Eurasia-Episode VIII-The Mongol Conqueror Kublai Khan’s Dream(WTC-SWE)
Showing posts with label Khubilai Khan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Khubilai Khan. Show all posts
Sunday, 1 April 2012
Monday, 19 March 2012
The Dogs of Marco Polo
Lest we accept the narrative of Marco Polo’s travels too readily, perhaps it is best to begin near the end of his journey with a description of the Island of Angamanain (one of the Andaman Islands south of Burma, west of Malaysia):
“Angamanain is a very large Island.
The people are without a king and are Idolaters, and no better than wild beasts.
And I assure you all the men of this Island of Angamanain have heads like dogs, and teeth and eyes likewise; in fact, in the face they are all just like big mastiff dogs!
They have a quantity of spices; but they are a most cruel generation, and eat everybody that they can catch, if not of their own race.
They live on flesh and rice and milk, and have fruits different from any of ours.”
The first plate here is taken from Il Milione, being a record of Marco Polo’s travels as transcribed by a cellmate in Genoa and published about 1300.
It may be, as John Masefield suggested, that certain descriptions of places on the return journey across the Indian Ocean were “tales of pilots, and that his fleet put boldly out to avoid the coast pirates.”
In all fairness, a series of medieval travelers to the east felt obliged to describe dog-headed or dog-faced people they generally heard about, rather than saw.
Friar Odoric, visiting eastern China, heard references to dog-men and wolf-men, but describes going to the island of Nicoveran (Nicobar Islands, south of the Andaman Islands), where he saw men and women with faces like dogs. (Yule, vol. I, 1866). A fourteenth century explorer, Ibn Batuta, perhaps in Malaysia, saw men with mouths like dogs, but not the women, who were extremely beautiful.
These accounts are perhaps better understood as fitting within a long mythology about dog-men (cynanthropics) and dog-headed men (cynocephalics) going back at least to Greek sources.
As David Gordon White summarizes: “What changes is the locus of these exotic creatures…. They are always located far away, beyond neighbors that are close enough to be known as enemies or allies, often over the last known mountain range or body of water. They always belong to another land, live under another sky, live according to other statutes (Dog-Men often cohabit and couple with gynecocratic Amazons), and speak (or bark) other tongues.”
The second plate show’s a depiction of dog-faced men from Yule’s notes on Marco Polo (citing the source only as “from a manuscript”).
When visiting Keshem, a town now in Afghanistan, Polo described porcupines that were hunted with dogs, but were able to huddle close, or roll themselves up, when attacked, and shoot off their quills.
Yule, in a note to Polo’s description of porcupines, finds the belief that porcupines could shoot their quills goes back to antiquity and can be found in Pliny and Aelian.
Yule acknowledges, however, that porcupines will huddle and coil themselves, “for the porcupine always tries to shield its head.” The plate shows porcupine hunting as imagined in Il Milione.
Tartars Use Dogs in Bird Hunts
Although saying that the Tartars had the best dogs in the world, Polo also says that they ate dogs (something that Polo deems worthy to note regarding various peoples he encountered or heard about). Yule, citing the accounts of other travelers than Polo, describes the Tartars using dogs to hunt ducks, geese, and swans. During their invasion of Europe in 1242, some believed the Tartars, or at least some of their followers, were dog-headed and ate human flesh.
Kublai Khan’s Great Hunts
The central figure in Polo's narrative is Kublai Khan. The emperor had two men, brothers, who kept his hounds.
Their functions during a hunt are described by Polo as follows: “The Emperor hath two Barons who are own brothers, one called Baian and the other Mingan ; and these two are styled Chimtchi (or Cunichi) which is as much as to say, ‘The Keepers of the Mastiff Dogs.’
Each of these brothers hath 10,000 men under his orders; each body of 10,000 being dressed alike, the one in red and the other in blue, and whenever they accompany the Lord to the chase, they wear this livery, in order to be recognized.
Out of each body of 10,000 there are 2,000 men who are each in charge of one or more great mastiffs, so that the whole number of these is very large. And when the Prince goes a-hunting, one of those Barons, with his 10,000 men and something like 5000 dogs, goes towards the right, whilst the other goes towards the left with his party in like manner.
They move along, all abreast of one another, so that the whole line extends over a full day's journey, and no animal can escape them. Truly it is a glorious sight to see the working of the dogs and the huntsmen on such an occasion! And as the Lord rides a-fowling across the plains, you will see these big hounds coming tearing up, one pack after a bear, another pack after a stag, or some other beast, as it may hap, and running the game down now on this side and now on that, so that it is really a most delightful sport and spectacle.”
Although the numbers seem exaggerated, Allsen (2006, p. 97) notes the indigenous sources describe massive hunts in various parts of Asia.
The brothers, whose responsibilities did not end with the hunt, were also required to provide a thousand head of game daily to the court (not counting quails).
Polo is not the only early traveler to describe these massive hunts. Friar Odoric, visiting one of the successors of Kublai decades after Polo in the 1320s, says the following: “When the Great Khan goes a hunting ‘tis thus ordered. At some twenty days’ journey from Cambalech, there is a fine forest of eight days’ journey in compass; and in it are such multitudes and varieties of animals as are truly wonderful.
All around this forest there be keepers posted on account of the Khan, to take diligent charge thereof; and every third or fourth year he goeth with his people to this forest. On such occasions they first surround the whole forest with beaters, and let slip the dogs and the hawks trained to this sport, and then gradually closing in upon the game, they drive it to a certain fine open spot that there is in the middle of the wood.
Here there becomes massed together an extraordinary multitude of wild beasts, such as lions, wild oxen, bears, stags, and a great variety of others, and all in a state of the greatest alarm. For there is such a prodigious noise and uproar raised by the birds and the dogs that have been let slip into the wood, that a person cannot hear what his neighbor says; and all the [unfortunate] wild beasts quiver with terror at the disturbance.
And when they have all been driven together into that open glade, the Great Khan comes up on three elephants and shoots his arrows at the game. As soon as he has shot, the whole of his retinue do likewise.
And when all have shot their arrows (each man’s arrows having a token by which they may be discerned), then the Great Emperor causeth to be called out “Syo!” which is to say as it were Quarter! to the beasts (to wit) that have been driven from the wood.
Then [the huntsmen sound the recall, and call in the dogs and hawks from the prey] the animals which have escaped with their life are allowed to go back into the forest, and all the barons come forward to view the game that has been killed and to recover the arrows that they had shot (which they can well do by the marks on them); and every one has what his arrow has struck.”
A hunter in the upper left takes aim at a bird beyond the frame, while a sighthound looks up, probably at the same bird.
Note that one of the hunting party has a cheetah mounted behind him.
The plate below, from a manuscript in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (MS 264,240 verso), illustrating a French manuscript, Li Livres du Graunt Caam, shows Kublai Khan hunting.
The large number of dogs and the diverse kinds of prey follow the intent of Marco Polo's account.
Something similar to the medieval English forest laws apparently applied when the khan hunted: “There is another thing I should mention; to wit, that for 20 days' journey round the spot nobody is allowed, be he who he may, to keep hawks or hounds, though anywhere else whosoever list may keep them.
And furthermore throughout all the Emperor's territories, nobody however audacious dares to hunt any of these four animals, to wit, hare, stag, buck, and roe, from the month of March to the month of October.
Anybody who should do so would rue it bitterly. But those people are so obedient to their Lord's commands, that even if a man were to find one of those animals asleep by the roadside he would not touch it for the world!
And thus the game multiplies at such a rate that the whole country swarms with it, and the Emperor gets as much as he could desire.” Polo says, however, that anyone can hunt in those areas from November to February, when the king isn’t hunting. Presumably that wasn’t the most comfortable time of year. Yule, in a note, says that Bajazet (Tamurlane), a century after Kublai, had 7,000 falconers, and 6,000 dog-keepers, so Europeans became familiar with accounts of large numbers of hunting dogs in the east. There is also a description of entertainments of the Great Khan, which included Chinese jugglers who could make animals climb up a rope and disappear.
