HOT NEWS !

By An Baijie - China Global Times

A riverside township in Pengshan, Sichuan Province has been swamped with treasure hunters ever since a bronze plate was discovered there. Local government officials said the gold rush is raising concern.

People have been turning up at the Minjiang River in Jiangkou township, Pengshan, where Zhang Xianzhong (1606-47), the leader of a peasant revolt during the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), sank numerous boats filled with jewelry, the Chengdu-based West China City Daily reported Monday.

A rumor that a gold plate was found in the riverbed raised interest among local residents. The local cultural relic office clarified that it was just a bronze plate and not gold but that revelation failed to immediately stop the gold rush.

Liao Mingfang, Party secretary of Shuangjiang village in Jiangkou, told the Global Times Monday that about 300 treasure hunters visited the bank of the Minjiang River every day.

Liao said some of them have found gold or silver jewelry and they sold them or kept it. "Some villagers could sell a ring or necklace for 50,000 yuan ($7,500)," Liao said.

"Only three officials from the Pengshan Cultural Relic Bureau came to the riverside to stop the gold searchers, but none of the searchers abided by their orders," Liao said.

Fang Ming, deputy director at the Pengshan Cultural Relic Bureau, said that it is not confirmed whether there were treasures in Minjiang River of Jiangkou, the report said.

"However, anyone who find treasures must give them to the cultural relics bureau. Otherwise, they would be held accountable for concealing national cultural relics items," said Fang.

According to the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics, anyone who refuses to hand over cultural relics could be fined up to 50,000 yuan ($7,499) and the items will be seized.

Photo Amir Cohen

By Dan Williams - Reuters

A Roman statue that had been buried for centuries has been unearthed by the winter gales that have raked Israel's coast.

The white-marble figure of a woman in toga and sandals was found in the remains of a cliff that crumbled under the force of winds, waves and rain at the ancient port of Ashkelon, the Israel Antiquities Authority said on Tuesday.

"The sea gave us this amazing statue," said Yigal Israeli, a researcher with the authority.

He said the statue, which lacks a head and arms, is about 1.2 meters (4 feet) tall, weighs 200 kg (440 pounds) and dates back to the Roman occupation of what was western Judea, between 1,800 and 2,000 years ago. It will be put on display in museums.

Also recovered at the site were fragments of a Roman bath-house and mosaics.

But long-established Israeli archaeological sites such as the ruins of coastal Caesarea suffered serious damage in the storm, so the statue's find brought the Authority little joy.

"We don't see this discovery as such good news," said another Authority official, who declined to be named. "Better that relics remain hidden and protected, than that they be exposed and damaged."

By Dominic Feain - Tweed News

Far North Coast shipwreck spotters keen to hone their skills will be eligible for an internationally-recognised training course in the next few months.

The man responsible for NSW shipwrecks, the deputy director of the Heritage Branch of the NSW Department of Planning, Tim Smith, said depending on public interest, he planned to run two courses on the North Coast early next year.

“The North Coast is a real hotspot for shipwreck discoveries with its big coastal rivers and their steamer heritage,” he said.

Volunteers are being offered a two-day internationally-recognised Introduction to Maritime Archaeology Training Course, accredited by the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology and the Nautical Archaeology Society.

Minister for Planning Tony Kelly said the wreck spotters program allowed volunteers to work alongside marine arch-aeologists in the identifying, mapping and promotion of shipwreck sites in their local communities.

“The need for their proper identification and handling has been underlined by two recent examples on the state’s North Coast. In October the stemson from a 120-year-old wreck was moved from a beach on the Tweed, and itremains missing,” Mr Kelly said.

“And in November an anchor from what could be a 140-year-old wreck was removed from the Richmond River spit at Ballina. Fortunately, it has now been recovered and will take its place in the State’s maritime heritage.”

By Cheng Yingqi - China Daily

More than 30 archaeological shipwreck sites have been discovered off the country's shoreline, the national oceanic body has reportedly said.

The shipwrecks were discovered during a research project called 908, China News Service on Sunday quoted an unidentified official with the State Oceanic Administration's department of science and technology as saying.

The findings were released during a seminar on the project in Xiamen, Fujian province. The research conducted by the administration between 2004 and 2009 covered 676,000 square kilometers of inland water and territorial sea. 

Ancient merchants shipped vast stores of goods, including ceramics and bronze-wares, along the Maritime Silk Road.

"So there are plenty of underwater archaeological sites near southeast China's coast and around neighboring countries, such as Vietnam," Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage researcher Sun Jian said.

The Maritime Silk Road is a sea route dating back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220), linking Quanzhou in modern Fujian province to India and the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.

