Recently, Shandong Province released the results of the first phase of underwater archaeological investigation of the site of the Beiyang Navy's "Jingyuan" ship, which is located 6 to 8 meters deep and has a distribution area of about 850 square meters. From August to late October 2022, the Shandong Underwater Archaeology Research Center, together with the Archaeological Research Center of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the Weihai Local Cultural Museum Organization, carried out an underwater archaeological survey of the "Jingyuan" ship site.
【Explanation】The excavation determined the location of the boiler compartment, bow ammunition compartment and stern ammunition compartment of the wreck, basically found out the basic situation of the wreckage of the wreck, and a total of more than 200 cultural relics of various kinds were released. Recently, the reporter came to the cultural relics protection and utilization laboratory of the Shandong Underwater Archaeology Research Center, and Wang Zebing, deputy director of the Underwater Archaeology Research Center, and the staff are discussing the restoration and protection of the iron cultural relics that came out of the water.
【During the same period】Wang Zebing, deputy director of Shandong Underwater Archaeology Research Center
There were about 60 to 70 days, we laid a total of three exploration trenches, and then a total of about 200 cultural relics out of the water, the most important is the shells of the 210 mm main gun, because this is pointed, this caliber of shells was only equipped on Zhiyuan (ship), Jingyuan (ship), including Weiyuan (ship) such fast wrecks, a large number of cultural relics, in fact, the most important is ammunition, as well as some daily necessities.
It is understood that at present, part of the cultural relics of the "Jingyuan" ship have been placed in the Shandong Provincial Underwater Archaeology Research Center for protective restoration, and the other part of the large-scale artillery shells are preserved in the Chinese Sino-Japanese War Museum.
【During the same period】Wang Zebing, deputy director of Shandong Underwater Archaeology Research Center
Our most urgent thing now is the protection of this batch of aquatic cultural relics, we need to follow up immediately, because the environment involving the water is different, it because of long-term immersion in this high salinity or high pressure of this water, after exposing the water, its biggest problem is that the desalination treatment is carried out immediately, after the treatment of salt, the subsequent stability of the cultural relics body, it needs to have professional cultural preservation (cultural relics protection) personnel to track it, and intervene in its (anti-) oxidation process at any time.
【Commentary】The reporter saw at the scene that after the restoration of many metal cultural relics, the engravings and patterns on the surface were clearly visible. Lan Dong, head of the laboratory, told reporters that the desalination process is the most time-consuming, ranging from a few months to a year or even longer.
【During the same period】The head of the laboratory Lan Dong
Metal cultural relics repair mainly includes surface cleaning, cleaning, rust removal, the most important is the seawater out of the (cultural relics), that is, desalination is a more difficult problem, because it has been soaked in seawater for so long, that is, the salt is very high, and the metal, especially iron, it is more active, the metal is more active, and then it is easy to rust in the process of treatment.
Lan Dong introduced to reporters that this batch of cultural relics is first cleaned up to remove their rust diseases, desalination, and then subjected to corrosion inhibition and sealing treatment, so that the cultural relics can return to a stable state, so that the cultural relics can regain their luster, and basically meet the conditions for external exhibition.
Wang Feng reports from Jinan, Shandong
Responsible Editor: [Lu Yan]