Michael Flecker

A Ninth-Century Arab or Indian
Shipwreck in Indonesia
However, the arms are not angled upward, but
protrude straight outwards. In fact one of them
is angled downwards at its extremity. There are
no flukes as such. Perhaps two of the arms were
intended to act as a stock. They are separated
vertically by a heavy iron bell-shaped disc, which
has a hole through the centre. It is not at all clear
how the arms are attached to the disc. The disc is
a form that lends itself to casting, while the arms
are thought to be wrought iron. The connec tion
of these two materials is very problematic. Further
more, only China is thought to have had the
technology to cast iron at the time. The upper
bar has two tangs protruding into the wooden
shank to facilitate attachment.
The wood of the anchor shank is very similar to
the identified frame timber, either Amoora sp. or
Afzelia sp.
Lead ballast
Lead ballast ingots were stacked on the ceiling
timbers the full length of the ship (fig. 27). They
were typically stacked fore-and-aft on the lower
layers and athwartships above that. They were
not placed near the large balk of timber aft, the
area of a large lime deposit that has entrapped
many ceramics, but instead flanked it. While
varying a little in size, ingots typically measure
40 cm long by 5 cm wide by 2 cm high and are
half-round in section. The average weight of
each ingot is approximately 4.5 kg. A significant
number have been doubled over. Much of the
lead ballast is concreted in place by the lime compound
and therefore could not be recovered. The
total weight of lead ballast is roughly estimated
to be 10 tonnes.
Fig. 27 Lead ballast ingots stacked athwartships on the ceiling timbers
(Photograph: M. Flecker).
20 A Ninth-Century Arab or Indian Shipwreck in Indonesia