Iota finds Ming bowl in shipwreck

Underwater excavations on the Manila galleon Santa Margarita by IOTA Partners have yielded another exciting find: a fragile Ming Dynasty bowl, which miraculously survived 400 years in the sea after being encrusted in the seabed.

This and other artifacts were shown on Friday to members of the CNMI Historic Preservation Board, as well as officials from the Northern Marianas Museum of History and Culture.

The Santa Margarita project is a joint partnership between the CNMI government and the Seattle-based IOTA Partners.

IOTA Partners has been conducting archaeological excavation of the 400-year-old shipwreck off the coast of Rota since 1995.
The team is now into the fourth month of excavations for this year.

“As we’ve worked our way into the ballast field from the ship, we’ve been finding thousands of shards, but we’ve continued to hope for a perfect, unblemished piece of Ming porcelain, which was part of the Santa Margarita’s cargo,” said IOTA Chief Executive Officer Jack Harbeston.

“We came very close to realizing that hope with artifact number 4242, found August 16, 2000 by diver Karen Richards. A piece of the rim has been chipped off, so it’s not perfect, but it is enough to convince us that whole pieces of porcelain could survive the typhoons and earthquakes at the site,” added Mr. Harbeston.

Created in the late 16th Century, the blue and white export porcelain bowl known as “kraaksporslein” is 14.3 cm in diameter and 7.2 cm in height.

IOTA’s computerized data entry on the artifact reads in part, “It was made in China, most probably in Jingdezhen (Jiangxi).”

The find has a foliate rim, decorated on the exterior, divided into eight panels, each with a deer among foliage. The interior is similarly divided into eight segments, each of flowering plants. The central medallion depicts a deer.

Ms. Richards found the delicate artifact under a rock. “I was just moving some rocks and I looked over and saw the side of the bowl exposed. So much of it was showing, I didn’t expect to see it. I thought one of the other divers was playing a joke on me.”

In Friday’s briefing attended by more than a dozen HPO and museum officials, IOTA Archaeologist Roger Dooley talked on the excavation plan used in this year’s dive season on the Santa Margarita site.

According to Mr. Dooley, the work must move slowly and carefully so that piece by piece data is captured on each artifact. Every find is collected and recorded in accordance with a grid map, with control numbers and then entered into a computer database.

“This is an extremely difficult project, because we’re excavating close to where the waves are breaking and the visibility and currents are constantly changing,” said Mr. Dooley, who has worked on 12 other shipwreck projects around the world.

“We are concentrating on the excavation now while the weather allows, but we’re running against time and nature. Conservation and extensive research about the artifacts we’ve found will continue in the winter months. Every piece has a story,” he added.

Bound for Acapulco dangerously overloaded with gold, spices, porcelain, textiles and Asian manufactured items, the ill-fated ship sailed from Manila in July 1600.

Of more than 300 people on board, less than 50 survived as the ship strayed more than 1000 miles off course and wrecked near Rota eight months later. There, the once magnificent galleon wrecked and her cargo was buried by hundreds of years of wave action and tropical storms.

“We now have a general idea about the ship — the size, the cargo, although the manifest itself has never been found,” said Mr. Dooley.
“We’re finding many different types of artifacts this year, including religious items, some personal effects from the crew, pieces of the ship itself.”

In April 1993, IOTA Partners, a Seattle-based firm, entered into a contract with the Commonwealth government to search for several Manila galleons that were shipwrecked in the Marianas between 1575 and 1815.

This contract allows the CNMI to obtain the benefits of galleons recovered, but without financial risk to the CNMI. IOTA is responsible for all costs and management of the project.

The proceeds of any sale of recovered artifacts will be shared by the CNMI (25%) and the firm (75%), with the CNMI having first choice of the artifacts. This compares favorably with other states with similar contracts such as Florida, where the norm is only a 20% share for the government.