A wealth of knowledge salvaged from shipwrecks

The flow of histories of the world, or parts of it, in a bundle of items never ceases, 12 years after Neil MacGregor presented world history through 100 objects from the British Museum. Many of these were of unknown provenance and therefore disconnected from their original context. By contrast, world history built around shipwrecks offers the opportunity to seize precise moments in time – most often when a sudden emergency has taken a ship to the bottom of the sea in the midst of everyday activities.

In many ways, shipwrecks bring one nearer to daily life than almost any other archaeological sites. They are only surpassed by the remains of Pompeii and other cities overwhelmed by volcanic eruptions. Egyptian or Etruscan tombs may be full of precious objects and fine frescoes, but by their nature they are not images of life. Since most people in the past never travelled by sea, shipwrecks do not provide a rounded picture of daily life; but the goods found on board illuminate trade routes and connections often stretching some way inland, such as the porcelain factories deep inside China that sent millions of the famous blue and white plates and bowls across the Indian Ocean over several centuries.