400-year-old Chinese porcelain discovered in Mexico's Acapulco :

400-year-old Chinese porcelain discovered in Mexico's Acapulco

Antique Chinese porcelain fragments in the city of Acapulco, Mexico
[Credit: Xinhua]


image: 1.bp.blogspot.com... 400-year-old Chinese porcelain discovered in Mexico's Acapulco Archaeologists working on the discovery site of antique Chinese porcelain fragments in the city of Acapulco, Mexico [Credit: Xinhua]

A new archaeological find announced on Friday in Mexico attests to China's age-old vocation as an exporting powerhouse

Mexican archaeologists have uncovered thousands of fragments of a 400-year-old shipment of Chinese "export-quality porcelain" that was long buried in the Pacific Coast port of Acapulco.

The shipment of rice bowls, cups, plates and platters dates from the reign of the Ming Dynasty's 13th emperor, Wanli (1572-1620), and is believed to have arrived in Acapulco aboard the China Galleon, which regularly sailed between Asia and the New World.

"During its 250 years of cabotage along the coasts of the Pacific in the Americas, the China Galleon left an indelible trail," Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), said in reporting on the find.
Read more at archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com...

Mexico's ports were often targeted by pirates, which could explain why the shipment appears to have been destroyed. The discovery coincides with an exhibit at Mexico City's Franz Mayer Museum called "Return Voyage: The China Galleon and the Baroque in Mexico," which highlights China's artistic influence on the New World through trade. While Mexico and China are separated by a great distance, trade ties have linked the two regions for centuries. Read more at archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com...

Ok while I was secretly hoping for a pre Colombian find, this is still pretty good, and showed that within a very short time from the Spanish dropping anchor in the so-called New world others were making trade contacts on their own.
Btw the Mings were incredible their wares showed up everywhere, some African sites like Zimbabwe and the Swahili city states can be dated using their pottery found among grave goods of royals or wall decorations of the rich, if the successor dynasty didn't mothball their fleet and voted for isolation the world would have looked very different today.

a reply to: Spider879


Should that be 4 thousand?

originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: Spider879


Should that be 4 thousand?

Naaw we gotta with the facts as is presented for now, although I wanted 4000..

originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: Spider879


Should that be 4 thousand?

The shipment of rice bowls, cups, plates and platters dates from the reign of the Ming Dynasty's 13th emperor, Wanli (1572-1620), So it's about 400 years. Nice find.

originally posted by: Spider879

400-year-old Chinese porcelain discovered in Mexico's Acapulco

Antique Chinese porcelain fragments in the city of Acapulco, Mexico
[Credit: Xinhua]

image: 1.bp.blogspot.com... 400-year-old Chinese porcelain discovered in Mexico's Acapulco Archaeologists working on the discovery site of antique Chinese porcelain fragments in the city of Acapulco, Mexico [Credit: Xinhua]

A new archaeological find announced on Friday in Mexico attests to China's age-old vocation as an exporting powerhouse

Mexican archaeologists have uncovered thousands of fragments of a 400-year-old shipment of Chinese "export-quality porcelain" that was long buried in the Pacific Coast port of Acapulco.

The shipment of rice bowls, cups, plates and platters dates from the reign of the Ming Dynasty's 13th emperor, Wanli (1572-1620), and is believed to have arrived in Acapulco aboard the China Galleon, which regularly sailed between Asia and the New World.

"During its 250 years of cabotage along the coasts of the Pacific in the Americas, the China Galleon left an indelible trail," Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), said in reporting on the find.
Read more at archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com...

Mexico's ports were often targeted by pirates, which could explain why the shipment appears to have been destroyed. The discovery coincides with an exhibit at Mexico City's Franz Mayer Museum called "Return Voyage: The China Galleon and the Baroque in Mexico," which highlights China's artistic influence on the New World through trade. While Mexico and China are separated by a great distance, trade ties have linked the two regions for centuries. Read more at archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com...

