In order to strengthen scholarly interactions on underwater archaeology in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and promote international cooperation in Southeast Asia, an international cooperation centre for underwater archaeology has been established in Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong.
According to the Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey, the centre will work with other departments and local marine geological survey authorities to investigate deep-sea archaeology. It is housed in a scientific research site in Nansha, Guangzhou.
According to the local marine geological survey, it will help with the underwater archaeological surveys that will be carried out in the province in conjunction with a national cultural relics survey. It will also shortly build a geographic information management system for underwater archaeological cultural heritage in the GBA.
In order to support creative underwater archaeological excavation, research and development of important archaeological scientific technologies, and the advancement of archaeological technical equipment, it will specifically strengthen collaboration with the National Cultural Heritage Administration’s Archaeological Research Centre and pertinent scientific research institutions, colleges and universities, and cultural organisations in the GBA.
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Additionally, it will improve global collaboration and exchanges in the areas of talent development, archaeological achievement transformation, and undersea cultural relic preservation and restoration.
The Guangdong government has been implementing measures to support cultural heritage protection and archaeological work, including a five-year strategy for technical innovation and cultural heritage protection, which culminated in the center’s formation.
With multiple significant underwater archaeology projects currently underway in the province, Guangdong is a key location for underwater archaeology.
Following the discovery and excavation of the shipwrecks of the ancient cargo ships Nanhai No. 1 and Nan’ao No. 1, which sank in the South China Sea, Guangdong has led the nation in the creation of two provincial-level underwater cultural heritage preservation zones.
After years of archaeological research, a comprehensive protection project for the sunken Song Dynasty (960–1279) ship Nanhai No 1 has been approved. The historic wooden ship sank while delivering Chinese porcelain.
It was saved in 2007 and is presently on display at Yangjiang, a coastal city in western Guangdong, at the Maritime Silk Road Museum on Hailing Island.
Of the 180,000 artefacts discovered within Nanhai No 1, porcelain items, gold, silver, copper and iron relics, and copper coins are only a few. The preserved remains of flora and animals, as well as lacquers made of bamboo and wood, have also been found.
By year’s end, archaeological excavation on Nanhai No. 1 is expected to be finished, according to the overall preservation project. After that, efforts will be directed towards a new phase of comprehensive protection, study, utilisation, display, and scholarly exchanges.
The Guangdong cultural heritage officials have stated that the archaeological examination of the sunken merchant vessel Nan’ao No 1, which dates back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), will be finished by the end of this year.
After a local fisherman netted porcelain items, the vessel was discovered in 2007 in the South China Sea close to Nan’ao Island in eastern Guangdong.
Furthermore, there has been progress in building an underwater cultural heritage protection centre, which is scheduled to open for official use the following year.
