Precious Ming porcelain found in Acapulco seashore

Thousands of fragments of rice cups and ceramic plates, carried by the Manila Galleons between 1572 and 1620, were recovered in the port Cathedral vicinities of Acapulco, Guerrero.

The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) detailed that the archeological rescue coincides with the first formal excavation being performed in Fort San Diego as part of the Maritime Archeology Project of Acapulco (PAMPA) which started early October.

Doctor Roberto Junco, researcher of the Sub-Directorate of Maritime Archeology (SAS) of the INAH, stated that the fragments were produced during the Wanli period, which refers to the thirteenth emperor of the Ming Dynasty who ruled China for almost fifty years, from 1572 to 1620.

These pioneering excavation efforts are supported by nine archeology students from the Autonomous University of Zacatecas (UAZ) led by professor Silvia Puga, a team coordinated by Doctor Junco, SAS archeologist Salvador Estrada Apátiga and Doctor Rubén Manzanilla from the Directorate of Archeological Rescue.

Victor Hugo Jasso, director of the History Museum of Acapulco “Fort San Diego”, said that this was the right time for the museum to house this research project. He also noted that PAMPA’s main objective is to recover the port’s history in terms of its importance at the time when ideas, goods and foreign lifestyles were exchanged and the port received a continuous migration flow originating from four continents.

“PAMPA wants to reinforce the preeminence of the Port of Acapulco as a place paramount to unprecedented world trade; also, to highlight the cultural inheritance and diversity that is attested by its current inhabitants”.

They also aim to create a massive catalogue of Chinese porcelain in American lands, from the recovery of submerged objects, as well as the distribution of a comic book that allows the community in Acapulco to know the historical path of its land under the guidance and adventures of “Caleto”, the comic book’s boy character.