The animals apparently included dogs, hogs, panthers, lions, and tigers.
Kler (1941) records that Mongols used dogs in hare hunting.
As in many cultures, dogs were used to dispose of those not worthy of burial.
Polo recounts Kublai Khan having the body of a traitor “dug up and cast into the street for the dogs to tear.”
In his description of the province of Cuiju (commonly Guizhou or Kweichow in anglicizing), Polo states: “But you see they have in this province a large breed of dogs, so fierce and bold that two of them together will attack a lion.
So every man who goes a journey takes with him a couple of those dogs, and when a lion appears they have at him with the greatest boldness, and the lion turns on them, but can't touch them for they are very deft at eschewing his blows.
So they follow him, perpetually giving tongue, and watching their chance to give him a bite in the rump or in the thigh, or wherever they may.
The lion makes no reprisal except now and then to turn fiercely on them, and then indeed were he to catch the dogs it would be all over with them, but they take good care that he shall not.
So, to escape the dogs' din, the lion makes off, and gets into the wood, where mayhap he stands at bay against a tree to have his rear protected from their annoyance. And when the travelers see the lion in this plight they take to their bows, for they are capital archers, and shoot their arrows at him till he falls dead. And 'tis thus that travelers in those parts do deliver themselves from those lions.”
Yule notes a report from his own century of caravans of Chinese travelers being accompanied by large dogs along the Mekong River, which was presumably for such protection.
In describing the difficult country of the northern steppes of Siberia, Polo mentions the “immense bears entirely white, and more than 20 palms in length.”
One area impassable by horses has post-houses “for the lodgment of couriers.”
The post-houses have dogs: “At each of these post-houses they keep some 40 dogs of great size, in fact not much smaller than donkeys, and these dogs draw the couriers over the day's journey from post-house to post-house, and I will tell you how.
You see the ice and mire are so prevalent, that over this tract, which lies for those 13 days' journey in a great valley between two mountains, no horses (as I told you) can travel, nor can any wheeled carriage either.
Wherefore they make sledges, which are carriages without wheels, and made so that they can run over the ice, and also over mire and mud without sinking too deep in it.
Of these sledges indeed there are many in our own country, for 'tis just such that are used in winter for carrying hay and straw when there have been heavy rains and the country is deep in mire.
On such a sledge then they lay a bear-skin on which the courier sits, and the sledge is drawn by six of those big dogs that I spoke of.
The dogs have no driver, but go straight for the next post-house, drawing the sledge famously over ice and mire.
The keeper of the post-house however also gets on a sledge drawn by dogs, and guides the party by the best and shortest way.
And when they arrive at the next station they find a new relay of dogs and sledges ready to take them on, whilst the old relay turns back; and thus they accomplish the whole journey across that region, always drawn by dogs.”
Yule notes that in the 19th century sled dogs were not used as far south as Polo describes, but that Ibn Batuta, a 14th century traveler, confirms Polo’s account.
The Chinese knew of dog sleds, as a Chinese poem contains the line: “Over the thick snow in a dog-cart.” Yule cites dog-sled experts as saying that Polo and Ibn Batuta and other early travelers overstated the size of the dogs and understated the number that pulled a sled.
The plate is Yule’s depiction of a Siberian dog sled.
Large Dogs of Tibet
Polo describes the people of Tibet having “great numbers of large and fine dogs, which are of great service in catching the musk-beasts, and so they procure great abundance of musk.”
In another chapter, Polo adds: “They have mastiff dogs as big as donkeys, which are capital at seizing wild beasts ‘and in particular the wild oxen which are called Beyamini, very great and fierce animals. They have also sundry other kinds of sporting dogs, and excellent lanner falcons….”
Yule cites other travelers remarking on the size of the Tibetan massifs, “as large as Newfoundlands.” Yule refers to a priest’s account (Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, vol. 37) of a Tibetan mastiff beating off the attack of a leopard until the leopard split the dog’s skull open.
Conclusion John Masefield wrote: “The wonder of Marco Polo is this—that he created Asia for the European mind.” Despite such high praise, arguments have been made that Polo did not go to China, that he got somewhere close enough to pick up the accounts of travelers who had gone further, then spun what he remembered into a story while in a Genoese prison to entertain his cellmate, Rustichello da Pisa (Wood, 1996).
An analysis of the dog references in translations of Polo’s account will not resolve such arguments. Nevertheless, Polo’s eye for detail provides valuable data, confirmed by travelers coming the century after, regarding how and where dogs were used in Asia. Much of the data seems so specific, and perhaps unimportant—such as the references to groups that eat dogs—that it would seem that someone taking a narrative from travelers at an intermediary station, say in Persia or India, would probably not bother. Nevertheless, I leave this debate to those qualified to participate in it.
Sources:
1. Allsen, T.T. (2006). The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.
2. Kler, J. (1941). Hunting Customs of the Ordos Mongols. Primitive Man, 14(3), 38-48.
3. Livres des Merveilles du Monde (Books of the Marvels of the World), sometimes called Il Milione, recorded by Rustichello da Pisa from stories told by Marco Polo, published c. 1300.
4. Masefield, J. (1907). Introduction. The Travels of Marco Polo the Venetian (1908). J.M. Dent & Sons, London; E.P. Dutton & Co., New York.
5. Stonehenge (John Henry Walsh) (1859). The Dog in Health and Disease.
6. White, D.G. (1991). Myths of the Dog-Men. University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.
7. Wood, F. (1996). Did Marco Polo Go to China? Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.
8. Yule, H. (1866) (editor and translator). Cathay and the Way Thither; Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, vols. I and II. Hakluyt Society, London.
9. Yule, H. (1871). The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, vols. I and II. John Murray London.
(In a note to Polo’s account of the dog-headed men of the Andaman Islands, Yule recognizes the widespread occurrence of dog-men stories, saying that they are at least as old as Ctesias. He notes that the Cubans described the Caribs to Columbus as man-eaters with dogs’ muzzles; the Danes spoke of the Cynocephali of Finland; Friar Jordanus also heard of dog-headed islanders in the east, Pere Barbe related that Nicobar people considered themselves of canine descent, but on the female side; Portuguese sailors heard that Peguans (Burmese) sprang from a dog and a Chinese woman; Coromandel Brahmans spoke of man-eaters on the Island of Andaman).
Thanks to Eric Krieger and Richard Hawkins for comments and corrections.
I had speculated that the dog in the Guandao illustration was looking at the emperor but Richard notes this would probably be an affront. Rather, it is much more likely looking at the potential game beyond our view in the sky above.
