Discovery and future of the lost fleet of the Mongol Empire

Author(s): Yoshifumi Ikeda; Randall Sasaki

Year: 2016

Summary

The story of Kamikaze, or the legendary storm that destroyed the ill-fated fleet of Khublai Khan off Japan, is a well known story in history. It is recorded that more than three thousands vessels were lost. The search for the lost fleet took decades while only small hull fragments and scatters of artifacts were found. In 2015, finally a well-preservd vessel was discovered at Takashim Island in Nagasaki Prefecture. Unfortunately, the large majority of Japanese archaeologists had not realize the importance of an underwater archaeological site until now. The Japanese agency for cultural affairs is conducting studies onhow other countries are managing their underwater cultural heritage and on how the vessel should be protected. This paper illustrates the brief history of the struggles to find the lost fleet as well as the current status of how the nation is dealing with this new interests in managing underwater cultural heritage.              

Cite this Record

Discovery and future of the lost fleet of the Mongol Empire. Yoshifumi Ikeda, Randall Sasaki. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Washington, D.C. 2016 ( tDAR id: 434769)

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Keywords

General
Asia Shipwreck underwater cultural heritage

Geographic Keywords
Asia Japan

Temporal Keywords
13th Century

Spatial Coverage

min long: 127.652; min lat: 26.086 ; max long: 145.812; max lat: 45.486 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 725