China and Kenya are planning to search for ancient Chinese ships which wrecked almost 600 years ago off the east coast of Africa.

The sunken ships are believed to have been part of a massive fleet led by Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He that reached Malindi in 1418. Kenyan lore has long told of shipwrecked Chinese sailors settling in the region and marrying local women.

Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He — whose name is also spelled Cheng Ho — led armadas with scores of junks and thousands of sailors on voyages to promote trade and recognition of the new dynasty, which had taken power in 1368.

Zheng’s seven voyages marked a high point in Chinese power. But imperial rulers soon lost interest in the outside world and canceled further exploration more than a half century before Columbus reached the New World.

Zheng’s story has been heavily promoted by China’s government in recent years as evidence of China’s tradition of nonaggression abroad, although historical records show the treasure fleets carried significant firepower and participated in at least three major military actions.

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Bricks dating back 5,000 to 7,000 years have been found in China’s Shaanzi Province, adding 1,000 to 2,000 years to China’s brick-making history.

“The five calcined bricks were unearthed from a site of the Yangshao Culture Period dating 5,000 to 7,000 years ago. Previously, the oldest known bricks in the country were more than 4,000 years old,” Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology researcher Yang Yachang said.

The bricks, including three red ones and two gray ones, all uncompleted, Yang said. The site under excavation is located at Liaoyuan Village of Baqiao District, and Huaxu Town, Lantian County of Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province.

Yangshao Culture is a Neolithic culture that flourished along the Yellow River, which runs across China from west to east. The culture was named after Yangshao, the name of the first village discovered of the culture, in 1921 in central China’s Henan Province.

Archaeologists used to believe the ceramics were applied to architecture in the Shang Dynasty (1600 B.C-1100 B.C.), which had been proved wrong by the new discovery, Yang said.

The smooth surface and rough surface of most well preserved red bricks are vertical to each other, and the rough surface was designed to be stuck to other materials, Yang said.

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I’m not sure how they keep turning up new sections of the Great Wall, but apparently 700km (!) more of wall has been found in northwest China.

“We found 15 sections with a total length of 26 km of ancient wall and three beacons built in Western Han Dynasty (206 BC – AD 24) in our county recently during the nationwide survey,” said Liang Shilin, deputy director of the culture bureau and director of the Museum in Jinta county,Gansu province.

The ancient wall was built in the north part in the county and the newly discovery made the archaeologists clear the exact location and distribution of the ancient wall in the north part of the county, Liang said.

The wall was built since Warring States Period (475 – 221 BC) as a defensive way to prevent the invasion from the other states in Chinese history.

According to Liu Yulin, archaeologist in Jinta Museum and his colleagues went into the desert many times for the survey and found the wall in remote places without human habitation.

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More than 3,000 dinosaur footprints, all facing the same way, have been found in Zhucheng, China.

The footprints, believed to be more than 100 million years old, were discovered after a three-month excavation at a gully in Zhucheng in the eastern province of Shandong, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The prints range from 10 to 80 centimetres (four to 32 inches) in length, and belonged to at least six different kinds of dinosaurs, including tyrannosaurs, the report said Saturday.

Wang Haijun, a senior engineer at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the prints faced the same direction, Xinhua said.

This indicated a possible migration or a panic escape by plant-eating dinosaurs after an attack by predators, Wang added.

Archeologists have found dinosaur fossils at some 30 sites in Zhucheng, known as “dinosaur city.”

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The New York Times has posted an interesting article about antiques collecting in China.

Some four decades after the Cultural Revolution, when many of the country’s centuries-old treasures were defaced or destroyed as a result of Mao’s command to eradicate “the four olds” — old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits — China has reversed its attitude toward antiques. Ming dynasty porcelain vases, 19th-century hardwood furniture and even early 20th-century calligraphy ink pots have become popular status symbols for an emerging middle class eager to display its new wealth and cultural knowledge. The antiques market has become so hot, in fact, that it has given rise to a new category of must-see TV here.

In recent years, “Collection World” and a dozen other similar shows — with names like “Treasure Appraisal” and “Art Collector” — have been luring both serious collectors and armchair enthusiasts, offering information on collecting trends and appraisal techniques, and encouraging a new wave of treasure hunting.

While some in the antiques world laud these programs for turning antiquing into a national pastime, others are skeptical of their educational value. As Yan Zhentang, the president of the Chinese Collectors’ Association, noted, “These shows certainly help get ordinary people interested in antiques, but the bottom line is they are just entertainment, and they make mistakes.”

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