Sunday, 4 March 2012
50 Tael "Yuan Bao"Sycee Ingot of Khubilai Khan
The April 2012 Hong Kong Auction
Lot #20605. CHINA. Yuan Dynasty Zhi Yuan. 50 Tael "Yuan Bao" Ingot, Year 14 (1277).| 50 Tael "Yuan Bao" Sycee Ingot of Khubilai Khan. | |
| Description: | 1894 gms. Khubilai Khan (the fifth Great Khan, grandson of Ghengis Khan) (1260-94). BMC-unlisted; Chen-14; NI Bulletin-Vol.45 Nos. 7/8, pg. 125/9(this sycee pictured); Pictorial Yuanbao-unlisted. Dated the 14th year of the Zhiyuan era (1277), inscribed Yangzhou (Jiangsu) Salt market (tax), casting official: Liu Sheng, silver official: Wang Ying, silversmith: Hou Junyong, weight: 50 lang, purity level ten, Treasury official Meng Gui, silversmith She Yuan, Mai Ye, silver treasury three, with denomination at upper left and ruler's name and date at lower center. Inscription in grass and orthodox style scripts, inscribed "Yuan Bao" [Treasury of the Yuan (Dynasty)] cast into reverse. This type of sycee was recorded by Marco Polo in his travels through China. From 1260 to 1264 Khubilai Khan used the era name "Zhongtong". Beginning in 1264 he took the reign title (era name) Zhiyuan. It would not be until seven years later, in 1271, that he would name the country Yuan. This ingot is marked Zhiyuan which places it in the Yuan Dynasty and with this title places the year 14 as (1277). Experts suggest that approximately ten of these Yuan Bao 50 Tael ingots are known to exist, seven of which are accounted for in museums. EXTREMELY RARE and historically very important.VERY FINE.Ex: Ponterio & Associates, Inc. A division of Bowers and Merena auction #154 June 2010, lot #8278 where it sold for $64,900.00. |
| Estimate: | $50,000 - $75,000 |
Image Gallery
Saturday, 25 February 2012
Das Mongolenreich des Kublai Khan
Erst kürzlich wurde in einer japanischen Stadt die Kopie einer mongolischen Karte gefunden. Diese Karte, die aus dem Altertum stammen muss, zeigt detailliert den gesamten eurasischen Kontinent, Japan und erstmals auch den kompletten afrikanischen Kontinent. Den Auftrag, eine Karte mit solch einer Präzision zu zeichnen, gab damals Kublai Khan. Er war ein Enkelsohn des legendären Dschingis Khan.
NHK Documentary from 2004
NHK Documentary from 2004
Monday, 26 December 2011
Gov't eyes seabed with 13th century Mongol wreck as historic site
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Agency for Cultural Affairs plans to seek the designation as a national historical site the seabed off Nagasaki Prefecture in southwestern Japan where the wreck of a ship believed to have been used by 13th-century Mongol invaders has been found, agency sources said Wednesday.If realized, the area off Takashima Island in Matsuura, Nagasaki, will be the first underwater ruins to be registered. Designation as a historic site would in principle prohibit the existing state in the area to be altered.
The agency saw the need to take immediate protection measures in the area given that relics there are expected to provide archeologists with crucial information on the 1274 and 1281 Mongol attacks that, until the recent discovery of the relatively intact shipwreck, has mostly been available only from historical documents and drawings.
The move came after the Matsuura education board submitted a report to the agency in July calling for the designation of some 384,000 square meters in the area, including where the sunken ship was found, as a national historical site. The board said academic research is still ongoing in the area and that no decision has been made on whether to raise the submerged wreck.
The failure of the two attacks launched by Mongol leader Kublai Khan (1215-1294) against Japan, with battles fought in northern Kyushu, is often attributed in Japan to "kamikaze" divine winds that destroyed much of the Mongol fleets.
The waters around Takashima Island are known for discoveries of the scattered wrecks. In October, a research team of the University of the Ryukyus said it has found a wreck with much of the hull still intact, including a 12-meter-long section of the keel.
In accordance with procedures for designating cultural properties, the agency will first consult with the Council for Cultural Affairs on the matter.
(Mainichi Japan) December 8, 2011
Monday, 5 December 2011
In Search of the Great Khan
National Geographic and UCSD Engineers partner up to solve one of history’s greatest mysteries: The location of Genghis Khan's tomb.
From The University of California Guardian, november 20, 2011, by Mina Nilchian
Not many people can brag about visiting all seven continents, but one UCSD undergrad can get pretty close.
Third year Warren College student Radley Angelo has visited six, and might visit his seventh (Antarctica) this summer. But the computer engineering and literature/writing double major isn’t just a thrill-seeking globe trotter. Last summer, he visited Mongolia on an expedition on behalf of National Geographic.
The purpose of the three-week endeavor? To solve one of history’s mysteries — find the tomb of Genghis Khan.
It started when Angelo was intrigued by a presentation given by his engineering professor during his sophomore year.
“I was taking a computer science class with a professor, professor Kastner,” Angelo said. “At the end of class one day he showed a promo video for a lab that he was a cofounder of on campus. It was called the Engineers for Exploration lab, and it had the National Geographic logo on it and he said we’re always looking for talented engineers.”
Due to his family’s background in flight (his grandfather used to work for TWC Aviation), Angelo was attracted by the opportunity to work with helicopters. Before long, Angelo was working at the “Engineers for Exploration” lab with his supervisor Albert Lin, a UCSD alum, and associate professor of Computer Engineering Robert Kastner, the professor that piqued Angelo’s interest in the first place. One of the lab’s several projects — the one Angelo would be assigned to — is an innovative development of the regular helicopter. Instead of having one blade, the multiple bladed aerial copter has multiple smaller blades around it. The blades are controlled by a central computer system. They aren’t designed to carry people, but rather, a camera that would be used to take pictures from difficult angles.
With his background in computer science, it seemed natural that Angelo would spend his time at the lab developing the code for the central computer that would control the copter.
After a few successful test runs of the copter, Angelo felt it was time to get the equipment out in the real world.
“The lab exists so that students get to work on hands-on projects that actually get to go out in the field,” Angelo said. “All of our research is application driven.“
Since 2009, Angelo’s supervisor Albert Lin has taken two quests to Mongolia in search of the tomb of Genghis Khan. While there wasn’t any conclusive information about where the tomb was, it was presumed that the possible location of the burial site would likely be in a very significant mountain range of the Mongolian shaman tradition, the Burkan Khaldun mountains.
Armed with this information, the July expedition, building off of the past two expeditions, which were turned into feature documentaries by National Geographic, planned on taking advanced equipment, including Angelo’s helicopter, to get a close picture of the mountain range.
Angelo, who built the copter and had good knowledge of how to repair it, eventually convinced Lin to be a part of the effort in the third expedition to Mongolia.
The team of about 20 people left for Mongolia in July. When they reached the mountain range, a mixture of difficult terrain and some very tenacious pests gave the team quite a challenge to work with.
“The flies actually get into the car through the AC and the exhaust,” Angelo said. “They get in the windshield so you can’t actually see the outside. And then there are these thing called horse flies. They have this jigsaw nose kind of thing. What they do is they land and they attack your skin.”
They spent the three weeks hauling equipment to their exploration site and managing the different devices they were going to use to get detailed pictures of the mountain range. At night they all slept in a circular tent. Angelo used his copter to take several pictures of the mountain range, which would be stitched together to create a visualization of the area they wanted to observe. Like a more detailed version of Google Earth, the topographic picture of the mountain range could give them clues that would turn them in the right direction of finding Genghis Khan’s tomb.
“What you can do is create a really cool map of where every tree is, where every rock is,” Angelo said. “The more data you have, the better. If I find a roof tile or something, which we found a lot of roof tiles, I can now place it on a spot on a map.” The group had also been keeping close contact with the Mongolian government. Their project of studying the sacred Burkan Khaldun mountain range could be compared to “the equivalent of digging around in the Vatican.”
“You don’t do that without the right permissions,” Angelo said.
The group also came in contact with the religious shamans of the mountain range. Initially concerned with the group’s motives, they ultimately granted them permission to spend time in the area. Angelo explained that while their goal is to ultimately find the tomb of Genghis Khan, what they hope to do with the information is protect the mountain range, which is currently vulnerable to Chinese mining companies that want to gain access to the region’s natural resources.
“This area is obviously such an important part of the world’s humanity,” Angelo said. “One of every two hundred men can trace their lineage back to Genghis Khan. They just want to destroy this whole sacred mountain, that just rubs a lot of people the wrong way.”
While they weren’t able to conclusively prove that the mountain range is home to Genghis Khan’s tomb, the group’s findings were enough to get the range recognized as a UNESCO historical site. Eventually, the region will be protected from any future mining exploits.
