"We'll keep digging to look for those earlier strata," he says.

Though no reference to Ras al-Khaimah has been found in ancient Chinese records, Wang has a physical "database"-over 360,000 ceramic artifacts of different varieties in the collection of the Palace Museum throughout history-for reference.

"Through follow-up analyses, we can hopefully spot clues that link these unearthed ceramic pieces to their exact kilns and production years," he says.

A complete chronology of the Chinese ceramic trade with the Gulf region can also be built up through the research, he suggests.

"We can also see what globalization was like centuries ago," Wang adds.

More Chinese researchers are likely to join the research of Jurfa, says Ahmed Halil, director of archaeology at the Department of Antiques and Museums in Ras al-Khaimah.

Jilin University in Changchun has sent a team to the site for collaborative studies. The Palace Museum will be an associate of a ceramics-research center to be set up in Ras al-Khaimah.

"The findings from the recent excavations will be presented (in public shows) after the processing and evaluation," Halil adds.

He says his department is seeking to cooperate with the National Center of Underwater Cultural Heritage of China that has worked with Saudi Arabia since 2018 on the port ruins of al-Serrian, which prospered from the ninth to the 13th centuries, near Mecca.