Underwater excavation of ancient shipwrecks is definitely not entirely dependent on manual labor. Some simple tasks can be left to machines.

Therefore, in the first few days, the underwater team members were firing "water cannons" most of the time.

To fire a water cannon, it is to use a high-pressure water gun to break away the solid sea mud covering the wreck.

At this time, the team members were still calm and waited for the turbid water to float away to start work accurately.

However, after the 10th day of discovery, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse.

Every time they use an air pump to pump mud, they are extremely anxious because the mud flow makes everything unclear.

The air pump in underwater exploration is equivalent to a hand shovel in field archaeology, without which it is difficult to extend the work downward.

Nowadays, the players have to give up on it frequently.

During the long blind elephant-touching inspection, the team members found that the shipwreck was 14 meters long, 3 meters wide, 1 meter high, missing above the deck, missing head and tail.

Apart from this, there was not much gain. After all, Chen Wenzhe did not want to salvage the entire shipwreck.

Besides, the ship was damaged very seriously, and he just needed some specific parts to study it.

Especially the cockpit and some key parts of the cargo warehouse.

Of course, it is not easy to obtain an accurate position of the hull.

Because the cabins, which were originally clearly classified by this wreck, were difficult to find again after the visibility declined.

It was not until about forty days that the visibility finally recovered, and photography, drawing and other work were carried out in a relatively normal manner.

At this time, the machine can be started with all its strength and the porcelain can be salvaged on a large scale.

When a horizontal level of porcelain comes out of water, the "explorer" investigation continues, photography, photography, surveying, mapping, and a new round of excavation procedures are launched again.

Blue and white porcelain has always been the focus of this shipwreck.

A saying that is circulated in the archaeological world of my country is, "one ship has ten tombs."

The unrivaled cabin volume represents the magnificent number and variety of cultural relics.

No one can avoid the economic value of cultural relics. You must know that Gao Qijing and his friends have received commissions on this ship.

Although the commission ratio is very small, it can’t stand the rewards!

By the end of the excavation work, including some Kangxi blue and white plates that had just been harvested, a total of 1,287 cultural relics were salvaged.

As the porcelains gradually emerged from water, the appraisal work began in turn.

Most of this part of the porcelain belong to blue and white, and they have elegant colors and uniform body texture.

Although there is no official kiln signature, Chen Wenzhe was sure that these were all fine products of Jingzhen folk kilns during the Kangxi period.

This day happened to be the most violent astronomical tide of the year. The team members dredged mud and cleaned up all areas around the shipwreck to survey and map out new data.

The excavation entered a critical stage, and their plan was to view the bottom shape of the wreck and clear out all the scattered artifacts in the silt surrounding the ship.

On this day, in the "East Six District", a wooden box buried deep in the mud and sand was opened.

The inside was filled with "Clark porcelain", and after discovering it, the water was immediately salvaged out.

But this time, I found several large blue and white porcelain plates of flower mouths that were intact and painted with flowers and plants.

These large markets are placed closely on the mouth, or on the bottom, obviously maintaining the original posture when loading the ship more than 300 years ago.

Since the seabed silt in this area is relatively solid, the team members first cleared the silt and sand on it and the surrounding debris, and then slowly took out 55 blue and white porcelain plates in steps.

After coming out of the water, Chen Wenzhe discovered that the eucalyptus painted on these porcelain plates were floral plants in the Mediterranean region, rather than local flowers in traditional eucalyptus painted in my country's porcelain.

Based on this, it is inferred that this is a batch of porcelain that is not much different from the Clark porcelain found in Wanjiao No. 1, and it must be specially customized by European merchants.

Clark porcelain is also the name of blue and white porcelain in Europe. In fact, it specifically refers to this export porcelain that is deeply loved by European princes and nobles.

In addition to this batch of Clark porcelain, some flower vases and tall cups also emerged from the wreck.

These porcelains are all covered with lids according to European customs, and even have a delicate European-style small vase on the dining table.

After discovering a large number of intact porcelain, as the excavation began to begin, the team members discovered several huge blue and white porcelain jars buried in the mud and sand.

After the water was discharged, it was found that one of the porcelain jars was about 60 cm high, which was the most popular "general jar" during the Kangxi period.

This general jar is painted with a flower basket full of flowers, and has the character "Fu", named according to the meaning of Chinese porcelain, and is the style of "Wanhua Sheng Rui".

The other two porcelain jars, one is a blue and white porcelain jar and the other is a colorful porcelain jar. They are both exquisite porcelain works with eucalyptus patterns.

Maybe it is because it is hidden in a wooden box, or maybe it is because it is buried by mud and sand, anyway, most of the porcelain that comes out of water is as smooth as new.

Looking at the porcelain, Chen Wenzhe laughed.

This situation is very rare, but not without it.

For example, the Wanjue No. 1 wreckage shipwreck mentioned earlier, a large number of brand new porcelain was salvaged from it.

The same situation as this time, if some of the porcelain lost enters the antique market.

If you say it is a sea-rail porcelain or an antique, this will definitely not be recognized in the market.

At least, some ordinary buyers may not be able to believe that they were from the Kangxi period at first because they looked too new.

Unfortunately, the glaze distribution of some colorful porcelains is opposite to that of blue and white porcelain, and is overglaze color, that is, the color is depicted outside the glaze layer. After more than 300 years of sea water soaking, it has permanently lost its luster.

Of course, there are also good things. After preliminary statistics from Chen Wenzhe, although the number of more than a thousand pieces of porcelain they discovered is not too large, there are many types.

After preliminary statistics, there are more than 50 types of instruments and more than 100 patterns found.

After the appraisal, Chen Wenzhe believed that all the porcelain came from Jingzhen.

About 50% of the utensils are made of high-quality kaolin, and the craftsmanship level is no less than that of the official kilns.

This is definitely not simple, because even during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, there were not many porcelains made of high-quality kaolin.

What's more, the production task of the official kiln was very heavy at that time, so where could it be possible to produce porcelain and sell it to foreigners after it was produced?

In fact, due to insufficient production capacity, the Imperial Kiln Factory at that time also customized some porcelain from some folk kilns in order to complete the tasks delivered by the palace.

Then add the official kiln's signature and use it as an official kiln ware for offering.

This is enough to show that the production quality of some folk kilns is not inferior to that of official kilns.

Of course, the high-quality kaolin used in the official kiln is the fundamental one.

Chen Wenzhe believes that this batch of porcelain is not inferior to that of the official kilns because of this.

Because from some damaged porcelain, it can be seen that the body soil inside is not simple.

A piece of porcelain painted with dragon patterns similar to the official kiln vaguely proves this.
Chapter completed!