New Koryo shipwreck discovered

This is really exciting (at least if you are into Koryo history…) news. On Wednesday Nov. 4 the National Research Institute for Maritime Cultural Heritage announced the discovery of a new Koryo shipwreck. It had apparently been found already in June, off the coast of Mado island near T’aean, but now some of the contents were presented for the first time. What is unique here is that 64 inscribed slips have been found. Apparently a disctinction is made between wooden slips (mokkan 木簡) and bamboo slips (chukkan 竹簡), and it is the first time that bamboo slips from the Koryo period have been found (and as far as I know, only the second time wooden slips have been found from this period…). They contain details about the shipment (contents, ports of embarkation..), the sender, and the receiver. Some also contain dates corresponding to late 1207 and early 1208; it is thought that the ship must have left some time after the 19th day of the 2nd lunar month, 1208  from Haenam and also calling at Kangjin and Changhung. Evidently the contents were tax or local tribute sent to the capital Kaegyong (Kaesong). According to one slip, one sok of rice was to be sent to the great general Kim Sunyong (大將軍金純永宅上田出租壹石). An article by Yonhap, citing prof. Yi Yonghun from Seoul National University, interprets this as the rent from an income village (食邑), a kind of fief, that was sent to the land owner. In my opinion, it might also be the land tax from a prebend allocated to this general (known as 私田). In any case, with so few primary sources remaining from the Koryo period (918-1392), this is extremely useful information, so hopefully all the texts will be deciphered and published soon. To boot, also a nice piece of celadon, which was immediately referred to as ‘보물급) or fit to be designated a treasure:

UPDATE:

This is the location of Ma-do  (thanks to Daum maps)- a tiny island now connected to the slightly larger Sinjin-do, itself connected to the T’aean promontory; the map below shows the larger context. Most shipwrecks seem to be located around this place in the middle of the T’aean promontory (at least also the previous shipwreck; not sure about the others), which was clearly a big stumbling block.

Below is a sketch map showing the locations of all Koryo shipwrecks found to date; as far as I can gather, there are seven (excluding the 1976 Sinan wreck, which is of Chinese provenance), ranked from south to north along the route from Kangjin to Kaesong:

1. 1983 Wando (just south of Kangjin)
2. 2005 Sinan Anjwado
3. 1995 Mokp’o Tallido
4. 2002 Kunsan Piando
5. 2003 Kunsan Sibidongp’ado
6. 2007 T’aean Kunhungmyon Chongjuk-ri
7. 2009 T’aean Kunhungmyon Mado

(from Kangjin sinmun)