Shipwreck explorers in race against time

TWO and a half weeks more – this is the only time a multinational team of archaeologists have left to salvage what they can from the site where the remains of a centuries-old shipwreck emerged from the ocean floor near Oranjemund on April 1.

A massive, man-made wall of sand that has pushed back the sea so that diamond-mining company Namdeb can extend its search for diamonds to what would normally be part of the seabed is set to be given over to the forces of nature again around October 10. After that, the sea will reclaim what it had kept hidden for hundreds of years.The site that archaeologists have described as a historic find – one that has produced probably the largest hoard of historic gold in Africa outside Egypt – will again be covered by water.The place where a Namdeb bulldozer driver, Kaapanda Shatika, noticed what turned out to be copper ingots in the sands of the ocean floor, is normally some seven metres under sea level, Dr Bruno Werz, an archaeologist from the Southern African Institute of Maritime Archaeology, said at the site on Monday.The find has since resulted in the recovery of around 13 tons of copper ingots, about eight tons of tin, and around 600 kilograms of ivory during an initial excavation at the site in April, fellow archaeologist Dr Dieter Noli said at the site.”That obviously is a very substantial find,” he said.Added to that are cannons, cannonballs of stone and iron, three anchors, and other artefacts such as pewter plates and bowls.And then there is gold: 21,15 kg of the fabled yellow metal so far.Of the more than 2 000 gold coins found so far, about 70 per cent is Spanish, with the remaining 30 per cent Portuguese.About 1,15 kg of silver coins has also been found.”That’s probably the most gold that’s ever been found in Africa, outside the Valley of the Kings in Egypt,” Noli said.The coins have been transported to the vaults of the Bank of Namibia in Windhoek.According to Werz it is thought that the site holds the remains of the back portion of a three-mast Portuguese trading vessel, which had been about 30 metres in length when it sailed from Europe down the coast of Africa on a doomed voyage to Asia.It is Werz’s theory that the ship may have sunk after striking a rock.As it went to the bottom of the ocean, weighed down by its cargo of metals, ivory, weapons and other goods, the ship’s masts probably broke, and with that the ship structure also broke apart.The heavy parts of the ship, such as sections of its structure, ingots and other material found at the excavation site, remained at the site of the sinking, while other material, such as some elephant tusks and a part of the mast structure that have been found kilometers to the north of the site, were washed in that direction with the ocean’s currents, he said.Because the ship met its end on an isolated piece of coastline that is also situated in the strict security zone of the Sperrgebiet, it has been out of reach of wreck hunters who might otherwise have plundered the ship and its cargo, Werz said.The result is that this wreck is unique, because most of its contents are still on the site, which is very rare to find, he said.”This is a cultural treasure of immense proportions,” Werz remarked.Portuguese archaeologist Francisco Alves, who has worked at the site since a second phase of excavation started earlier this month, said the ship was a merchant crown ship of Portugal.For Alves, the dotted pattern of a circle on some of the Portuguese gold coins found so far has provided a valuable clue that this ship could not date back further than late in the year 1525, because the minting of coins with that type of pattern only started in October 1525.This should lay to rest speculation that the ship may have been that of Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias, whose ship went missing in a storm off the Cape coast in 1500.Another clue pointing to the Portuguese origins of the ship has been found on some of the copper ingots that bear a trident-shaped marking.This was a marking that was used by the Fugger family – a fabulously wealthy family of bankers in 16th century Europe who were also suppliers of metals to Portugal in that era, according to Alves.The archaeologists at the site, also including Dr Webber Ndoro of the African World Heritage Fund, who is based in Johannesburg, all said they were removing as much archaeological material as could be found before it is again surrendered to the ocean.Only once this part of their taskwas complete – they have been told that they have until about October 10 to get this done, according to Werz – will they be able to get around to analysing the artefacts and focusing on their conservation.Werz said it is a task that could take decades to complete.After that, the sea will reclaim what it had kept hidden for hundreds of years.The site that archaeologists have described as a historic find – one that has produced probably the largest hoard of historic gold in Africa outside Egypt – will again be covered by water. The place where a Namdeb bulldozer driver, Kaapanda Shatika, noticed what turned out to be copper ingots in the sands of the ocean floor, is normally some seven metres under sea level, Dr Bruno Werz, an archaeologist from the Southern African Institute of Maritime Archaeology, said at the site on Monday.The find has since resulted in the recovery of around 13 tons of copper ingots, about eight tons of tin, and around 600 kilograms of ivory during an initial excavation at the site in April, fellow archaeologist Dr Dieter Noli said at the site.”That obviously is a very substantial find,” he said.Added to that are cannons, cannonballs of stone and iron, three anchors, and other artefacts such as pewter plates and bowls.And then there is gold: 21,15 kg of the fabled yellow metal so far.Of the more than 2 000 gold coins found so far, about 70 per cent is Spanish, with the remaining 30 per cent Portuguese.About 1,15 kg of silver coins has also been found.”That’s probably the most gold that’s ever been found in Africa, outside the Valley of the Kings in Egypt,” Noli said.The coins have been transported to the vaults of the Bank of Namibia in Windhoek.According to Werz it is thought that the site holds the remains of the back portion of a three-mast Portuguese trading vessel, which had been about 30 metres in length when it sailed from Europe down the coast of Africa on a doomed voyage to Asia.It is Werz’s theory that the ship may have sunk after striking a rock.As it went to the bottom of the ocean, weighed down by its cargo of metals, ivory, weapons and other goods, the ship’s masts probably broke, and with that the ship structure also broke apart.The heavy parts of the ship, such as sections of its structure, ingots and other material found at the excavation site, remained at the site of the sinking, while other material, such as some elephant tusks and a part of the mast structure that have been found kilometers to the north of the site, were washed in that direction with the ocean’s currents, he said.Because the ship met its end on an isolated piece of coastline that is also situated in the strict security zone of the Sperrgebiet, it has been out of reach of wreck hunters who might otherwise have plundered the ship and its cargo, Werz said.The result is that this wreck is unique, because most of its contents are still on the site, which is very rare to find, he said.”This is a cultural treasure of immense proportions,” Werz remarked.Portuguese archaeologist Francisco Alves, who has worked at the site since a second phase of excavation started earlier this month, said the ship was a merchant crown ship of Portugal.For Alves, the dotted pattern of a circle on some of the Portuguese gold coins found so far has provided a valuable clue that this ship could not date back further than late in the year 1525, because the minting of coins with that type of pattern only started in October 1525.This should lay to rest speculation that the ship may have been that of Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias, whose ship went missing in a storm off the Cape coast in 1500.Another clue pointing to the Portuguese origins of the ship has been found on some of the copper ingots that bear a trident-shaped marking.This was a marking that was used by the Fugger family – a fabulously wealthy family of bankers in 16th century Europe who were also suppliers of metals to Portugal in that era, according to Alves.The archaeologists at the site, also including Dr Webber Ndoro of the African World Heritage Fund, who is based in Johannesburg, all said they were removing as much archaeological material as could be found before it is again surrendered to the ocean.Only once this part of their taskwas complete – they have been told that they have until about October 10 to get this done, according to Werz – will they be able to get around to analysing the artefacts and focusing on their conservation.Werz said it is a task that could take decades to complete.

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