New discovery in the Philippines

Hamburg, 14th March 2002 - The French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio and his team have made a sensational finding near the Philippine coast: finest Chinese porcelain and ceramics of 15th century. The cargo of a 15th century Chinese junk had remained untouched and almost intact for more than 500 years, 32 metres deep at the bottom of the sea, after the ship had run aground on a riff near the costal village of Santa Cruz. The wreck was called Santa Cruz after the name of the village.

500 year old chinese porcelain was found in a wreck near the coast of Philippines

The French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio performed an excavation of a 15th century Chinese junk at the bottom of the sea.

The Santa Cruz was discovered by surprise in April 2001 by dynamite fishermen who found pieces of porcelain in their nets and started to dive for the valuable cargo. Several fishermen died or were injured because of their insufficient diving experience. The National Museum of the Philippines became aware of the finding when historical artifacts appeared in antique shops. They decided to perform an archaeological excavation on the wreck as soon as possible in order to avoid the plundering and destruction of the wreck. The National Museum of the Philippines in Manila has been cooperating for years with Franck Goddio and his team in the recovery of historical ship wrecks.

At the beginning of last June, Franck Goddio inspected the wreck in order to find out if there was a chance to conduct an archaeological excavation at the site which was threatened continuously by typhoons at that season of the year. Despite the continuous warnings of typhoons, the mission started at the beginning of July with a team of 32 people. 2 ½ months and innumerable dives were necessary to bring approximately 15.000 artifacts to the surface – one of the greatest findings ever made from the time of the Ming Dynasty (Hongzhu Period). 11.500 pieces of it are porcelain or ceramic of excellent quality and in perfect condition, including very rare artifacts such as water-droppers modelled as mandarin ducks or writing pads made of porcelain. All artifacts are registered and scientifically investigated by the National Museum of the Philippines and Franck Goddio’s team.

It is not only the cargo of the junk that fills the archaeologists with enthusiasm. The wreck itself is the best conserved junk of the Ming Dynasty ever found, 80 % of the bottom hull of the ship are still preserved. The length of the ship is 25 metres, the beam is 5,8 metres. Careful studies of the naval architecture remains have been carried out. For the first time a wreck has been found in which the packing is almost completely intact, enabling the archaeologists to know what kind of goods were packed in the different parts and compartments of the junk. Chinese merchants were famous for their art of packing. The porcelain was packed extremely skilfully so that no space was wasted at all and the pieces stabilized themselves perfectly. This is proved by the fact that most of the porcelain remained intact while the ship capsized.

But the Santa Cruz doesn’t only answer the question of how junks were packed in the 15th century. The site where it sank also gives evidence to an unusual trading route that couldn’t be confirmed before. It proves as well that the inhabitants of Northern Philippines were rich enough to afford first quality China. Archaeologists had assumed before that in that particular part of the Philippines, a trade market existed only for mostly cheap ceramics but not for expensive artifacts.

Once all artifacts were recovered, the wreck of the Santa Cruz was covered by mud and sand in order to protect it and save it from further destruction.

For more information, please contact:

for Franck Goddio, Hilti Foundation:
Katrin Wollgast, salaction public relations GmbH. e-mail: katrin.wollgast@salaction.de, phone: + (49) 40 226 58 322