"One ancient shipwreck usually abounds with tens of thousands of relics from the same dynasty," Sun said.

"The huge profits have enticed a growing number of fishermen to dive for these riches."

State Administration of Cultural Heritage official Chai Xiaoming said looting had undermined cultural relics' preservation.

Fujian police have launched crackdowns. They uncovered 45 smuggling cases and seized 7,144 artifacts from shipwrecks in 2006. They dealt with 25 cases and retrieved 2,700 relics in 2005, the Beijing-based China Culture Daily reported. 

Sun, the researcher, said nearly all of the country's underwater archaeological sites are looted before excavation.

"In the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) period, we should protect underwater relics by strengthening the judicial system and developing stronger teams with cutting-edge technology," Tianjin Daily quoted Chai as saying on Saturday.

Currently, China does not have detailed laws protecting underwater cultural relics. The country has fewer than 100 certified archaeologists capable of underwater operations.

By Melissa Tait - The Record

While the Titanic is probably the world’s most famous shipwreck, our own backyard — more specifically the Great Lakes — holds some incredible sunken stories.

Scuba diver and shipwreck enthusiast Jim Kennard was at The Museum on Saturday speaking as part of the Titanic speaker series.

Using side-scanning sonar — a sophisticated form of underwater radar — Kennard has shone a light into the cold darkness of the shipping graves at the bottom of the massive lakes.

One light shined a bit brighter than the rest when Kennard, and his partner Dan Scoville, discovered a wreck in May 2008 off the southern shore.

In 1780 the HMS Ontario, a 22-gun British warship carrying 122 people including about 30 Canadian crew members, sank in Lake Ontario during the American Revolution.

Kennard remembered how his “heart was in is throat” when a final pass of the torpedo-like sonar passed within six metres of the ship’s 228-year-old main masts.

It was the oldest shipwreck discovered on the Great Lakes, and a TV production company is now working with Kennard and Scoville to tell the story.

Kennard has found over 200 wrecks using side-scanning technology in and around the Great Lakes, but he said this discovery was different.

“We knew it was a war grave,” Kennard said.

He said there was “silent reverence” instead of high-fives when the ship was discovered.

Kennard shared a lot of high-fives over 35 years of shipwreck hunting, beginning in the early ’70s when he built the first non-commercial side-scanning sonar technology available within 800 kilometres of his home in Rochester, New York.

The sonar is towed by a boat or submarine, and shoots pulses perpendicular to the ground instead of down toward the ground like traditional sonar. This creates an image of the sea floor that is remarkably clear, but it’s not a perfect technology.

“I chased a school of fish around for two hours once,” Kennard said.

“The darned thing kept moving on me.”

A retired electrical engineer, Kennard still calls shipwreck hunting a hobby, but it’s a hobby that has seen his name printed in the New York Times connected with “Holy Grail” find like the HMS Ontario.

From BBC News

A rare Native American canoe thought to be more than 250 years old has been found on a family estate in Cornwall.

The birch bark canoe was discovered in a barn on the Enys estate near Penryn. It is believed the Canadian boat was brought to Cornwall by Lt John Enys who fought in Quebec during the American War of Independence.

The canoe will be preserved and put on display to the public at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth before being repatriated to Canada.

Historians believe the boat could possibly be one of the oldest birch bark canoes in existence.

The museum's boat collections manager Andy Wyke said: "Lt Enys sailed from Falmouth in a packet ship to join his regiment in Canada to relieve the city of Quebec which was under siege from the Americans.

"He fought many military campaigns and toured the area for his personal interest - discovering this canoe along the way.

"It's incredible to think its legacy has been resting in a barn in Cornwall all this time."

Wendy Fowler, a descendent of the Enys family, called the museum to request they look at the canoe lying in the estate's barn.

"The estate is very special to us and holds many secrets but I believe this is the most interesting to date," she said.

"The maritime museum is brilliantly ensuring and repatriating another element of our great family history and I'm most grateful that my great, great, great, great, great uncle's travels have led to such a major chapter of boating history being discovered in Cornwall."

Capt George Hogg, archivist and museum trustee, said initially when the call came in from the estate, the museum had no idea of the importance of the find.

Read more...

Photo Sangjib Min - Daily Press

By Mark St. John Erickson - Daily Press

When Navy divers and NOAA archaeologists recovered the USS Monitor steam engine from the Atlantic in 2001, the pioneering Civil War propulsion unit was enshrouded in a thick layer of marine concretion.

