An amazing discovery off the coast of Indonesia!

$70 million dollars – this is the preliminary estimated value of the find made by divers penetrating a 16th century wreck near the Indonesian island of Java. In this case the treasure is not gold or precious stones, but the largest found shipment of Chinese porcelain from the Ming Dynasty. It is another significant find after the treasure found by Mel Fisher

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Divers from Arqueonauts (AWW), together with Indonesian company RM Discovery Inc, carried out an archaeological reconnaissance, after which they concluded that the wreck was a shot in the proverbial 10 and contained the largest cargo of Ming Dynasty Chinese porcelain ever found.

After two weeks of work by the combined forces of marine archaeologists and divers, 700,000 pieces of pottery were counted. The age of the porcelain was determined to be around 1580, when China was ruled by Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty.

The vessel is located at a depth of 51m approximately 150km off the Indonesian coast. It was located by fishermen in 2009. Indonesian authorities have contracted AWW and RM Discovery to carry out work to recover the extremely valuable historical find.

AWW President Nikolaus Sandizell said that work on the wreck will begin in the coming months.

“This is an unusually large vessel for the times it comes from. This makes our task an extraordinary challenge, both from a historical, cultural and commercial point of view ,” said Sandizell

Source: www.arq.de www.wanilcargo.com