The Belitung Wreck

The account

Sea-cucumber divers off a Sumatran island in 1998 found an Arab dhow on the seabed, packed with the largest single haul of Tang-dynasty treasure ever raised, sixty thousand pieces of Changsha ceramics, gold, and silver, ninth-century Chinese wares bound for the Middle East. One wreck that proved the Maritime Silk Road in a single cargo. The hoard now fills a museum in Singapore.

Leads, where the trail points now

• An Arab dhow that sank off Belitung Island, Indonesia, around 830 AD was found by sea-cucumber divers in 1998, holding some 60,000 Tang dynasty ceramics and gold, the best proof of early Indian Ocean trade.
• The cargo was commercially salvaged and sold to Singapore, which set off a lasting fight over treasure salvage versus archaeology.
• The lead is that the Java Sea holds many more Tang and Song trade wrecks, several already looted.