Ok while I was secretly hoping for a pre Colombian find, this is still pretty good, and showed that within a very short time from the Spanish dropping anchor in the so-called New world others were making trade contacts on their own.
Btw the Mings were incredible their wares showed up everywhere, some African sites like Zimbabwe and the Swahili city states can be dated using their pottery found among grave goods of royals or wall decorations of the rich, if the successor dynasty didn't mothball their fleet and voted for isolation the world would have looked very different today.

I read about this by coincidence on the train home. By 1572 Spaniards departing from Mexico City to the Phillipines were meeting Chinese there, exchanging silver for silk and porcelain. Chinese traders met them in Manila. Therefore, this exchange was documented for the time.

It's covered extensively in this book:

www.amazon.com...

This isn't pre-Columbian, so what's the fuss about?

The Manila Galleons needed ballast for the return journey. Old Chinese crockery was ideal.

a reply to: Astyanax

Don't be a buzzkill bro. If they done it that long ago,logic would assume they done it earlier,not just to the US,but a lot of other places they have been said to not have journeyed to. We have a historical find here in nz that is way more complex than the "original inhabitants" could have carved with stone tools,said to be made of jade,different to Maori greenstone,called the korotangi bird,search that and have a read up. I reckon the Chinese got a lot farther afield than we are being fed.

originally posted by: hiddenNZ
a reply to: Astyanax
If they done it that long ago,logic would assume they done it earlier

Not really.

originally posted by: hiddenNZ
a reply to: Astyanax

Don't be a buzzkill bro. If they done it that long ago,logic would assume they done it earlier,not just to the US,but a lot of other places they have been said to not have journeyed to. We have a historical find here in nz that is way more complex than the "original inhabitants" could have carved with stone tools,said to be made of jade,different to Maori greenstone,called the korotangi bird,search that and have a read up. I reckon the Chinese got a lot farther afield than we are being fed.

Read my post above. It's already established that the Spanish (who were based in Mexico at the time) were already trading with Chinese who met them in Manila, Philippines.

a reply to: hiddenNZ

Don't be a buzzkill bro.

Unfounded speculation is not only addictive, it is bad for you.

a reply to: Spider879

Spider, thanks for posting this.

Although to some it might seem trivial and insignificant, it actually sheds light on a formative period of history.

I'm part phillipino, and my ancestors came from an area that was settled by the spanish very early, the family bible went back to the late 16th century, so this instance has a special connection for me. My family, who were plantation owners before ww2, were very "hispanic" so to speak, and after Illocano, the go to language was spanish, even before tagolog or english.
Both the chinese and japanese had ancient contacts with the islands, so i could see the spanish running into chinese traders as soon as they arrived. Another little know factoid, is that those beautifully cast bronze cannons on the pacific galleons, were cast in the phllipines, that part of asia had an ancient tradtion of excellent bronze working.
As to older contacts between china and the new world, it is some what unlikely, just by the happen stance of winds and currents, it is actually some what difficult to reach north/central america by sailing vessel from china.
In some 300 years of record keeping , i believe only one vessel from china ended up on the west coast, while literally dozens of vessels from japan got blown across or were caried by the kuroshio current.
But that being said, i've been to a place on the remote pacific coast of Baja called Palos de Chinos. It's a somewhat sheltered bay, with a very old trail that runs across the pennisula to the sea of cortez, and this trail goes to the third/fourth oldest mission of the mexico/california missions.


PS,
Avocados from mexico were instrumental to the spanish in those early voyages across the pacific, they supplied a source of fat, protien and vitamin c way out there in the pacific, evidently they keep very well on a ship.

a reply to: punkinworks10

Wow very interesting family history Punkinworks, and yes I knew before posting that some may find it uh hum, what else could be better than a pre Colombian find, Alien artifacts perhaps?? , but I do find this kind of history valuable not just the grand finds, and avocados??.really?? I can hardly keep them from going black after 4 days, did they process them in some way.

Google: "La Nao de China"
There was trade China-Mexico in the XVI century 1560s I believe

a reply to: Spider879

No special proccesing that i know of, i believe they were picked very unripe, and they might have been packed in barrels of water or oil? its been a number of years since i read that article.