobox Korean name|title=Sinan submarine relic burial area |hangul=신안 해저유물 매장해역 |hanja=新安海底遺物埋藏海域 |rr=Sinan haejeoyumul maejanghaeyeok |mr=Sinan haejŏyumul maejanghaeyŏk}}

File:신안 앞바다에서 인양한 중국 송-원대 도자기.jpg

The Shinan ship (also spelled "Sinan") was a 14th-century Chinese ship that sank near what are today the Shinan islands, South Korea, around the year 1323, and was discovered in 1975. It was likely to have been part of a trade fleet between Port Ningbo, Yuan dynasty China and Port Hakata, Kamakura shogunate of Japan.

It has been excavated during several maritime archaeological expeditions from 1976 to 1984. Its excavation has been described as "the first underwater excavation" in South Korea leading to "the advent of underwater archaeology in the history of Korean archaeology". Much of the ship's cargo survived mostly intact, and due to the overwhelming amount of Chinese treasures contained in the ship (over 28 tons of Chinese coins and over 20,000 pieces of Chinese ceramics), in the early 1990s the shipwreck was also described as possibly "the richest ancient shipwreck yet discovered".{{Cite web|last=Chang|first=Kyung-Ho|date=1991|title=The Shinan shipwreck {{!}} Silk Roads Programme. Based on an article from the International Seminar on the Korean Culture and the Silk Roads, 23–25 February 1991. Kyongju and Pusan, Republic of Korea.|url=https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/knowledge-bank/shinan-shipwreck|access-date=2021-03-12|website=en.unesco.org}}

Discovery and excavation

On August 25, 1975, a South Korean fishing boat recovered several ceramic artifacts in its nets near the {{ill|Imjado|ko|임자도}} island in the Korean region of Shinan, in the Yellow Sea. The shipwreck was discovered shortly after.{{cite book|author=Angela Schottenhammer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=thGIDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA221|title=Early Global Interconnectivity across the Indian Ocean World, Volume II: Exchange of Ideas, Religions, and Technologies|date=13 February 2019|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-97801-7|pages=221}} Beginning from the summer of 1976, Korean archeologists, with support from the Korean Ministry of Culture and the Republic of Korea Navy launched a series of marine excavation projects in the area. The archeologists quickly located a corroded wooden hull and much of its cargo, at the depth of about 20 meters. The excavation process was made difficult due to low visibility and tidal currents in the area (which meant that on some days, the divers could work as little as 15 minutes{{Cite journal|last1=Kim|first1=Yojung|last2=Yoon|first2=Yong-Hee|last3=Mitsutani|first3=Takumi|last4=Moon|first4=Whan-Suk|last5=Park|first5=Won-Kyu|date=2013-01-01|title=Species identification and tree-ring dating of wood boxes excavated from the Shinan shipwreck, Korea|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1125786513000209|journal=Dendrochronologia|series=2011 Meeting ADA|language=en|volume=31|issue=4|pages=266–272|doi=10.1016/j.dendro.2013.01.002|bibcode=2013Dendr..31..266K |issn=1125-7865|url-access=subscription}}), and the series of expeditions, which took 9,800 man-days and 3,500 hours of diving time, concluded only after nearly a decade, in 1984.

In 1981 the site of the shipwreck was designated as one of the Historic Sites of South Korea (No. 274).Notification No. 495 of the Ministry of Culture and Information, 《Designation of Historic Sites》, Minister of Culture and Information, Republic of Korea Gazette No.8868, p. 5, 1981-06-19

The ship

The ship was identified as a 14th-century Chinese vessel from the Yuan dynasty period. It was likely to have been part of a trade fleet between Port Ningbo, Yuan dynasty China and Port Hakata, Kamakura shogunate of Japan.{{Cite journal|last1=Fan|first1=Jianan|last2=Li|first2=Haichao|date=2020-09-01|title=A study on the departure port of the Sinan shipwreck—A perspective based on the Chinese ceramic cargo|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352226719301102|journal=Archaeological Research in Asia|language=en|volume=23|pages=100195|doi=10.1016/j.ara.2020.100195|s2cid=219766629|issn=2352-2267|url-access=subscription}}

The destination of the ship’s cargo were mostly temples and shrines in Kyoto, such as Tōfuku-ji temple, and in Hakata, such as Jōten-ji Temple.

The ship’s characteristics can be summarized as: "32 m in length, ca. 10 m in breadth, ca. 3.5 m in depth at amidships", with cargo capacity estimated at 200 tons.

Significance

File:Sinan Shipwreck Exhibition 05.jpg

File:Sinan Shipwreck Exhibition 13.jpg

The excavation has been described as "the first underwater excavation" in South Korea leading to "the advent of underwater archaeology in the history of Korean archaeology". By the end of the excavation, the recovered objects, in addition to parts of the ship's hull itself, included "20,664 pieces of ceramic ware, 729 metal objects, 43 stone objects, 28 tons of Chinese coins, 1,017 pieces of red sandalwood (each about 1-2m long), and 1,346 other objects (including the crew's daily necessities)", and the size of the recovered cargo led to it being described in early-1990s as possibly "the richest ancient shipwreck yet discovered".

Around 1981 the reconstructed ship and many of its artifacts were displayed in the Mokpo Conservation Institute for Maritime Archaeological Finds in Mokpo. Subsequently, many artifacts were divided between several regional museums, although most were kept in storage. In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the excavation, the National Museum of Korea held a special exhibition dedicated to the shipwreck in 2016. As 2010s, the ship and most of its related artifacts are displayed the {{ill|National Research Institute of Maritime Cultural Heritage|ko|국립해양문화재연구소}} (the institution is also known as the National Maritime Museum in Mokpo).{{Cite journal|last1=Kim|first1=Seojin|last2=Kim|first2=Eung-ho|last3=Lee|first3=Yu-na|date=2020-09-15|title=Effect of the Acid Degradation of the Shinan Shipwreck on Indoor Air Quality in the Korean National Maritime Museum|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/00393630.2020.1812243|journal=Studies in Conservation|volume=66|issue=5|pages=272–281|doi=10.1080/00393630.2020.1812243|s2cid=234600278|issn=0039-3630|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite web |date=2016-07-26|title=중국동전·꽃병·고려청자…700년 전 신안보물선 만나다|url=https://news.joins.com/article/20356899|access-date=2021-03-14|website=JoongAng Ilbo|language=ko}}{{Cite web|title=바다서 건진 보물 '신안선'… 전모를 드러내다|url=https://www.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2016/07/26/2016072600047.html|access-date=2021-03-14|website=The Chosun Ilbo|date=23 July 2020|language=ko}}{{Cite web|date=2016-07-28|title=40년 수장고에 묻어놨던 신안선 보화들 이제야 다 꺼냈다|url=http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/culture_general/754270.html|access-date=2021-03-14|website=The Hankyoreh|language=ko}}

Shinan ship

Discovery and excavation

The ship

Significance

See also

References

Further reading