De Beers Finds Shipwreck, Treasure From Columbus Era (Update2)
By Chamwe Kaira
April 30 (Bloomberg) -- De Beers, the world's biggest undersea diamond miner, said its geologists in Namibia found the wreckage of an ancient sailing ship still laden with treasure, including six bronze cannons, thousands of Spanish and Portuguese gold coins and more than 50 elephant tusks.
The wreckage was discovered in the area behind a sea wall used to push back the Atlantic Ocean in order to search for diamonds in Namibia's Sperrgebiet or ``Forbidden Zone.''
``If the experts' assessments are correct, the shipwreck could date back to the late 1400s or early 1500s, making it a discovery of global significance,'' Namdeb Diamond Corp., a joint venture between De Beers and the Namibian government, said in an e-mailed statement from the capital, Windhoek, today.
The site yielded a wealth of objects, including several tons of copper, more than 50 elephant tusks, pewter tableware, navigational instruments, weapons and the gold coins, which were minted in the late 1400s and early 1500s, according to the statement.
The Namibian government will claim ownership of the treasure found, Halifa Mbako, group corporate affairs manager at Namdeb, said in a telephone interview from Windhoek today.
Namibian Law
``By Namibian law, discoveries of this nature belong to the state,'' he said. ``The discovery was found in our mining area, but the treasure belongs to the state.'' The Namibian government is in consultations with the governments of Spain and Portugal to try and identify the ship, which was most likely a trading vessel, given the goods on board, said.
On April 1, Bob Burrell, the head of Namdeb's Mineral Resource Department, found some rounded copper ingots and the remains of three bronze cannons in the sand.
``All mining operations were halted, the site secured and Dr. Dieter Noli, an archaeologist and expert in the Sperrgebiet, was brought into the project and identified the cannons as Spanish breach-loaders of a type popular in the early 1500s,'' Namdeb said.
The find may be the oldest sub-Saharan shipwreck ever discovered, Namdeb said.
``If this proves to be a contemporary of the ships sailed by the likes of Diaz, Da Gama and Columbus, it would be of immense national and international interest and Namibia's most important archaeological find of the century,'' according to the statement.
Diamonds have been mined along the south-western coast of Namibia and in its coastal waters for the last 100 years. De Beers, the world's largest diamond company, is 45 percent owned by Anglo American Plc, 40 percent held by the Oppenheimer family and 15 percent owned by the government of Botswana.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chamwe Kaira in Windhoek via Johannesburg at abolleurs@bloomberg.net.
"Destroços descobertos no Atlântico sul devem ser de barco português
Público, 04.05.2008, por Sérgio C. Andrade
A descoberta de destroços daquilo que se presume seja uma caravela portuguesa do tempo dos Descobrimentos ao largo da Namíbia, no Atlântico sul, está a criar justificado alvoroço nos meios arqueológicos nacionais.
A notícia do achado foi ontem divulgada pela Lusa, que cita Lynette Gould, uma porta-voz em Londres da empresa sul-africana De Beers, especializada na mineração e comércio de diamantes. Foi uma equipa de geólogos que trabalhava para essa empresa que descobriu os destroços de madeira e, junto a eles, aquilo que se acredita seja parte da carga da embarcação, na qual estarão moedas e outras peças em ouro.
De imediato se pensou que a caravela em causa poderia ser aquela em que o navegador português Bartolomeu Dias (c. 1450-1500) naufragou, quando integrava a frota de Pedro Álvares Cabral e rumava à Índia, depois da descoberta do Brasil.
À Lusa, o arqueólogo Francisco Alves realçou a importância da descoberta, e a necessidade de investigações suplementares, mas considerou uma "perfeita especulação" acreditar-se que se trata da caravela de Bartolomeu Dias. "Como arqueólogo, penso que é uma grande descoberta. E tenho um palpite, muito alicerçado e com base em tudo o que veio ao de cima na Internet, de que efectivamente é um navio português" do século XVI, salientou o director da divisão de Arqueologia Náutica e Subaquática do Instituto de Gestão do Património Arquitectónico e Arqueológico.
