The Silk Road was the path of trade and cultural propagation to link the East and the West of the Eurasia Continent. Highly significant in world history, the Silk Road was opened up in various sea routes and land routes. In particular, with the development of shipbuilding

technology and navigation, the maritime Silk Road (sea route) enabled a large amount of potteries and/or spices so that it is also known as ‘Ceramic Road’. The finding of Sinan route helped us to clearly grasp the existence of the path. In particular, the sea route of the Yuan

Dynasty (1271~1368) served to aid maritime trade covering Islam empire in western Asia, Southeast Asia to the southeastern seashore of China and was also connected to Korea and Japan.

One day in 1323, an international trade boat that loaded various trade goods including ceramics from QingYuan (慶元) (at present, Ningbo) port headed toward Hakata (博多) and Tokyo, Japan and sank in the coastal waters of Sinan, Jeollanamdo. In 1975, a fisherman found a

celadon vase. The sunken boat had awakened from a long sleep of about 650 years. The finding of this sunken boat, called ‘Sinanseon’ raised interest in international exchange via sea routes and underwater archaeology. Also, the artifacts from Sinan provide an important

evidence to clearly understand the trade via maritime Silk Road and the lives of the era.