PROJECT: MARITIME

The Anoxic Circuit & The Shipworm
THESIS: The "Silence" of the Indian Ocean is not an absence of history; it is a presence of decay. The Teredo Navalis (Shipworm) consumed the evidence of the peaceful majority.

1. The Biological Erasure

In oxygenated tropical waters, wood does not survive. The shipworm bores through hulls, reducing entire fleets to dust within decades. This creates a forensic bias: we only find the "Spikes"—the rare wrecks preserved by catastrophic events that buried them instantly in anoxic mud.

The absence of BC-era wrecks is not proof that trade didn't exist; it is proof that the biological "recycling" mechanism of the ocean is efficient.

2. The Silt-Locked Proof

To find the truth, we must look for the "Cairn Ships"—vessels that sank into low-oxygen silt pockets near river deltas (e.g., the Tana or Pearl River).

FORENSIC NOTE: The Belitung Wreck (9th Century) was preserved by silt. Analysis of its hull timbers identified them as Afzelia, an African hardwood. This proves that Tang Dynasty trade relied on African "Hardware" (hulls) to move Chinese "Software" (ceramics).

3. The Austronesian Circuit

Long before the Silk Road, the "Sewn-Plank" technology of the Austronesians linked the Philippines to India and the Horn of Africa (1st Millennium BC).

This was a "Water-State"—a territory defined by the immutable physics of the Monsoon winds rather than the fickle borders of kings. It was stable, persistent, and largely peaceful.

CONCLUSION: We are looking at a history of "Families having Dinner" that spanned 4,000 years. The shipworm ate the table, but the isotopic traces of the food remain in the soil.