Angelo returned from the trip with a new network of friendships from around the globe, and gained vital experience in working with engineering equipment. His copter design is going to be used by future explorers. Angelo says that he might even get the opportunity to join a team visiting Antarctica, which will use the device to track penguin migration patterns.
Angelo hopes his future includes more opportunities to apply his skills in the field. But he insists that all those opportunities begin right at home.
“It’s easy to get caught into thinking that the fifth floor of Geisel is where all this happens,” Angelo said. But that’s so patently untrue. I can’t say it enough times.”
Saturday, 26 November 2011
The Missing Tomb
The Valley of the Khans Project is a nondestructive archaeological survey utilizing modern digital tools from a variety of disciplines, including digital imagery, computer vision, nondestructive surveying, and on-site digital archaeology. The goal of the search is to identify archaeological sites without disturbing them–in the area of Mongolia's most sacred heritage–Genghis Khan's homeland. This maintains respect and reverence for local customs while enabling protective measures through organizations such as UNESCO. With the growing trend of rogue illegal mining in the region, such protective measures will be critical in the preservation of this iconic symbol of world cultural heritage and the rich cultural patrimony throughout Mongolia.
For more information, click HERE
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
The original kamikaze: Kublai Khan’s invasion shipwreck found?
We are still learning about the Mongolian invasions, 750 years after they happened. Hanoi History Museum, James DelgadoWe published earlier about these subjects but in this article in The Conversation by Mark Staniforth of 4 November 2011 everything is nicely put together.
Archaeologists from the University of the Ryukyus in Japan have discovered part of a 13th century ship that apparently belonged to Mongolian warlord Kublai Khan.
The ship is believed to be a remnant of a fleet that took part in one of Kublai Khan’s failed attempts to invade Japan, in 1274 or 1281.
The discovery could provide archaeologists and historians with new insights into medieval shipbuilding and about Kublai Khan’s multiple invasion attempts.
The wreck of the 20-metre-long vessel was discovered under 25 metres of water and one metre of sand, in waters off Takashima Island in Matsuura, Nagasaki prefecture.
The archaeologists uncovered a 12-metre-long section of keel and more than 4,000 artifacts, including ceramic shards, bricks used for ballast, cannonballs and stone anchors.
According to lead researcher, Yoshifumi Ikedia, there are no immediate plans to salvage the hull. The first step was to conserve the find by covering the site with nets.
On several occasions, from 1274 AD onwards, Kublai Khan dispatched armies aboard fleets of ships in an attempt to expand the Mongolian empire into East Asia (Japan) and Southeast Asia (Vietnam).
In 1281, he amassed an impressive armada of 4,400 ships carrying at least 140,000 Korean, Mongol and Chinese troops in a second attempt to invade Japan.
But Kublai Khan’s plans were thwarted when a two-day typhoon – known as a kamikaze (or “divine wind”) – hit the Tsushima Strait, apparently destroying approximately 80% of his fleet. Historians believe Kublai Khan’s troops either drowned at sea or were killed on the beaches by samurai.
The shipwreck discovered off Takashima Island is not the first archaeological evidence we have of Kublai Khan’s failed invasions.
Since 2008 an international research team, the Bach Dang Battlefield Research Group – comprised of archaeologists and scholars from around the world (myself included) – has conducted archaeological surveys and excavations at the Bach Dang River in north Vietnam.
We have been investigating the topography, archaeological evidence and later memorials, temples and shrines associated with another historically significant naval battle.
A 19th century copy of a 1293 painting of the Mongol invasionsThe 1288 naval battle at Bach Dang occurred after the Mongol invaders captured the capital Thang Long (now Hanoi). They then found themselves trapped in an empty city without supplies.
The invaders decided to abandon the capital and retreat, but the Vietnamese decided to fight a decisive naval battle. The Vietnamese forces, under the command of Tran Hung Dao and his generals, lay in wait for the invasion fleet knowing they would have to return to China through an estuary at the mouth of the Bach Dang River.
Tran Hung Dao had his men plant wooden stakes in the bed of the Bach Dang River to create a line of defence so the Mongols could not retreat.
As the fleet entered the mouth of the river, a few small boats engaged the enemy. When the tide ebbed, the fleet was thrown on to the wooden stakes.
Tran Hung Dao was victorious and many of the Mongol ships (perhaps hundreds) were burned or lost during the battle.
In 2009, the Bach Dang Battlefield Research Group conducted an extensive survey in Quang Yen town – where the Bach Dang River used to meet the sea – and on nearby Ha Nam Island.
Trenches at Dong Ma Ngua from which 25 defensive stakes were extracted. Nguyen Mai HuongOur research group mapped the defensive stakes at the riverside Dong Ma Ngua site and excavated a small area to examine the soil profile.
Fieldwork at the Dong Ma Ngua site has since yielded a large number of artefacts, including 55 stakes and other wooden fragments, pottery (ceramic and stoneware), bricks and tiles. A broken oar most probably associated with a small boat was also unearthed.
A remote sensing survey, core sampling and limited test excavations will hopefully uncover stake yards buried below several meters of silt. These stake yards are likely to still be in excellent condition – the silt preserving the original configuration of the stakes.
These ongoing investigations in Vietnam, and the new discovery off the coast of Japan, are providing valuable historical information about the Mongols' attempted invasions.
Our research group will present its findings (thus far) at the inaugural Asian Academy for Heritage Management Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Underwater Cultural Heritage next week.
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Shipwreck may be part of Kublai Khan's lost fleet
CNN By Peter Shadbolt,October 27, 2011 -- In Japanese legend they are known as The Kamikaze -- the divine winds -- a reference to two mighty typhoons placed providentially seven years apart which, in the 13th century, destroyed two separate Mongol invasion fleets so large they were not eclipsed until the D-Day landings of World War II.
Marine archaeologists now say they have uncovered the remains of a ship from the second fleet in 1281 -- believed to have comprised 4,400 vessels -- a meter below the seabed, in 25 meters of water off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan.
Scientists are hoping they will be able to recreate the complete Yuan Dynasty vessel from Kublai Khan's lost fleet using a 12-meter-long section of keel. The Mongols ruled China from 1271 to 1368.
According to Yoshifumi Ikeda, a professor of archaeology at Okinawa's University of the Ryukyus, and head of the research team, the section could go a long way to helping researchers identify all the characteristics of the 20-meter warship.
"This discovery was of major importance for our research," Ikeda told a news conference. "We are planning to expand search efforts and find further information that can help us restore the whole ship."
Discovered using ultrasound equipment, the research team says it is the first wreck from the period to have an intact hull, the planks of which are still attached to the keel with nails.
Scientists say its good state of preservation -- they were even able to establish that the planks were originally painted a whitish-gray -- is due to the fact it has been covered by sand.
"I believe we will be able to understand more about shipbuilding skills at the time as well as the actual situation of exchanges in East Asia," Ikeda told reporters in Nagasaki.
More than 4,000 artifacts, including ceramic shards, bricks used for ballast, cannonballs and stone anchors have been found in the vicinity of the wreck, linking it to the Yuan Dynasty invasion fleet.
Ikeda said there were no immediate plans to salvage the hull and the first step was to conserve the find by covering the sites with nets.
The Kamikaze -- perhaps better known as the nickname given to the Japanese suicide pilots of the Pacific War -- were a nation-defining event for Japan and set the limits of Mongol expansion in the east.
Historians say the first Chinese attempt to invade Japan in 1274 ended in disaster.
Having initially engaged a numerically superior Japanese samurai force at the Battle of Bun'ei in First Battle of Hakata Bay, the Chinese retreated to their fleet of 300 ships and some 500 smaller craft after just one day of battle on land. A typhoon destroyed a third of the fleet that night and the remnants limped back to port in Korea which was then a vassal state of China.
