'Made in China' Label Helps Archaeologists Solve Mysteries of an 800-Year-Old Shipwreck

Marine archeologists say they have solved mysteries surrounding a centuries-old shipwreck discovered in 1980 off the coast of Indonesia, thanks to the equivalent of an 800-year-old "Made in China" label.

The wooden ship disintegrated over time but left behind a treasure trove of cargo, including ceramics and luxury goods ready for trade, according to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Those treasures have provided clues to the origin of the ship, including when it sank and its place in China's history.

“Initial investigations in the 1990s dated the shipwreck to the mid- to late 13th century, but we’ve found evidence that it’s probably a century older than that,” said Lisa Niziolek, an archaeologist at the Field Museum in Chicago and lead author of the study, in a press release. “Eight hundred years ago, someone put a label on these ceramics that essentially says ‘Made in China’ — because of the particular place mentioned, we’re able to date this shipwreck better.”

The label was actually an inscription on the ceramics found, a common technique still used today for anything handmade in countries like China and South Korea. The inscriptions indicate that the ceramics they were made in Jianning Fu, a government district in China. The district was renamed Jianning Lu after the invasion of the Mongols around 1278. This seemingly minute detail alerted Niziolek and her team that the shipwreck may have occurred earlier than the believed late-1200s.

Niziolek said researchers are confident in their assumptions on when the ship went down, noting that it is unlikely that the ship would carry older ceramics.

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The team received further confirmation thanks to improved carbon-dating techniques used on elephant tusks and resin used for incense or for caulking ships found in the wreckage. The initial carbon-dating analysis determined the specimens were 700 to 750 years old. Subsequently, the improved techniques combined with the "place name inscribed on the ceramics, stylistic analysis of ceramics from known time periods and input from experts overseas" provided the evidence necessary for the researchers to conclude that the shipwreck was closer to 800 years old.

"When we got the results back and learned that the resin and tusk samples were older than previously thought, we were excited,” said Niziolek. “We had suspected that based on inscriptions on the ceramics and conversations with colleagues in China and Japan, and it was great to have all these different types of data coming together to support it.”

While a 100-year difference in when the ship went down may seem trivial, the researchers say the discovery is "a big deal for archaeologists."

“This was a time when Chinese merchants became more active in maritime trade, more reliant upon oversea routes than on the overland Silk Road,” said Niziolek. “The shipwreck occurred at a time of important transition.”