Late Tang Shipwreck in Vietnam Reveals Shift in Maritime Trade Routes
The Vietnam Binh Chau (Chau Tan) Late Tang Wreck
A shipwreck discovered off Binh Chau, Vietnam, in 2013 has yielded a cargo of Changsha, Yue, Xing-type, and Guangdong ceramics dating to the late 9th century. Unlike the earlier Belitung wreck, the ship was built using Southeast Asian techniques, and Arabic inscriptions on jars suggest Arab merchants were involved. The wreck's timbers and ceramics provide evidence that trade routes shifted to Vietnam after the Huang Chao Rebellion disrupted Guangzhou.
Lately the precious and strange goods brought by ocean junks have mostly been taken to Annam to be traded there...
- hyruo
I saw in the article that antique collector Lâm Dũ Xềnh was mentioned, and then I realized his surname Lâm is a typical Chinese surname, so he might be Han Chinese. Then I looked it up and found a video on YouTube where someone visits his collection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk6cQZ53P0c. The video introduction confirms that he really is of Chinese descent.
- wdutch
I was in The Ho Chi Minh City History Museum this weekend and they have some very cool shipwreck exhibits, worth checking out.
- flossly
> The Star of David [with an arrow]
David almost certainly never used the symbol. Despite it currently popular name, there's no evidence that King David (who lived around 1000 BCE) ever used the six-pointed star as his symbol. The connection between the hexagram and David is a much later tradition.
The symbol itself is ancient and appears in many cultures. During the medieval period the hexagram was arguably more prominent in Islamic contexts than Jewish ones. Which explains why it's along Arabic text found in Vietnam.