Shipwreck from Kublai Khan's fleet

In 1281 a great Mongol fleet sailed against Japan, only to be decimated by a great typhoon, known thereafter as the "kamikaze" (divine wind). Although bits and pieces have been washing up on the Japanese coast for centuries, it has only been comparatively recently that there has been systematic archeological investigation of the fleet's remains.
A report on the excavation of the first Mongol shipwreck to be identified is in the Jan/Feb issue of Archeology. A summary is online here.

One of the most interesting discoveries was a group of six cantaloupe-sized explosive projectiles, two of which were still filled with gunpowder, one of which also contained iron chunks intended as shrapnel.

Posted by David on December 17, 2002 10:56 AM