Sand, mud and corrosion combined with minerals in the deep Cape Hatteras, N.C., waters to cloak every feature of Swedish-American inventor John Ericsson’s ingenious machine, and they continued to envelop the 30-ton artifact after nine years of desalination treatment.

Just this past week, however, conservators at The Mariners’ Museum and its USS Monitor Center drained the 35,000-gallon solution in which the massive engine was submerged and began removing the 2- to 3-inch-thick layer of concretion with hammers, chisels and other hand tools.

Working slowly and carefully to avoiding harming the engine’s original surface, they stripped off more than 2 tons of encrustation in their first week of work alone, gradually revealing the details of a naval milestone that had not been seen since the historic Union ironclad sank in a December 1862 storm.

“This is a technological marvel. It was cutting edge in its day. But what’s really neat is revealing all the wheels, oil cups, valves and other parts that the Monitor’s crew used to operate the engine,” said conservation project manager Dave Krop.

“If you consider that it spent nearly 139 years underwater, it’s in outstanding shape — though some of the wrought iron has seen better days. And there are some copper alloy parts that look brand new when they’re first uncovered — like they just came off the shelf.”

Smaller, more compact, yet just as capable as other steam engines of its day, the Monitor’s vibrating side-lever engine was the ideal match for Ericsson’s revolutionary warship.

Its long, low, horizontal cylinder enabled the engineer to place it below the vessel’s waterline as well as behind a thick armor belt — and that well-protected position virtually eliminated the vulnerability associated with the much larger and more easily targeted engines of the day, most of which towered above the ships’ decks.

So confident was Ericsson in his engine’s capabilities that he ignored orders to equip the vessel with masts and rigging.

And it astounded Union and Confederate observers alike with the way it performed in its historic clash with the rebel warship Virginia — also known as the Merrimac — in the March 8, 1862 Battle of Hampton Roads.

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Photo Michelle Le/The Almanac

By Dave Boyce - Almanac News

Inductive reasoning. It's what detectives use to work backwards from evidence at a crime scene to develop a chronology of events that, with luck and diligence, will lead to a suspect.

It's also the modus operandi for Portola Valley resident and geophysicist Sheldon Breiner and a team of archaeologists and a historian who meet periodically along the Mexican coast of Baja California.

They're investigating the disappearance of a Spanish galleon believed to be the San Felipe.

The San Felipe left China in 1576 headed for Acapulco by way of Manila with a cargo that included silk, beeswax and tons of Ming Dynasty porcelain.

Records show the details of the cargo but not the San Felipe's arrival at its destination, and the Spanish were meticulous with their records, Mr. Breiner says in an interview.

Mr. Breiner spoke about this exploratory adventure at Portola Valley's Historic Schoolhouse on Nov. 16. The town's Nature & Science Committee sponsored the free event and about 20 people showed up.

Shipments of porcelain left China for Spain twice a year for some 250 years starting in 1565, Mr. Breiner says. There is debris indicating that the 100-foot, 400-ton San Felipe may have run aground off the desert coast of Baja.

Lying on and under the shifting sands of this corner of Mexico's Sonoran Desert are about 1,000 artifacts. While the researchers haven't yet found any silk, which would have been encased in wax, they have found beeswax, some lead sheeting used on the hulls of 16th century ships to discourage underwater pests, and a great many pieces of porcelain scattered along a two-mile-long line in the sand, Mr. Breiner says.

Why might the ship have grounded ? Strong prevailing winds, scurvy among the crew of 200, a need for food or water, or a new mast or spar -- the reasons are not known. Had the ship reached Acapulco, its cargo would have been offloaded and hauled overland to the Gulf of Mexico and then shipped to Spain, a two-year to three-year trip altogether, Mr. Breiner says.

With hundreds of thousands of years of predictable winds, waves and depositions of sand as reference points, the line of debris is readable.

The team has worked backward from the locations of these artifacts to place the likely remains of the sunken hull. After scanning the area with an ultra sensitive magnetometer, the team now has tracking data showing magnetic anomalies consistent with a buried hull. In short, they have a strong suspicion as to where it is.

If this anomaly is a sunken galleon, it may never be known for certain whether it is the San Felipe. Ship owners back then did not paint names on hulls, Mr. Breiner says.

The porcelain can be dated by experts skilled at matching a design with the year in which that design was current.

Mr. Breiner says he plans to return to the site in February to survey the wreckage in detail and create a grid-based map of the debris field.

The magnetometer can detect ballast stones, cannon barrels, and iron spikes used to hold the ship's ribs to its keel.

Other items with a smaller footprint but still detectable include weapons, tools, boxes, furniture parts and personal effects of the crew. The lack of oxygen under the sediment inhibits corrosion.

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