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Revisiting the date of the Java Sea Shipwreck from Indonesia (Abstract, p. 1)

Authors:
Lisa Niziolek at Field Museum of Natural History
Lisa Niziolek
Gary M. Feinman at Field Museum of Natural History
Gary M. Feinman
Jun Kimura at Tokai University
Jun Kimura
Amanda Respess at The Ohio State University
Amanda Respess
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Abstract

In this article we draw on suites of new information to reinterpret the date of the Java Sea Shipwreck. The ship was a Southeast Asian trading vessel carrying a large cargo of Chinese ceramics and iron as well as luxury items from outside of China, such as elephant tusks and resin. Initially the wreck, which was recovered in Indonesia, was placed temporally in the mid-to late 13th century based on a single radiocarbon sample and ceramic styles. We employ new data, including multiple radiocarbon dates and inscriptions found on some of the ceramics, to suggest that an earlier chronological placement be considered.
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Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep
Revisiting the date of the Java Sea Shipwreck from Indonesia
Lisa C. Niziolek
a,⁎
, Gary M. Feinman
a
, Jun Kimura
b
, Amanda Respess
a,1
, Lu Zhang
a,2
a
Social Sciences, Integrative Research Center, The Field Museum, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL, 60605-2496, USA
b
Department of Maritime Civilizations, School of Marine Science and Technology, Tokai University, 3-20-1 Orido, Shimizu, Shizuoka 424-8610, Japan
ARTICLE INFO
Keywords:
Radiocarbon dating
Maritime trade
Java Sea Shipwreck
Ceramics
Southeast Asia
Song dynasty
Underwater archaeology
ABSTRACT
In this article we draw on suites of new information to reinterpret the date of the Java Sea Shipwreck. The ship
was a Southeast Asian trading vessel carrying a large cargo of Chinese ceramics and iron as well as luxury items
from outside of China, such as elephant tusks and resin. Initially the wreck, which was recovered in Indonesia,
was placed temporally in the mid- to late 13th century based on a single radiocarbon sample and ceramic styles.
We employ new data, including multiple radiocarbon dates and inscriptions found on some of the ceramics, to
suggest that an earlier chronological placement be considered.
1. Introduction
The Java Sea Shipwreck was recovered in Indonesia in 1996
(Fig. 1). The ship was a trading vessel thought to have been sailing from
Quanzhou in southern China to Indonesia, possibly Tuban on the island
of Java (Flecker, 2003). The timing of this voyage has been debated; an
issue that we address here. In this article, we use several new lines of
evidence to argue that the Java Sea Shipwreck vessel may have sailed
almost a century before previously thought (Flecker, 2003), possibly as
early as 1162 CE. The diverse suite of data we consider includes com-
parative ceramic finds from land and underwater wreck sites, new
radiocarbon dates, and inscriptions on ceramic pieces.
The vessel that would become the Java Sea Shipwreck was part of a
long and dynamic tradition of maritime trade in Southeast Asian waters
(see Christie, 1998;Hall, 2011;Manguin, 2004;Wheatley, 1961). The
main cargo of the vessel consisted of Chinese ceramics and cast iron.
The ship also carried a number of fine-paste-ware kendis thought to be
from southern Thailand, resin, elephant tusks, and an assortment of
artifacts in lesser quantities that probably belonged to the crew or
passengers on board. Based on ceramic styles, Brown (1997) estimated
the date of the wreck to be the mid- to late 13th century. In 1997, as
part of the initial research program by Pacific Sea Resources, the
company that undertook the final recovery of the wreck, a single
sample of resin from the wreck site was sent for standard radiocarbon
dating (Flecker, 1997a;Mathers and Flecker, 1997, Appendix H). It was
concluded that the dates from the radiometric analysis supported a mid-
to late-13th-century assignment, which would correspond to the be-
ginning of the Yuan dynasty (c. 1271 CE) in China and, on Java, the fall
of the Singasari kingdom and the rise of the Majapahit Empire.
In 1998–1999, half of the cargo, more than 7500 pieces, was do-
nated to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago; per Pacific
Sea Resources' licensing agreement, the other half was given to the
Indonesian government (Flecker, 2011). In 2014–2015, Niziolek and
Kimura had a number of correspondences with ceramic experts in China
and Japan, and some of them questioned the initial mid- to late-13th-
century date for the wreck. Certain ceramics were deemed more similar
to those produced in the 12th and even 11th century in China and ones
found at wreck sites dating to that period (e.g., the Breaker Shoal and
Huaguangjiao I wrecks). In order to assess more accurately the date of
the Java Sea Shipwreck, we submitted additional samples for radio-
carbon dating using accelerated mass spectrometry (AMS), a more
precise method than standard radiometric dating.
1.1. Dating Asian shipwrecks
The challenge of dating shipwreck sites is compounded by the
credibility of underwater operations in many parts of Asia. Some re-
covery efforts are conducted not for the pursuit of academic research
but for commercial benefit through the sale of salvaged artifacts. Under
the latter circumstance, rigorous dating has been less frequently prac-
ticed, and there are almost no serious arguments on the construction
dates and operational time periods of the ships. In many instances,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.04.002
Received 11 January 2018; Received in revised form 27 March 2018; Accepted 4 April 2018
⁎
Corresponding author.
1
Current address: Departments of Anthropology and History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1029 Tisch Hall, 435 South State Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109-1003, USA.
2
Current address: Department of Asian Art, Art Institute of Chicago, 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 60603-6404, USA.
E-mail addresses: lniziolek@fieldmuseum.org (L.C. Niziolek), gfeinman@fieldmuseum.org (G.M. Feinman), junkimura@tsc.u-tokai.ac.jp (J. Kimura),
arespess@umich.edu (A. Respess), lzhang13@artic.edu (L. Zhang).
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
2352-409X/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article as: Niziolek, L.C., Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.04.002
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