High-status personal belongings -- gold jewellery, chain, pendants -- and coins from the Maravillas. © Brendan ChavezCredit: Courtesy The Bahamas Maritime Museum
Posted on 08/08/2022 7:14:09 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Stories of buried treasure and ancient shipwrecks have captivated for centuries, from pirate tales to Hollywood blockbusters. For one team of explorers, however, legend became reality when they uncovered a trove of artifacts from a 350-year-old sunken Spanish galleon -- including coins, gemstones and priceless jewels once belonging to seafaring knights.
The Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas (or Our Lady of Wonders) sank in 1656 after it collided with another boat from its fleet and crashed into a coral reef off the Bahamas. The vessel was carrying a haul of treasure, some of which was reserved as royal tax for King Philip IV, from Cuba to Seville, Spain. The 891-ton ship contained more cargo than usual, as it had also been tasked with transporting treasure retrieved from another ship that had sunk two years earlier.
There have already been several successful attempts to retrieve the ship's cargo, with almost 3.5 million items recovered between 1650s and 1990s, according to shipwreck specialist Allen Exploration, which carried out a two-year expedition from 2020...
Among the discoveries was a 1.76-meter-long gold filigree chain and several bejeweled pendants that once belonged to knights of the Order of Santiago, a centuries-old religious and military order. One of the gold pendants features a large oval Colombian emerald and a dozen smaller emeralds, which experts believe may represent the 12 apostles, alongside the Cross of St. James. Three other knightly pendants were also discovered, including one shaped to look like a golden scallop shell...
Other recovered artifacts shine a light on daily life on the Maravillas, which sailed during the "Spanish Golden Age," including Chinese porcelain and olive jars, as well as a silver sword handle. Some of the galleon's valuable contents...
(Excerpt) Read more at us.cnn.com ...
High-status personal belongings -- gold jewellery, chain, pendants -- and coins from the Maravillas. © Brendan ChavezCredit: Courtesy The Bahamas Maritime Museum
I hope this exhibit will tour the US after being displayed in the Bahamas.
It belongs to that wooden head the fisherman found and he’s coming for it.
I hope this exhibit will tour the US after being displayed in the Bahamas.
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1) The Bahamas would rather have tourists come to their island and spend “their treasure” to see them.
2) The Bahamas would have to be crazy to send these precious artifacts to this lawless country.
Smash and grab gangs in New York City alone would wipe this collection out.
The workmanship on that gold chain is stunning.
That is some serious bling.
Reparations anyone?
Yup, and the Spanish crown only lost a small fraction of their colonial treasure to wrecks and pirates/privateers.
It boggles my mind at how much Spanish treasure must still be laying at the bottom of the ocean, just waiting for someone…
I always enjoy a good hoard.
His sister hoard half of it.
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