Seven years later, Kublai Khan amassed an impressive armada of 4,400 ships carrying 40,000 Korean, Mongol and Chinese troops in a bid to finally subjugate Japan. The Japanese, convinced of a second invasion, had spent the intervening years building strategic seawalls which made it difficult for the Chinese to land.
Unable to gain a beachhead after initially taking the island of Iki and Tsushima, the fleet was decimated by a two-day typhoon that hit the Tsushima Straits.
It is believed about 80% of the fleet was destroyed and the Khan's troops either drowned at sea or slaughtered on the beaches by samurai.
According to a contemporary account cited in the book "Khubilai Khan's lost fleet: In Search of a Legendary Armada," by maritime archaeologist James P. Delgado, the losses were so great that "a person could walk across from one point of land to another on a mass of wreckage".
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
13th century Mongolian wreckage discovered off Japanese seabed
The wreck of a Mongolian ship presumed to have been part of a 13th century invasion fleet has been discovered beneath the seabed off southern Japan.
The Telegraph by Julian Ryall, 25 October 2011
The vessel is the first of its kind to have been discovered relatively intact and dates from a series of attempts by Kublai Khan, emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, to subjugate Japan between 1274 and 1281.
Researchers have previously only been able to recover anchor stones and cannonballs from the scattered wrecks of the Mongol fleets and they believe that this latest find will shed new light on the maritime technology of the day.
The warship was located with ultrasonic equipment about 3 feet beneath the seabed at a depth of 75 feet. The archeological team, from Okinawa's University of the Ryukus, had been carrying out a search of the waters around Takashima Island, in Nagasaki Prefecture, because the area had yielded other items from Mongol ships.
Historical records suggest that some 4,400 ships carrying 140,000 Mongol soldiers landed in Japan in 1281 and skirmished with samurai in northern Kyushu. But after returning to their boats, the fleet was struck by a devastating typhoon that put an end to the invasion plans - a storm known to all Japanese as "kamizake," meaning divine wind, and again invoked in the dying days of the Second World War.
"I believe we will be able to understand more about shipbuilding skills at the time, as well as the actual situation of exchanges in East Asia," Ikeda told reporters in Nagasaki on Monday. He added that more research remains to be done, but he is also considering raising the wreck and putting it on public display.
A section of the ship's hull was first found last year but a full archeological excavation only began on September 30.
The researchers uncovered a keel nearly 50 feet long and more than 1.5 feet wide. Lengths of wood planking were still buried beneath silt alongside the main spars, they said.
The planks were as much as 9 inches wide and nearly 4 inches thick and were still coated in a grey paint. The planks had been held in place by nails and more than 300 bricks that were used as ballast were located throughout the site, along with ink stones and shards of Chinese ceramics.
The archeologists have also recovered weapons and identified the remains of the ship's ribs and bulkheads.
The mast and upper structures have been lost, the researchers said, but historians are marvelling at the discovery of the first near-complete pre-medieval wooden ship in Japan.
Kosuka Umazume, director of the Japan Society for Nautical Research, said it was a "miracle" that so much of the vessel had been recovered in such good condition and after such a long period of time.
The researchers believe the boats tried to find shelter in the coves of northern Kyushu, an assumption borne out by the discovery by Professor Yoshifumi Ikeda's team.
The Telegraph by Julian Ryall, 25 October 2011
The vessel is the first of its kind to have been discovered relatively intact and dates from a series of attempts by Kublai Khan, emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, to subjugate Japan between 1274 and 1281.
Researchers have previously only been able to recover anchor stones and cannonballs from the scattered wrecks of the Mongol fleets and they believe that this latest find will shed new light on the maritime technology of the day.
The warship was located with ultrasonic equipment about 3 feet beneath the seabed at a depth of 75 feet. The archeological team, from Okinawa's University of the Ryukus, had been carrying out a search of the waters around Takashima Island, in Nagasaki Prefecture, because the area had yielded other items from Mongol ships.
Historical records suggest that some 4,400 ships carrying 140,000 Mongol soldiers landed in Japan in 1281 and skirmished with samurai in northern Kyushu. But after returning to their boats, the fleet was struck by a devastating typhoon that put an end to the invasion plans - a storm known to all Japanese as "kamizake," meaning divine wind, and again invoked in the dying days of the Second World War.
"I believe we will be able to understand more about shipbuilding skills at the time, as well as the actual situation of exchanges in East Asia," Ikeda told reporters in Nagasaki on Monday. He added that more research remains to be done, but he is also considering raising the wreck and putting it on public display.
A section of the ship's hull was first found last year but a full archeological excavation only began on September 30.
The researchers uncovered a keel nearly 50 feet long and more than 1.5 feet wide. Lengths of wood planking were still buried beneath silt alongside the main spars, they said.
The planks were as much as 9 inches wide and nearly 4 inches thick and were still coated in a grey paint. The planks had been held in place by nails and more than 300 bricks that were used as ballast were located throughout the site, along with ink stones and shards of Chinese ceramics.
The archeologists have also recovered weapons and identified the remains of the ship's ribs and bulkheads.
The mast and upper structures have been lost, the researchers said, but historians are marvelling at the discovery of the first near-complete pre-medieval wooden ship in Japan.
Kosuka Umazume, director of the Japan Society for Nautical Research, said it was a "miracle" that so much of the vessel had been recovered in such good condition and after such a long period of time.
The researchers believe the boats tried to find shelter in the coves of northern Kyushu, an assumption borne out by the discovery by Professor Yoshifumi Ikeda's team.
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
The Search for Kublai Khan’s lost fleet: archaeological research at Bach Dang in Vietnam
The Search for Kublai Khan’s lost fleet: archaeological research at Bach Dang in Vietnam.by Mark StaniforthIn recent years the Maritime Archaeology Program at Flinders University has developed a collaborative archaeological research project with the Vietnamese government’s Institute of Archaeology (IA) and the US based Institute for Nautical Archaeology.
View the Power Point Lecture and click HERE
About Mark Staniforth
Associate Professor Mark Staniforth has broad experience in historical archaeology, maritime archaeology and museums in a career that spans over twenty-five years. He was the State government maritime archaeologist for the Victoria Archaeological Survey in Victoria (1982-1987) and curator of maritime archaeology at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney (1987-1993). He has worked as a consultant for the Australian Commonwealth government (National Historic Shipwrecks Research Plan 1995), the Canadian federal government (advice on national shipwreck legislation), the NSW state government (Parramatta River Survey), for the Hobsons Bay Council in Victoria (pipeline watching brief) and for the Land Management Corporation (Port Adelaide Waterfront Redevelopment Project) Mark has conducted archaeological survey and excavation in all Australian states as well as overseas, both underwater and on land across a wide range of archaeological sites.
Mark is currently a professional member of ICOMOS. He has been the Chair of the NSW State government’s Maritime Archaeology Advisory Panel (MAAP) 1988-1993), the president of the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology (AIMA 1985-87) and the Australian Association for Maritime History (AAMH 1998-2003). He has served for two terms on the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology (ACUA 2000-2008) including three years as deputy Chair (2001-2003) and three years as Chair (2004-2007).
