Kafkaesque drama unfolds off Java as foreign divers find treasure<\/p>\n
Sebastien Blanc, Agence France-Presse\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
In the blue waters of the Java Sea, a drama is unfolding around
\nan ancient cargo of sunken treasure, but with corruption and
\nbureaucracy never far from the surface in Indonesia, the tale
\nowes more to Franz Kafka than Indiana Jones.<\/p>\n
A team of divers, among them two Australians, two Britons, two
\nFrench, a Belgian and a German, has been working for months to
\nexcavate a vessel laden with rare ceramics which sank more than
\n1,000 years ago off Indonesia's shores.<\/p>\n
Their finds, including artifacts from China's Five Dynasties
\nperiod from 907 to 960 AD and ancient Egypt, are already causing
\na stir among archaeologists who say the cargo sheds new light on
\nhow ancient merchant routes were forged.<\/p>\n
But with items expected to fetch millions of dollars in
\nEuropean auction houses, the work has become embroiled in a murky
\ndispute between the divers and Indonesian authorities over who
\nwill profit from the sub-aquatic swag.<\/p>\n
According to the divers, the excavation was brought to an
\nabrupt halt last week when an Indonesian navy vessel pulled
\nalongside their diving platform.<\/p>\n
\"We were taken from the barge and brought back to land. We
\ndon't have permission to leave the country or Jakarta,\" said
\nFrench diver Daniel Visnikar.<\/p>\n
An official report by Indonesia's Agency for the Protection of
\nUnderwater Heritage seen by AFP accuses the operation of
\n\"employing illegal foreign workers who are excavating precious
\nsunken artifacts\".<\/p>\n
The divers deny they are acting illegally and insist, despite
\ntheir run-in with the navy, they were working with the
\ncooperation of the Indonesian government.<\/p>\n
\"We have all the necessary documents to carry out the diving,
\nwhich always takes place in the presence of Indonesian government
\nrepresentatives,\" Visnikar said.<\/p>\n
The boat at the center of the storm rests 54 metres below the
\nsurface, approximately 130 nautical miles from Jakarta. Early
\nmaterial recovered from the site has whetted the appetite of
\noverseas experts.<\/p>\n
\"A 10th century wreck is very rare, there are only a few,\"
\nsaid Jean-Paul Desroches, a curator at the Guimet Museum in
\nParis. He has studied photographs of the findings and describes
\nthe artifacts as \"extremely interesting\".<\/p>\n
He says the wreck and its cargo offers clues to how traders
\nusing the Silk Road linking China to Europe and the Middle East,
\nused alternative sea routes as China's merchants moved south
\nbecause of invasions from the north.<\/p>\n
This evidence includes delicate crockery, glassware and rubies
\nand sapphires.<\/p>\n
\"It seems to be one of the largest boats containing ceramics
\never found,\" said Luc Heymans, the \"European-funded\" project's
\nBelgian director.<\/p>\n
He said that according to an official agreement, Indonesia
\nwill receive 50 percent of proceeds from the sale of the
\ntreasures. He insisted the scheme was legal.<\/p>\n
\"We have filled all our requirements to Indonesia. They have a
\ncomplete list of everything that has been extracted from the ship
\nand brought to Jakarta,\" Heymans said.<\/p>\n
Laws governing the protection of Indonesia's antiquities have
\nlong been a gray area, with the country's endemic culture of
\ncorruption encouraging widespread plunder involving, in many
\ncases, police and military.<\/p>\n
It was not possible to check the validity of permits being
\nused by the Java Sea wreck team, but diver Jean-Paul Blancan
\ninsists the reason they incurred the navy's wrath is because they
\nused legal instead of corrupt channels.<\/p>\n
\"We are certainly one of the only teams to have worked
\ncompletely within the law. That must upset a few people. Here
\nnobody works like that,\" he said.<\/p>\n
So far some 60,000 of 160,000 items contained in the wreck
\nhave been retrieved and placed a hangar in Jakarta, according to
\nthe divers. They are likely to remain there until the dispute is
\nsettled.<\/p>\n
The divers say treasures are expected to be shown between 2006
\nand 2007 in an auction organized by Christie's, which has valued
\nthe cargo at several million dollars.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/kafkaesque-drama-unfolds-off-java-as-foreign-divers-find-treasure-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}