A cultural shift

Chinese porcelain pieces from the Song and Yuan dynasties were found at the ruins.

Some of the newest findings from al-Serrian will also be displayed at the exhibition in Riyadh alongside artifacts supplied by Chinese museums for comparison.

For example, a bronze counterweight from al-Serrian will be juxtaposed with an counterpart from the Nanhai One, the sunken wreck of a Song Dynasty merchant ship discovered in the South China Sea.

Xie also says that the project in al-Serrian will mark the start of a five-year archaeological cooperation program between the two countries, and more projects－both undersea and land-bound－are due to follow.

He also says that cooperation on cultural heritage will expand to cover more fields, such as staff training, development of protection technologies, fighting the illicit trade of cultural relics and museum management.