Mark is currently an Adjunct Research Fellow with the Maritime Archaeology Program in the Department of Archaeology at Flinders University. He is the author of Material Culture and Consumer Society published by Plenum Press of New York in 2003. he is the editor (with Mike Nash in 2006) of Maritime Archaeology: Australian Approaches (Plenum Press. New York) and (with Mike Hyde in 2001) of Maritime Archaeology in Australia: A Reader (Southern Archaeology. Blackwood, SA.) He has published more than 70 publications in Australian and International journals in a thirty year career in maritime archaeology
Archaeological surveying and excavation at Dong Ma Ngua site in 2010
Archaeological surveying and excavation at Dong Ma Ngua site in 2010
by Jun Kimura, Research Associate, Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M (PhD candidate, Maritime Archaeology Program, Flinders University)
Site: Dong Ma Ngua (DMN), Nam Hoa commune, Yen Hung district, Quang Ninh province
Date of the fieldwork: 15th April -8 May, 2010
Director of the excavation: Dr. Le Thi Lien, Institute of Archaeology (IA), Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences
Advisors: Dr. Mark Starniforth, Associate Professor, Maritime Archaeology Program (MAP), Flinders University, Dr. James P. Delgado, Director, Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA)
Texas A&M Participants: Ms. Nguyen Mai Huong, Kieu Dinh Son, Dr. Bui Thi Mai, Dr. Michel Girard, Charlotte Minh Ha Pham, Jun Kimura and Burton Britt Jane.
The excavation was sponsored by Quang Ninh Provincial Government.
Introduction
Figure 1. There is a local area known as a Shipwreck Place by local people, suggest to conduct excavation to find ship remains.
This is a brief report on archaeological fieldwork conducted at the site of Dong Ma Ngua (DMN) located along Bach Dang River during 15th April -8 May in 2010. The excavation follows the 2009 season work by a project team from INA, MAP, IA that proceeded to a test excavation (Sasaki R & Kimura, J 2010a; 2010b). Besides the outcome of the fieldwork, this report includes a proposal for the next November/December Survey should target the implementation of survey on Ngon song Kenh” or “Kenh Riverhead”. The area has been reclaimed and hardly see on the map, yet it is used to be surrounded by the Duong Giang high ground and has been known as a part of Kenh River. The Kenh River is one of the three major channels that used to connect Bach Dang River and Chanh River, yet might have many small streams. There is a higher ground area locally called “Shipwreck place”, located along the border of the ancient Kenh River (Figure.1). This particular area is regarded as a relevant location where the team should proceed to an intensive survey by coring and using other remote sensing equipments. Based on some perspectives in this report, the survey in the next season aims at identifying targets and is expected to lead better understanding of the naval battle between the Yuan/Mongolian and Dai Viet.
Summary of the fieldwork
Figure 2. Dong Ma Ngua site. H1 trench in the right side and H4 is trench in the left side, divided by the string line. The stakes diagonally driven in different orientation. (Photo by Nguyen Mai Huong).
The fieldwork is divided into two periods, contributed by different members of the team. During the first fieldwork from 15 – 25 April, two Bench-marks (BM) were set around beside a fish pond known as the DMN site and excavation commenced. The second period of the fieldwork consisted of 10 days from 30 April to 8 May, and another two BMs during the last phase and small trenches are extensively opened around the fish pond. Throughout all this period, four permanent benchmarks (BM) were set. By the end of the fieldwork, four trenches (H1, 2, 3, 4) have been opened on the DMN site (Figure.2). They are located in the fish pond (dried) and measuring approximately 20 x 15m. Two additional test pits (TS1 & TS2) were opened at the rice fields around DMN to confirm the sediments in the surrounding area and to develop our understanding of the topographical features. As a result of the excavation in the fishpond (DMN), 55 stakes (plus two large wood pieces) were identified. Moreover, a large number of ceramic shreds were identified (possibly dating to after the 15th century, some seem to be earlier though, Dr. Le Thi Lien is currently analysing them). A small-square earthen coffin, likely to be dated to after the 17-18th century, was found in one of the two test trenches (TS1).
Archaeological works conducted in the trenches of the fishpond include sediments profile recording and stakes recording (detailed descriptions, measurements, photos). Small wood samples were also collected from all of these recorded stakes. By using a total station, the position of these stakes and a few important topographical features around the site, such as a concrete irrigation channels, BMs, fish ponds, waterways and high grounds were recorded. Photo mosaics of the exposed stakes in the trenches H3 and H4, showing the stakes concentration, were produced. Recovered artefacts vary, classified into shreds of ceramics, fragments of earthen tiles, pieces of bricks, remains of stakes, wooden remains, one corroded metal object, pieces of bone (likely from a mammal and a bird). All of them were numbered and some of the ceramic shards and the wooden elements were photographed.
Conclusion
The fieldwork conducted from April to May allowed us to inspect DMN in detailed level. Due to various limitations and to the nature of the excavation site that was initially chosen by the local authorities, the team did not extend the survey and excavation area. All the work contributed to a better understanding of the stakes‟ driven pattern, their use, and a clearer reconstruction of the past landscape was achieved. It is clearer that stakes have been intensively distributed in narrower area and limited space. Therefore, a simplification that stakes have located among natural barriers such as higher ground and river rock must be carefully reviewed. On the final day, preliminary results were presented at the authorities‟ meeting. Participants included the Director of the Institute of Archaeology in Hanoi, the Previous Minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, the Representative of Regional Communist Party, officials from the District, the Province and of the Commune. The significance of this kind of meeting is to withdraw people‟s attention and raise public interest for wider support including preservation of recovered artefacts and relevant management of the site contributed by broader level of people.
References
Lê, Liên Thị 2005. "Báo cáo kêt Quả Khảo Sát Thám Sát: Bãi cọc Bạch Đảng Đỏng Vạn Muơi. (Report of the Archaeological Exploration and Excavation of the Bach Dang Stake Field in Dong Van Muoi)." Internal Report for the Institute of Archaeology, Hanoi.
Sasaki, R, & Kimura, J, 2010a 'A case study: Archaeological evidence of the Yuan/Mongolian invasions at Bach Dang river and Takashima', Introduction to Maritime archaeology and insight to its application in the Asia-Pacific Region, from IPPA 19th Congress, Hanoi.
Sasaki, R, & Kimura, J, 2010b 'The Bach Dang Battle Site Survey Project 2009', INA Annual, in print, Texas.
by Jun Kimura, Research Associate, Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M (PhD candidate, Maritime Archaeology Program, Flinders University)
Site: Dong Ma Ngua (DMN), Nam Hoa commune, Yen Hung district, Quang Ninh province
Date of the fieldwork: 15th April -8 May, 2010
Director of the excavation: Dr. Le Thi Lien, Institute of Archaeology (IA), Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences
Advisors: Dr. Mark Starniforth, Associate Professor, Maritime Archaeology Program (MAP), Flinders University, Dr. James P. Delgado, Director, Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA)
Texas A&M Participants: Ms. Nguyen Mai Huong, Kieu Dinh Son, Dr. Bui Thi Mai, Dr. Michel Girard, Charlotte Minh Ha Pham, Jun Kimura and Burton Britt Jane.
The excavation was sponsored by Quang Ninh Provincial Government.
Introduction
Figure 1. There is a local area known as a Shipwreck Place by local people, suggest to conduct excavation to find ship remains.This is a brief report on archaeological fieldwork conducted at the site of Dong Ma Ngua (DMN) located along Bach Dang River during 15th April -8 May in 2010. The excavation follows the 2009 season work by a project team from INA, MAP, IA that proceeded to a test excavation (Sasaki R & Kimura, J 2010a; 2010b). Besides the outcome of the fieldwork, this report includes a proposal for the next November/December Survey should target the implementation of survey on Ngon song Kenh” or “Kenh Riverhead”. The area has been reclaimed and hardly see on the map, yet it is used to be surrounded by the Duong Giang high ground and has been known as a part of Kenh River. The Kenh River is one of the three major channels that used to connect Bach Dang River and Chanh River, yet might have many small streams. There is a higher ground area locally called “Shipwreck place”, located along the border of the ancient Kenh River (Figure.1). This particular area is regarded as a relevant location where the team should proceed to an intensive survey by coring and using other remote sensing equipments. Based on some perspectives in this report, the survey in the next season aims at identifying targets and is expected to lead better understanding of the naval battle between the Yuan/Mongolian and Dai Viet.
