What changed
Guangdong has completed provincial acceptance for China’s fourth national cultural-relics survey, including a major underwater effort near Naozhou Island outside Zhanjiang in Leizhou Bay.
Survey teams established the coordinates of two Song-dynasty stone anchors and recovered them from the seabed. The anchors point to a likely shipwreck area linked to the Maritime Silk Road, though only limited ceramic fragments have been found. A third reported anchor is now being investigated.
Why it matters
The discovery turns a patch of dark reef into a documented archaeological site. The anchors are not just objects; they are evidence that ships once passed through, traded around or came to grief near an island that also served maritime-defence functions.
The wreck itself remains a puzzle. Its identity, exact date and circumstances are unknown, and the full extent of the underwater remains has not been established. That uncertainty matters because the wooden hull may have disappeared while heavier objects survived among the rocks.
Finding the anchors also shows how painstaking underwater archaeology can be. Teams had to wait for calm seas, weak currents and clear water, then return repeatedly because divers could search only a few dozen metres, or at most a few hundred, on each descent. Navigation systems helped them turn fishermen’s descriptions into workable search areas, while new surface-to-diver communications equipment allowed crews to exchange messages and monitor air consumption in real time.
For Guangdong, the survey is effectively an underwater register of cultural remains. For Yang Rongjia and his colleagues, it is a continuing search: more clues may emerge, but the sea is still holding most of the answers.
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