Responding to the effort to protect both natural and cultural resources within the marine environment for the benefit of present and future generations, state and federal resource management agencies have been re-examining their cultural resource…
Kalaupapa, an isolated peninsula with no road access, is situated on the north shore of the island of Molokai, Hawai`i. Though it has a long history of Native Hawaiian occupation, it is most well-known for its history as a Hansen’s disease…
Namban screens, a well-known Japanese art form, were painted by skillful Japanese artists from the late 16th century to the 17th centuries. Approximately 90 of these screens have been handed down up to the present. Not only they show some important…
This paper is about the wrecked ships found in Tae-an, Korea, and the ongoing investigation. Four cargo ships of the Middle Ages were excavated from Taean, Korea during 2007 - 2011. Three of these four ships were found in a 1 km radius, as such, this…
Underwater archaeology in Japan has a long history, as a report of artifacts from Lake Suwa in 1908, as well as discoveries at Tsuzura Ozaki site in Lake Biwa in 1924 detailed. The attempts to find the ill-fated fleet of Khubilai Khan at Takashima…
Yarabuoki site, which contains iron grapnel anchors and early modern Okinawa ceramic jars in 12 to 32 m depth off the western Coast of Ishigaki Island, was discovered by a local diver and reported to Okinawa Prefectural Archaeological Center. In…
Lake Biwa, the largest in Japan, is in the heart of Shiga Prefecture, occupying an area of 670 square kilometers. Because the lake has about 4,000,000 years of history, it has been closely related to local people's everyday lives which have largely…
At the end of the 19th century the Japanese government built several military forts on the sea or artificial islands inside Tokyo bay in order to defend its capital from foreign sea powers. Three outer forts or Kai-hou, which were between the cape of…
Shodo Island in the Seto inland sea used to be the major entrepôt of wall stones, which were taken to the Osaka castle, gathered from some islets around this island. The processes of constructing Japanese castle walls are composed of three…
As the most important qualities of ancient Chinese sailing junks, the square bows and sterns with transverse watertight bulkhead and the lugsails with bamboo mat and strip remained the same over thousands of years. Of which, the traditional Fujian…
The Ryukyu Archipelago is located at the northwestern Pacific, between the islands of Formosa and Kyushu of southern Japan. It consists of 199 islands of all dimensions and the total range of its accurate distribution lengthen is approximately 1,200…
The stone tidal weir is a kind of fish trap, made of numerous rocks or reef limestones, which extends along the shoreline on a colossal scale in semicircular, half-quadrilateral, or almost linear shape. At the flood tide these weirs are submerged…
China has large number and various types of underwater cultural heritage resources, which altogether forms an essential part of China’s cultural heritage. In order to manage such valuable cultural resources, the nation has been playing the most…
Between 1350 and 1767 CE, the Ayutthaya Kingdom became one of the most important trading centers in the region and a magnet for explorers, missionaries, ambassadors and merchants from around the world, specifically from China, Japan, Southeast Asia…
In February 2006 fishermen discovered a shipwreck off the southwest coast of the Kiri Sakor district, Koh Kong province in 30 m of water approximately 20 km west from Koh Sdeach. Charred timber found at the shipwreck site and large irregular globs of…
Vietnam is one of many Asian countries that have a long-standing and famous tradition of pottery production. Vietnam is also one of three countries including China, Vietnam, and Japan which exported ceramics developed to other countries. The 14th…
This research is based on the raw data of a Master’s thesis that aims to identify Islamic motifs on Chinese blue-and-white porcelains recovered from the 15th century archaeological sites in the Philippines. A stylistic analysis of Chinese…
Little is known about shipbuilding in Australia in the early to mid 19th century. Under the Australian Research Council (ARC) funded Australian Historic Shipwreck Preservation Project (AHSPP) (www.ahspp.org.au), underwater excavations were carried…
In recent years, several shipwrecks have been found in the South China Sea, such as Huaguang Jiao I and South China Sea I, shipwrecks from the Southern Song Dynasty (12-13c AD) and Nan’ao I, a wreck from the Ming Dynasty (14-17c AD). Many ancient…
The South China Sea No.1 is the wreck of the longest, largest and most preserved shipwreck site in China. It is a classic example of bireme construction and navigational technology. The artefacts located on the site may provide many secrets of the…