中国领土争端打击水下考古

choi

Jeremy Page, 中国领土争端打击水下考古. 华尔街日报中文版, Dec 2, 2013
http://cn.wsj.com/gb/20131202/bch152946.asp

, which is translated from

Jeremy Page, China Takes Territorial Dispute to New Depths. Wall Street Journal, Dec 2, 2013 (front page).
http://online.wsj.com/news/artic ... 4579164873258159410

Excerpt in the window of print: ‘Maritime archaeology is an exercise that demonstrates national sovereignty,’ said one Chinese official.

Quote:

“China has ordered its coast guard to prevent what it considers illegal archaeology in the waters it claims, and it is pouring money into a state-run marine-archaeology program. Chinese archaeologists are preparing their first comprehensive survey of undersea sites, including in disputed areas.

“The first big find in Chinese waters—a roughly 800-year-old merchant ship named the Nanhai One 南海一号 —was made in 1987 while a British salvage company was searching for a Dutch East India Co wreck. The British team was forced to withdraw after the Nanhai One was identified as a Chinese ship. * ** [China] lifted [Nanhai One] off the seabed in 2007 and placed in a water tank in a museum.

“Some experts say the overlap between politics and archaeology is neither surprising nor unique to China. Vietnam is expanding investment in its state-run archaeological program, and this year its Institute of Archaeology opened an underwater-archaeology department. One of Vietnam's first projects has obvious political resonance—excavation of the site of a naval battle in which Vietnamese forces defeated a Chinese army in 938 AD, bringing an end to centuries of Chinese rule over Vietnam. That site is on a river inside Vietnam.


Note:
(a) “‘They said this area belonged to the People's Republic of China, and they told us to scram,’ recalls one of the people on board last year.”

scram (vi; short for scramble; First Known Use: circa 1928): “to go away at once”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scram
(b)
(i) “LIU Shuguang, head of the Chinese government's Center of Underwater Cultural Heritage, set up in 2009 to oversee underwater archaeology in the country”

WSJ translation: “中国水下文化遗产保护中心的刘曙光”
(ii) “LI Xiaojie, the vice minister of culture”
“中国文化部副部长励小捷”
(iii) “‘Maritime Silk Road,’ which connected China by sea with India and Africa beginning in about the second century BC”
“海上丝绸之路”
(iv) “ZHANG Wei, one of China's first underwater archaeologists”
“中国首批水下考古学家之一张威”
(v) “China's National Museum established its Underwater Archaeology Center”
中国国家博物馆/ 水下考古研究中心

(c) “The South China Sea, one of the world's busiest trading routes, is littered with wrecks from the last two millennia, including Chinese junks, Indian and Arab dhows, Dutch and British trading schooners and World War II warships.”
(i) dhow
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dhow
(illustration)
(ii) schooner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schooner
(section 1 Etymology)

(d) “During last year's trip [during which a Chinese marine-surveillance vessel warned them at high sea], they say, they were examining pieces of celadon, a form of green-glazed ceramic, from a wreck that long ago broke apart on the sharp coral.”

celadon  青瓷
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celadon
(section 2 Etymology)

(e) “Among the most famous [commercial treasure hunters who operated in the South China Sea] was Mike Hatcher, a Briton whose haul of Chinese porcelain from the wreck of the Geldermalsen, an 18th-century Dutch East India Co. ship that sank in the South China Sea, raised more than $20 million at auction in Amsterdam in 1986.”
(i) VOC SV Geldermalsen (+1752). WreckSite (a private organization), undated.
http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?181923
(1746-1752; built and owned by Dutch company Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC); thumbnails)
(A) ship prefix
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_prefix
(SV: Sailing Vessel)
(B) Geldermalsen is a municipality of the Dutch province Gelderland
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelderland
(section 3 Municipalities)
(C) The origin of the provincial name came from a historical county, later duchy Guelders
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guelders
(The duchy was named after the town of Geldern (Gelder) in present-day Germany)
(ii) The Geldermalsen Wreck; Plate from the wreck of the Geldermalsen, 1751. National Museum Australia, undated.
http://www.nma.gov.au/collection ... _geldermalsen_wreck
(iii) Dish (Butter). The British Museum, undated (Museum number  1986,0701.18.b1986,0701.18.b).
www.britishmuseum.org/research/c ... 253743&partId=1
(“Buildings,rock and flowering tree,from Nanking Cargo; Gelder Malsen, Dutch East India Company. Made of blue underglaze ceramic, porcelain”)

(f)
(i) Battle of Bạch Đằng (938)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bạch_Đằng_(938)
(NGÔ Quyền 吳權 (897-944) defeated LIU Yan 劉龑 of Southern Han 南漢 during China’s Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907-960) at the river and proclaimed Ngô Dynasty 吳朝 (939-967))
(ii) Bạch Đằng River  白藤江
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bạch_Đằng_River
(iii) A map of Bach Dang River (the one with seven black balls along its course)
http://www.springerimages.com/Im ... s00248-011-9835-6-0
in Figure 1 of

Bettarel Y et al, Viral Distribution and Life Strategies in the Bach Dang Estuary, Vietnam. Microbial Ecology, 62: 143-154 (2011).

(g) The caption of an online photo which does not appear in print: “Chinese archaeologists work with porcelain artifacts from the Nanhai One shipwreck, which dated back to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), in a structure in Yangjiang 广东省阳江市, China, in 2009.”