|
Shipwreck Yields Coins, Barter Items
 | By Richard Giedroyc, World Coin News
July 01, 2008 |
The Solomon Islands aren't the only place making numismatic news recently regarding odd and primitive money. A yet to be identified 15th or 16th century shipwreck encountered off the coast of Namibia in Africa was apparently carrying both coins and odd and curious items meant for barter with the local inhabitants.
Archaeologist Dieter Noli is associated with the excavation being undertaken by Namdeb Diamond Corporation, a joint venture of the government of Namibia and the De Beers diamond mining company from South Africa that discovered the wreck by accident.
Noli was quoted in a May 1 Associated Press article as saying, "Sending a ship toward Africa in that period [14th to 15th centuries], that was venture capital in the extreme."
Namdeb Diamond Corporation had been clearing and draining an area of seabed in search of diamonds when they unexpectedly uncovered what was left of the unidentified ship. At first the team found some partial sphere-shaped ingots that they were unable to identify. This was followed by finding cannons, which were much more easily recognized.
Noli has been advising De Beers for years and anticipated a search along the coast might yield such a find. European ships were a rarity along the African coast at this time. A detailed account of what coins were present at the site wasn't immediately available, but the coins were described as being a hoard of issues of Spain and Portugal that suggest along with the cannon types and surviving astrolabe navigational equipment that the ship sunk during the late 14th or early 15th century. This is the beginning of the age of discovery, when Columbus was exploring the New World.
Head archaeologist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration John Broadwater is quoted in the Associated Press account of the discovery as saying, "Based on the goods they were carrying, it's almost certain that it [the shipwreck] dates from that time." Noli added that this was "a period when Africa was just being opened up, when the whole world was being opened up."
What Broadwater referred to as "goods" includes copper ingots, ivory, the coins, and what was described by Noli as "coffin-sized timber fragments." Ivory was valuable both to European merchants and to the local natives. The copper ingots could likewise have been something used in barter, although they could also have been needed either to make cannons or cannonballs.
Ivory was a desirable commodity in the region of Namibia, its trade being controlled by the local royal families. The archaeologists at the shipwreck site weren't certain, but a shift in the ivory cargo might have caused the ship to list and sink.
According to Noli, there are indications the ship was old and likely top heavy with cargo and coins. The reason such a large amount of coinage was found onboard is one of the mysteries of the wreck, considering the coins should have been traded for the cargo. There were about 50 ivory tusks found at the site of the wreck. The ship itself was not particularly seaworthy, appearing to have significant worm damage, with sheets of lead used to patch holes in the hull caused by the worms.
While coin collectors may have an interest in the coins found onboard, the archaeologists are trying to identify the ship. Considering the amount of coins and ivory on board Noli and those working with him agree there must be a record of the ship somewhere. So far they have confined their record search to museums and libraries in Cape Town in South Africa, however they may have to travel to Spain or Portugal to find those elusive records.
Noli said, "You don't turn a skipper loose with a cargo of that value and have no record of it."
Add to: del.icio.us digg
With this article: Email to friend Print
| On July 4, 2008 Peter Moogk said  On July 7, 2008 Kiona Smith said |
Something to add? Notice an error? Comment on this article. | |