CASCAIS, PORTUGAL ¨C Archaeologists searching Portugal¡¯s coast have found a 400-year-old shipwreck believed to have sunk near Lisbon after returning from India laden with spices, specialists said on Monday.
¡°From a heritage perspective, this is the discovery of the decade,¡± project director Jorge Freire said. ¡°In Portugal, this is the most important find of all time.¡±
In and around the shipwreck, 40 feet (12 meters) below the surface, divers found spices, nine bronze cannons engraved with the Portuguese coat of arms, Chinese ceramics and cowry shells, a type of currency used to trade slaves during the colonial era.
Found on Sept. 3 off the coast of Cascais, a resort town on the outskirts of Lisbon, the shipwreck and its objects were ¡°very well-preserved,¡± said Freire.
Freire and his team believe the ship was wrecked between 1575 and 1625, when Portugal¡¯s spice trade with India was at its peak.
In 1994, Portuguese ship Our Lady of the Martyrs was discovered near Fort of Sao Juliao da Barra, a military defense complex near Cascais.
¡°For a long time, specialists have considered the mouth of the Tagus river a hot spot for shipwrecks,¡± said Minister of Culture Luis Mendes. ¡°This discovery came to prove it.¡±
The wreck was found as part of a 10-year-old archaeological project backed by the municipal council of Cascais, the navy, the Portuguese government and Nova University of Lisbon.
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