© mashable
Brilio.net/en - A wreckage of a Portuguese ship which sailed the sea about 500 years ago has been found off the coast of Oman. According to archaeologists on Tuesday(15/3), this ship was piloted by an uncle of Italian exlporer Vasco da Gama. Along with the discovery, an extraordinarily rare coin also recovered.
The Esmeralda sank during a storm near al-Hallaniyah Island in the Indian Ocean in May 1503, killing commander Vicente Sodre and all those aboard.
A large group of researchers have been studying the shipwreck since 2013, but are just revealing many of their findings after completing their analyses. According to the press release about the finding, Esmeralda is the earliest ship from Europe's Age of Discovery ever to be found and scientifically investigated.
As reported by Mashable, the Oman Ministry of Heritage and Culture in partnership with a team from the UK-based company Blue Water Recoveries explored the site on the island's Ghubbat ar-Rahib Bay. They finally determined that the rubble found there was a part of the long-missing ship, one of two lost in the storm from da Gama's second voyage to India.
Divers from the discovery team recovered many objects from the ships remains, including a copper-alloy disc marked with the Portuguese royal coat of arms, which was the personal emblem of King Dom Manuel the First.
The team also found a bronze bell with an engraving that indicates it was probably made in the year 1498, along with gold coins minted in Lisbon between 1495 and 1501. Military weapons and equipment were also found, indicating the voyage had a military mission.
Among all these discoveries, the most important recovered object was an extraordinarily rare silver coin, called the Indio. That was commissioned by King Dom Manuel in 1499 in order to set up trading with India. According to a report about the findings published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, there is only one other known example of this coin in the world.
That special coin is also referred to as the lost coin and ghost coin of Dom Manuel. These type of coin were forged in 1499 after da Gamas first voyage to India, said David L. Mearns, the director of Blue Water Recoveries.
"That was an amazing discovery," Mearns said. "It was like a thing you read about in a Hollywood story."
As supervisor of marine archaeology at the Oman Ministry of Heritage and Culture Ayoub al-Busaidi said, this discovery marked the first underwater excavation accomplished by his country. It inspires officials to continue to explore the waters around the Sultanate for other discoveries.
"Oman is now looking at outside archives to read about the relationships and trade between Oman and the outside world, he said.
Source: Mashable
(brl/red)
