ADVISORY/ NOVA Premieres Sultan's Lost Treasure Tuesday, January 16, 2001, at 8pm ET on PBS.Feature/Lifestyle/Entertainment/Television/History/Science/Far East/Culture Writers ADVISORY...for Tuesday Tuesday: see week. (Jan. 16) NOTE TO MEDIA: Photo is available in a Smart News Release(TM) on Business Wire's Home Page at www.businesswire.com --(BUSINESS WIRE) See the Riches Held by a Five-Hundred-Year-Old Wreck WRECK, mar. law. A wreck (called in law Latin, wreccum maris, and in law French, wrec de mer,) signifies such goods, as after a shipwreck, are cast upon land by the sea, and left there within some county, so as not to belong to the jurisdiction of the admiralty, but to the common law. of an Asian Trading Vessel Off the Coast of Borneo Borneo (bôr`nēō'), island (1990 pop. 9,102,906), c.287,000 sq mi (743,330 sq km), largest of the Malay Archipelago and third largest island in the world, SW of the Philippines and N of Java. Come Alive WHAT: Be there as NOVA unearths a five-hundred-year-old Asian trading vessel that holds exotic goods off the coast of Borneo. At a depth of two hundred feet, the wreck is replete with popular consumer goods of the day: beautiful blue-and-white porcelain plates, cups, and pitchers, and giant stoneware jars that are a miracle of the potter's craft. There are over fifteen thousand such objects, many in a perfect state of preservation. WHY: What excites historians is that these were the articles of everyday life, manufactured by the millions in China, and bought and sold in bazaars all over the East. Ironically, very few such objects survive today, and most of what is known about the period comes from the unusual luxury pieces that were placed in tombs or museums. The wreck, which was excavated by an international team of divers and archaeologists, is helping to rewrite the history of Asia, particularly the time of the Ming Dynasty from 1368 to 1644. WHO: NOVA probes the sophisticated methods used to manufacture porcelain, which was believed an almost magical material because of its unique purity and translucence. Blue-and-white porcelain, so highly valued today, was at first considered kitsch by the Chinese, who produced it only for their export market before growing to love it themselves. "The changing fashions in porcelain decoration are what allowed experts to precisely date the wreck to the end of the 1400s. "Finding this wreck is a part of the turning point in Chinese Chinese, subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages (see Sino-Tibetan languages), which is also sometimes grouped with the Tai, or Thai, languages in a Sinitic subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan language stock. history, it is a part of the first international maritime trade network" said Stephen Stephen, 1097?–1154, king of England (1135–54). The son of Stephen, count of Blois and Chartres, and Adela, daughter of William I of England, he was brought up by his uncle, Henry I of England, who presented him with estates in England and France and Sweigart, producer, NOVA. "China was seemingly seem·ing adj. Apparent; ostensible. n. Outward appearance; semblance. seem  ing·ly adv. poised to take over the world - the largest navy in the world,
they were the most advanced, they were rich and powerful - yet all of a
sudden they stopped. This wreck is from a brief moment in history when
China turned its back on the world, yet before Europe took over trade in
Asia showing us what was the most prosperous culture and commerce trade
network in the world looked like."For interviews, additional photography or a copy of the program, please contact Jonathan Renes, Senior Publicist pub·li·cist n. One who publicizes, especially a press or publicity agent. publicist Noun a person, such as a press agent or journalist, who publicizes something publicist , NOVA, 617-300-4427 or jonathan_renes@wgbh.org. Note: A Photo is available at URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. : http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photoblob.sh?pw.122800/bb4 |
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