The serial nature of the cargo (along with the bowls, it included 763 identical inkpots, 915 spice jars of various sizes, 1,635 ewers) and the geographic diversity of its production (from at least five kilns widely dispersed over China) suggest that these were export items made to order. Decorations show the eclecticism of the global market. There is something for everyone: Buddhist lotus symbols and motifs from Central Asia and Persia. Objects bearing geometric decorations and Koranic inscriptions were clearly aimed at the Islamic market. White ceramicware as well as green-splashed bowls and ewers are known to have been popular in Iran. One bowl was inscribed with five loose vertical lines, inter­preted by some scholars as a symbol whose meaning resonates powerfully in today's world: Allah.

Like the shiploads of sneakers or electronics stamped "Made in China" today, most of the items recovered from the dhow were trade goods. But at the stern of the ship, divers found a trove of gold and silver and high-grade ceramics whose significance is more mysterious.

Peeling back a cloud of white, acid-free paper, Alvin Chia holds up a cup in gloved hands. "This is the largest Tang dynasty gold cup ever found," he says. Chia is an executive with Singapore's Sentosa Leisure Group, which joined with the Singapore government to beat out several museums and bought the entire cargo in 2005 for more than $30 million. It may one day be the core of a Maritime Silk Route museum.

Chia points out that two men depicted on the cup's thumb plate look Central Asian rather than Chinese, with long, curly hair and thick beards. On the cup's side panels are figures in motion: a Persian dancer clapping her hands above her head, musicians playing various instruments. In Tang China, Chia explains, music and dance from eastern Persia were all the rage.

A large, exquisitely decorated silver flask might offer a clue to the purpose of the hoard. "See the pair of mandarin ducks?" Chia asks. "They are a symbol of matrimonial harmony. On ornamental boxes everything is also in pairs: a pair of birds, a pair of deer, a pair of ibexes." Perhaps these were gifts for a royal wedding in the Persian Gulf—a bride's treasure of the sort rarely seen outside of China.