Scientific Study Of Spices Excavated From The Song Boat In Quanzhou Bay

The using of spice has long history in china,since ancient times,spices have been closely linked with human life.In 1974,a large amount of spices was found on a Song Dynasty sunken wooden sailboat unearthed at Houzhu Port in Quanzhou Bay.So this paper takes the resin spices and some wood spices unearthed from the sunken ship as the research objects,by combing the research status,main research methods and related ancient literatures on ancient spices,scientific investigations of these spice samples were carried out by using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy(FTIR),Evolved gas analysis mass spectrometry((EGA-MS),UV irradiation on line with evolved gas analysis mass spectrometry(UV/EGA-MS),Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry(Py-GC/MS),Optical microanalysis techniques.The technologies of EGA-MS and UV/EGA-MS were firstly applied for ancient spices analysis.The pyrolysis temperature was optimised and the research focus of the sample was determined.Based on the scientific comparative analysis of modern reference samples and archaeological samples,the chemical composition,species and aging degradation of these spices were determined.The active ingredient in wood spices may be lost in the process of long-term burial,so the traditional wood slicing method was used for species identification.Finally,the F-Search software was used to create a spice database,which convenient to realize small-invasive and fast detection of this kind of sample in the future.Through comprehensive research,there are two kinds of resin spices:frankincense and ambergris were determined,two kinds of frankincense with different quality were found.The experimental study revealed the unearthed wood spices are not sandalwood,agarwood and lignum dalbergiae odoriferae,but some very rare tree species,involving a total of 8 families and 8 genera:Exbucklandia populnea,Metadina trichotoma,Cratoxylum cochinchinense,Homalium stenophyllum,Styrax japonicus,Cork pine,Memecylon ligustrifolium,Potentilla griffithii var.velutina.And analytical pyrolysis coupled with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry with in situ silylation using hexamethyldisilazane(Py(HMDS)-GC/MS)and peak area normalization method were used to evaluate the degradation status of these woods,which provided an important reference and basis for the classification of wood degradation degree in the future.In summary,both the species and aging degradation of spices unearthed from the Song Dynasty sunken ships in Quanzhou Bay and the characteristic pyrolysis products(which can be used as biomarkers)with their mass spectrum characteristics(fragment ions)of different spices were determined.The spice database was created.Moreover,the effective methods for the analysis,detection and identification of ancient spices were established,scientific basis for future research and protection were provide.