Francisco Alves, que o P2 não conseguiu ontem contactar, sustentou a sua posição na análise de fotografias de moedas recuperadas do fundo do oceano, e que lhe parecem provadamente portuguesas. "A moeda que mostram, embora seja o reverso, foi identificada por um colega meu, Paulo Alexandre Monteiro. É indiscutivelmente uma moeda de D. João III [1502-1557], que foi cunhada a partir de Outubro de 1525". O arqueólogo acrescenta que a moeda de ouro em causa, com o valor facial de 10 cruzados, chamava-se "português" e era "uma das mais prestigiantes" da época.
Francisco Alves comentou também à Rádio Renascença que, "qualquer arqueólogo que se preze, é cauteloso antes da observação, e muitas vezes são mais as perguntas que ficam do que as respostas que dão estes achados". Mas acrescentou que este é um achado que deve ser acompanhado de perto e que se pode mostrar como "uma janela que se abre sobre o passado"
Já Lynette Gould disse à Lusa que a De Beers e o governo namibiano vão fornecer mais informações sobre o achado na semana que vem, e também que os governos de Portugal e de Espanha vão depois ser contactados para eventuais investigações conjuntas com o Conselho da Herança Nacional da Namíbia, que está a fazer o inventário do achado.
O assessor de imprensa do Ministério da Cultura, Rui Peças, disse que o governo português não foi ainda contactado oficialmente. "O que vamos fazer, em articulação com o Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros, é tomar todas as diligências junto da De Beers e do governo namibiano para saber o que se passa e o que está em causa", disse à Lusa."
Restos humanos encontrados no naufrágio da Namíbia
Seria interessante ter lá um antropólogo....
"Shipwreck's a gold mine for thrilled archaeologist
The Cape Times, published May 04, 2008 by Rowan Philp
Dieter Noli thought a small bag would be sufficient to hold priceless gold coins from the shipwreck. Within an hour, he realised he needed to use his Stetson hat.
But by the end of the day, the archaeologist needed a bucket to hold the ship's treasure, as 2500 coins, minted around 1500AD for Spain's Queen Isabella, emerged from the Namibian sea bed.
Unearthed by a De Beers mining operation on the Namibian coast this month, the ship — thought to be a Columbus-era Portuguese explorer — has been hailed as the greatest maritime archaeological discovery in Southern Africa.
The unusually large store of gold also represents one of its greatest mysteries since the vessel, which was "armed to the teeth", was already on its way home, fully laden with an equally mysterious cargo.
Noli, 52, said it was "the most gold ever found at an archaeological site in Africa since the huge find at the Valley of the Kings in Egypt".
He said the evidence suggested that a rogue captain, or even a pirate, may have died in a bid to complete a medieval African arms deal.
The ship, thought to be a 25m "caravel", of the type used by Christopher Columbus, was discovered on April1, when a geologist, Bob Burrell, noticed copper ingots in a coastal mining site operated by De Beer's local subsidiary, Namdeb.
Protected by a 30m- high earthen "sea wall" erected by the company, 12km north of Oranjemund, the site is a strip of excavated ocean bed, 7m below sea level and 200m out from the beach.
Although the ship is completely destroyed, metal artefacts and some human bones were concentrated in a 500m² layer of sand. A large rock that likely sank her stands just metres from where 10 cannons were found.
Noli, chief archaeologist on the project, said: "Never in a million years would this ship have been found, if it weren't for the mining operation. But I knew it would happen — I told them sooner or later you'll find a wreck; and I've been waiting patiently for the last 20 years … but now: jackpot! "
The excavation uncovered a box of muskets, a box of swords and five different types of cannons. Some weapons were so outdated, even for the time, that it suggests that the captain stuffed the arsenal with anything he could lay his hands on.
Robert Blyth, curator of Imperial History at Britain's National Maritime Museum, said the find was "of great significance, internationally".
"For such an early voyage to be trading in that part of the world, so soon after the pioneers, is very significant, and will hopefully tell us a lot more about how Europe pushed out," said Blyth.
Aside from more than 50 tusks, Noli's team recovered more than six tons of copper, and "tons more" of a metal thought to be tin — "which is the combination you'd need to make cannons".
"(The ship) was carrying strategic raw materials, a huge amount of gold, a big and pretty strange arsenal and she seems to have been sailing on her own," said Noli. "And she was doing it in the time of the explorers, not the traders."
He said two human bones had been preserved by decayed iron, along with bone splinters and a set of toes, still attached to a shoe sole.
Namdeb spokesman Hilifa Mbako said the Portuguese and Spanish governments were informed of the remains, and maritime authorities there have been asked to help identify the vessel."
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