Commotion Over Rp720 Billion Treasure Buried in Java Sea Discovered by Fisherman
A stroke of extraordinary luck befell a fisherman from Cirebon who was trying his fortune in the waters of the Java Sea. Who would have thought that his routine activity of earning a living would lead to an astonishing discovery that has caused a stir.
The incident began one morning in 2003, when the fisherman, whose identity was not disclosed, was out at sea as usual. He stopped exactly 70 km from the coastal shore and at a depth of 50 metres. That location was known for schools of fish, so he was confident that his catch would be plentiful.
Initially, the fisherman cast his net hoping for a bountiful haul from the sea. However, when it was time to haul the net back onto the boat, he felt a load much heavier than usual. With all his strength, he pulled the net and, upon opening it, was greeted by a shocking sight.
It was not just wriggling fish in the net, but also shards of ceramics caught in it. This discovery was followed up upon reaching land, eventually triggering a large-scale search project by a private company under government permission.
In short, the fisherman’s find was strongly suspected not to be ordinary ceramics but shards from a treasure trove. Subsequently, a search project was conducted by a private company with government approval. From this, it was learned that at the fisherman’s discovery site, there was an abundant treasure from a shipwreck with a total value that was fantastically high.
“The shipwreck in Cirebon contained 314,171 ceramics consisting of porcelain, plates, bowls, and so on,” wrote researcher Eka Asih from the National Archaeology Centre in “Ceramics from the Cirebon Shipwreck Cargo” (2016).
Specifically, researchers Michael S. Krzemnick and colleagues, in “Radiocarbon Age Dating of 1,000-Year-Old Pearls from the Cirebon Shipwreck” (2017), stated that the shipwreck contained 12,000 high-value pearls, thousands of gems, and gold. The news site Detik.com (3 April 2012) reported that the entire find was estimated to be worth Rp720 billion.
Chinese Treasure Buried in Indonesian Waters?
Regardless of how fantastic it is, the fisherman’s discovery later became the largest underwater archaeological treasure find of the early 21st century. It is known that all the ceramic finds originated from China, specifically the Tang Dynasty era around the 9th to 10th centuries AD.
At that time, China during the Tang Dynasty treated ceramics as a commodity akin to ‘treasure’ of high value. The Bamboo Curtain country frequently shipped them by sea to India as one of the world’s trading centres.
The usual route passed through the South China Sea, the Malacca Strait, and the Indian Ocean. However, the transport ship that sank in the Cirebon waters was not specifically from Arabia or China.
According to Eka Asih’s research, the ship originated from the Nusantara region or Indonesia itself. This is evidenced by archaeological reconstruction comparing the ceramics found in Cirebon with those in South Sumatra (Sumsel).
The results showed that the ceramics found in Cirebon were similar to those found in the Palembang Sultanate. At the contemporary time, when the Tang Dynasty was trading ceramics, the Srivijaya Kingdom was reaching its peak of glory. Its economic activities were remarkably high and believed to have extended to China.
It is no wonder that similar finds were also discovered there, which can uncover the mystery of the treasure in Cirebon. From this, it is known that the ship was claimed to be transporting Chinese ceramics traded in Sumsel to the North Coast of East Java. Unfortunately, in the Cirebon waters, the ship sank along with the thousands of treasures it carried.
All of that then sank just like that to the seabed until it was finally discovered by the fisherman in 2003. Now, the treasure event is known in history as the Cirebon Wreck.