Summary of the fieldwork
Figure 2. Dong Ma Ngua site. H1 trench in the right side and H4 is trench in the left side, divided by the string line. The stakes diagonally driven in different orientation. (Photo by Nguyen Mai Huong).The fieldwork is divided into two periods, contributed by different members of the team. During the first fieldwork from 15 – 25 April, two Bench-marks (BM) were set around beside a fish pond known as the DMN site and excavation commenced. The second period of the fieldwork consisted of 10 days from 30 April to 8 May, and another two BMs during the last phase and small trenches are extensively opened around the fish pond. Throughout all this period, four permanent benchmarks (BM) were set. By the end of the fieldwork, four trenches (H1, 2, 3, 4) have been opened on the DMN site (Figure.2). They are located in the fish pond (dried) and measuring approximately 20 x 15m. Two additional test pits (TS1 & TS2) were opened at the rice fields around DMN to confirm the sediments in the surrounding area and to develop our understanding of the topographical features. As a result of the excavation in the fishpond (DMN), 55 stakes (plus two large wood pieces) were identified. Moreover, a large number of ceramic shreds were identified (possibly dating to after the 15th century, some seem to be earlier though, Dr. Le Thi Lien is currently analysing them). A small-square earthen coffin, likely to be dated to after the 17-18th century, was found in one of the two test trenches (TS1).
Archaeological works conducted in the trenches of the fishpond include sediments profile recording and stakes recording (detailed descriptions, measurements, photos). Small wood samples were also collected from all of these recorded stakes. By using a total station, the position of these stakes and a few important topographical features around the site, such as a concrete irrigation channels, BMs, fish ponds, waterways and high grounds were recorded. Photo mosaics of the exposed stakes in the trenches H3 and H4, showing the stakes concentration, were produced. Recovered artefacts vary, classified into shreds of ceramics, fragments of earthen tiles, pieces of bricks, remains of stakes, wooden remains, one corroded metal object, pieces of bone (likely from a mammal and a bird). All of them were numbered and some of the ceramic shards and the wooden elements were photographed.
Conclusion
The fieldwork conducted from April to May allowed us to inspect DMN in detailed level. Due to various limitations and to the nature of the excavation site that was initially chosen by the local authorities, the team did not extend the survey and excavation area. All the work contributed to a better understanding of the stakes‟ driven pattern, their use, and a clearer reconstruction of the past landscape was achieved. It is clearer that stakes have been intensively distributed in narrower area and limited space. Therefore, a simplification that stakes have located among natural barriers such as higher ground and river rock must be carefully reviewed. On the final day, preliminary results were presented at the authorities‟ meeting. Participants included the Director of the Institute of Archaeology in Hanoi, the Previous Minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, the Representative of Regional Communist Party, officials from the District, the Province and of the Commune. The significance of this kind of meeting is to withdraw people‟s attention and raise public interest for wider support including preservation of recovered artefacts and relevant management of the site contributed by broader level of people.
References
Lê, Liên Thị 2005. "Báo cáo kêt Quả Khảo Sát Thám Sát: Bãi cọc Bạch Đảng Đỏng Vạn Muơi. (Report of the Archaeological Exploration and Excavation of the Bach Dang Stake Field in Dong Van Muoi)." Internal Report for the Institute of Archaeology, Hanoi.
Sasaki, R, & Kimura, J, 2010a 'A case study: Archaeological evidence of the Yuan/Mongolian invasions at Bach Dang river and Takashima', Introduction to Maritime archaeology and insight to its application in the Asia-Pacific Region, from IPPA 19th Congress, Hanoi.
Sasaki, R, & Kimura, J, 2010b 'The Bach Dang Battle Site Survey Project 2009', INA Annual, in print, Texas.
Sunday, 2 January 2011
‘Xanadu in New York’
From the New York Review of Books
‘Xanadu in New York’
JANUARY 13, 2011
J.C.Y. Watt, reply by Eliot Weinberger
IN RESPONSE TO:
Xanadu in New York from the December 23, 2010 issue
To the Editors:
Reading Eliot Weinberger’s piece [“Xanadu in New York,” NYR, December 23, 2010] on the Metropolitan Museum’s exhibition “The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty” brings to mind an Englishman a long time ago who, when taken to a fine Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong, could not wait to show off his sophisticated knowledge of Chinese cuisine and ordered egg Fuyung and sweet-and-sour pork.
Normally, writing like Mr. Weinberger’s should best be ignored, except that it has appeared in The New York Review, which normally publishes articles that can be taken seriously. I shall comment on only one of the authoritative-sounding and misleading statements that pepper Mr. Weinberger’s piece. He says that (presumably commenting on the Mongol period) “artistic influence mainly moved west, where Chinese forms and techniques were transformative in Persian art.” One of the main themes underlying the exhibition is the pervasive influence of the arts of the Iranian world on Chinese art in the Mongol-Yuan period (thirteenth to fourteenth centuries). Evidence of this stares you in the face everywhere in the exhibition, and should be obvious to someone who makes grand statements on East–West artistic exchange.
One of the first exhibits is a portrait of Empress Chabi, wife of Khubilai, wearing a robe bordered by strips of cloth of gold on which are images of heads of a bird. Next to this portrait is a piece of cloth of gold displaying a pattern incorporating griffins, the heads of which appear on Chabi’s dress. The cloths of gold used for imperial robes in the time of Khubilai and Chabi were woven in China by craftsmen originally from Central Asia. This is a clear case of the transfer of both the patterning and the technique of a particular weave from the Eastern Iranian world. Perhaps Mr. Weinberger would care to provide proof that the griffin is a Chinese animal and that the lampas weave (for the cloth of gold) originated in China. And perhaps Mr. Weinberger can also tell us what Chinese technique was transmitted west that transformed “Persian art.”
May I suggest that The New York Review stay within the sphere of American and European literature and politics, if you would so casually assign someone, anyone, to report on an exhibition organized by a group of curators and scholars who do know something about the subject? You know there are plenty of American scholars who also know the subject in depth and could have done a more responsible job of appraising and reviewing the exhibition.
J.C.Y. Watt
Chairman, Department of Asian Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York City
Eliot Weinberger replies:
If the “influence of the arts of the Iranian world” is “pervasive,” “obvious,” and “everywhere in the exhibition,” it is not apparent in the paintings, sculptures, calligraphy, prints, architectural details, ceramics, metal, lacquer, and jade pieces that fill the galleries. Nor do any of the contributors to the catalog—including Mr. Watt in a thirty-page essay on the decorative arts—mention any Iranian presence in these arts. Indeed, as Mr. Watt himself writes in the introduction, “the new influences coming into China during the Yuan period are relatively slight.” I take him at his (previous) word.
The one exception—and the only example he cites here—is textiles, particularly the cloth of gold, which Mr. Watt, in the catalog, calls “the most innovative art form introduced in China in the Yuan period.” There were so many marvelous things in the exhibition, I did not discuss textiles in my review. But I fail to see how this exception disproves my utterly unoriginal passing remark that artistic influence mainly moved from east to west. In that regard, Mr. Watt’s challenge for me to demonstrate the Chinese influence on Iranian art is puzzling. This was a major theme in an earlier exhibition at the Met, “The Legacy of Genghis Khan,” and the long essay in that catalog by the cocurator, Linda Komaroff, provides scores of examples.
Mr. Watt’s letter raises the question of whether an unrefined nobody, an “anyone”—the type who orders the wrong thing in a restaurant—should be permitted to review an exhibition organized by an expert such as himself. The few paragraphs in my review that evidently uncorked Mr. Watt’s disdain required no specialized knowledge. I noted that “The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty” was a collection of wonderful objects that had little or nothing to do with Khubilai Khan—as Mr. Watt himself admits in the introduction—and that many of them were not even from the Yuan Dynasty.
