Namibia: Race against time to save ancient Portuguese shipwreck

Yahoo! ^ | 9/28/2008 | Brigitte Weidlich

[shove_it]

ORANJEMUND, Namibia (AFP) - Archaeologists are racing against the little time left to salvage a fortune in coins and items from a 500-year-old Portuguese shipwreck found recently off Namibia's rough southern coast.

Despite its importance, the project, in a restricted diamond mining area, is itself costing a fortune in sea-walling that cannot be sustained after October 10.

"The vast amounts of gold coins would possibly make this discovery the largest one in Africa outside Egypt," said Francisco Alves, a Lisbon-based maritime archaeologist.

"This vessel is the best preserved of its time outside Portugal," he said.

"But the cultural uniqueness of this find is priceless."

Alves is part of a multi-national team combing the seabed where the wreck was discovered six months ago.

The 16th-century "Portuguese trade vessel was found by chance this April as mine workers created an artificial sand wall with bulldozers to push back the sea for diamond dredging," Namibian archaeologist Dieter Noli told reporters invited to view the site.[...]

"Over 2,300 gold coins weighing some 21 kilograms (46 pounds) and 1.5 kilograms of silver coins were found -- worth over 100 million dollars," Alves said, adding that the ship's contents suggest it was bound for India or somewhere in Asia...

[itsthejourney]

One would think a find as wealthy as that would more than justify as well as pay for them delaying the wall.

[SunkenCiv]

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