via Inside Indonesia, 12 December 2022: Review of Natali Pearson’s book Belitung: The afterlives of a shipwreck (Amazon affiliate link) by Charlotte Looram.
Salvaged near Belitung Island off Sumatra’s southeast coast in 1998, the Belitung is Southeast Asia’s most notorious shipwreck. As the first known sewn-plank vessel in the greater Indian Ocean, and containing the largest and most intact assemblage of ninth-century Tang Dynasty ceramics, gold and silver, it is of incredible significance to the study of medieval Southeast Asia.
It was, however, the process by which the ship was salvaged from the sea floor that is a more likely explanation for the Belitung’s notoriety. At the time, the decision was made for the shipwreck to be commercially salvaged – a fact that sparked major controversy during its first major international exhibition. The practice is widely condemned by the maritime archaeologists as ‘destruction in the interest of profit’, and critics worried that the exhibition, which was supposed to be held at the Smithsonian no less, would be understood as tacit support and endorsement.
Natali Pearson does not shy away from such issues in this comprehensive account of the Belitung as a ship, a wreck, a commercially salvaged treasure, and a museum collection. Belitung: The Afterlives of a Shipwreck recounts its journey from the Indonesian seabed to Singapore’s Asian Civilisation Museum, while also grappling with notions of ethical protection and preservation for transnational underwater cultural heritage.
Source: Review: The afterlives of a shipwreck – Inside Indonesia: The peoples and cultures of Indonesia