As an ordinary reader, I found the catalog unhelpful. In his introduction, as in his letter, Mr. Watt made hyperbolic and sometimes contradictory claims that struck me as untrustworthy because they were neither repeated nor elaborated upon by the other contributors. Some of the other essays were equally confusing; some had a tendency to wander at length into other historical periods where the writer seemed more comfortable. All glossed over the fact that the Mongols were among the worst—perhaps, relative to the population, the worst—mass murderers in history, and that they had only a tangential relation to much of the Chinese art produced under their reign.
The book sorely needed the kind of general historical background that, for example, the great Mongol scholar (and curiously absent) Morris Rossabi provided for the catalog to the earlier Genghis Khan show. To write my review, I fled to sources that seemed more reliable, but perhaps they too were sweet-and-sour pork eaters.
‘Xanadu in New York’
JANUARY 13, 2011
J.C.Y. Watt, reply by Eliot Weinberger
IN RESPONSE TO:
Xanadu in New York from the December 23, 2010 issue
To the Editors:
Reading Eliot Weinberger’s piece [“Xanadu in New York,” NYR, December 23, 2010] on the Metropolitan Museum’s exhibition “The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty” brings to mind an Englishman a long time ago who, when taken to a fine Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong, could not wait to show off his sophisticated knowledge of Chinese cuisine and ordered egg Fuyung and sweet-and-sour pork.
Normally, writing like Mr. Weinberger’s should best be ignored, except that it has appeared in The New York Review, which normally publishes articles that can be taken seriously. I shall comment on only one of the authoritative-sounding and misleading statements that pepper Mr. Weinberger’s piece. He says that (presumably commenting on the Mongol period) “artistic influence mainly moved west, where Chinese forms and techniques were transformative in Persian art.” One of the main themes underlying the exhibition is the pervasive influence of the arts of the Iranian world on Chinese art in the Mongol-Yuan period (thirteenth to fourteenth centuries). Evidence of this stares you in the face everywhere in the exhibition, and should be obvious to someone who makes grand statements on East–West artistic exchange.
One of the first exhibits is a portrait of Empress Chabi, wife of Khubilai, wearing a robe bordered by strips of cloth of gold on which are images of heads of a bird. Next to this portrait is a piece of cloth of gold displaying a pattern incorporating griffins, the heads of which appear on Chabi’s dress. The cloths of gold used for imperial robes in the time of Khubilai and Chabi were woven in China by craftsmen originally from Central Asia. This is a clear case of the transfer of both the patterning and the technique of a particular weave from the Eastern Iranian world. Perhaps Mr. Weinberger would care to provide proof that the griffin is a Chinese animal and that the lampas weave (for the cloth of gold) originated in China. And perhaps Mr. Weinberger can also tell us what Chinese technique was transmitted west that transformed “Persian art.”
May I suggest that The New York Review stay within the sphere of American and European literature and politics, if you would so casually assign someone, anyone, to report on an exhibition organized by a group of curators and scholars who do know something about the subject? You know there are plenty of American scholars who also know the subject in depth and could have done a more responsible job of appraising and reviewing the exhibition.
J.C.Y. Watt
Chairman, Department of Asian Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York City
Eliot Weinberger replies:
If the “influence of the arts of the Iranian world” is “pervasive,” “obvious,” and “everywhere in the exhibition,” it is not apparent in the paintings, sculptures, calligraphy, prints, architectural details, ceramics, metal, lacquer, and jade pieces that fill the galleries. Nor do any of the contributors to the catalog—including Mr. Watt in a thirty-page essay on the decorative arts—mention any Iranian presence in these arts. Indeed, as Mr. Watt himself writes in the introduction, “the new influences coming into China during the Yuan period are relatively slight.” I take him at his (previous) word.
The one exception—and the only example he cites here—is textiles, particularly the cloth of gold, which Mr. Watt, in the catalog, calls “the most innovative art form introduced in China in the Yuan period.” There were so many marvelous things in the exhibition, I did not discuss textiles in my review. But I fail to see how this exception disproves my utterly unoriginal passing remark that artistic influence mainly moved from east to west. In that regard, Mr. Watt’s challenge for me to demonstrate the Chinese influence on Iranian art is puzzling. This was a major theme in an earlier exhibition at the Met, “The Legacy of Genghis Khan,” and the long essay in that catalog by the cocurator, Linda Komaroff, provides scores of examples.
Mr. Watt’s letter raises the question of whether an unrefined nobody, an “anyone”—the type who orders the wrong thing in a restaurant—should be permitted to review an exhibition organized by an expert such as himself. The few paragraphs in my review that evidently uncorked Mr. Watt’s disdain required no specialized knowledge. I noted that “The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty” was a collection of wonderful objects that had little or nothing to do with Khubilai Khan—as Mr. Watt himself admits in the introduction—and that many of them were not even from the Yuan Dynasty.
As an ordinary reader, I found the catalog unhelpful. In his introduction, as in his letter, Mr. Watt made hyperbolic and sometimes contradictory claims that struck me as untrustworthy because they were neither repeated nor elaborated upon by the other contributors. Some of the other essays were equally confusing; some had a tendency to wander at length into other historical periods where the writer seemed more comfortable. All glossed over the fact that the Mongols were among the worst—perhaps, relative to the population, the worst—mass murderers in history, and that they had only a tangential relation to much of the Chinese art produced under their reign.
The book sorely needed the kind of general historical background that, for example, the great Mongol scholar (and curiously absent) Morris Rossabi provided for the catalog to the earlier Genghis Khan show. To write my review, I fled to sources that seemed more reliable, but perhaps they too were sweet-and-sour pork eaters.
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Chinese archaeologists sketch out layout of KublaiKhan's capital
Read at www.chinaview.cn
For a fairly recent visit to the site, read about it in "Don Croner's World Wide Wanders Part 2"
The site itself has been listed on the tentative list of World Heritage from Unesco.
HOHHOT, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese archaeologists said here on Wednesday that they have sketched out the layout of the first capital of Kublai Khan's empire, known as Xanadu in Marco Polo's Travel Notes, through a large-scale excavation.
"The most exciting findings are the layout of moat in front of the Mingde Gate to the royal capital and the highest building of Muqingge in the three-month long excavation on the ruins of Yuan Shangdu," said Yang Xingyu, a senior archaeologist with the Inner Mongolia regional bureau of cultural relics.
The capital Shangdu was built in 1256 under the command of Kublai Khan, the first emperor of Yuan Dynasty, who was enthroned there four years later. It became a summer resort after the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) moved its capital to present-day Beijing in 1276, and was destroyed during a peasant war at the end of the dynasty. Yang said that the excavation program, the largest of its kind on the ruins, is expected to take three years to unearth and restore some of the ancient structures in Shangdu in an area of 1,500 square meters.
"We found the royal mansion of Muqingge built on a drained lake is of Han nationality characters, since the Mongolian emperor mainly deployed Han workers to build Shangdu," he said.
Italian traveler Marco Polo (1254-1324) once described the prosperity of Yuan Shangdu in his book, which aroused great interest from many overseas archaeologists, historians and travelers.
"The Italian traveler was probably received by the emperor Kublai Khan in Shangdu through the gate of Mingde, which could only be passed by royal members and dignities," said the archaeologist.
The ruins of Shangdu in the Zuolan Banner in north China's Inner Mongolia have been overgrown.
The regional government has submitted an application for World Cultural Heritage status for the site to the state department for the preservation of cultural and historical relics and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The Web site of the World Heritage Site showed the historical remains at Yuan Shangdu has been part of China's tentative list.
"It is widely acknowledged in the archeological world that the building of the Yuan Dynasty capital in Beijing, known as Dadu, inherited that of Shangdu. The structures and many names of the landmarks are the same or similar," said Yang.
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