Bones, silver found in 18th-century Dutch wreck off UK

Yahoo – AFP, August 18, 2017

A diver works on the wreck of the Rooswijk, a Dutch East India Company ship
which sank in 1740, on the sea bed off the coast of Ramsgate, southeast England,
in a picture released by Historic England in London on August 18, 2017 (AFP Photo/)

London (AFP) - Maritime archaeologists said Friday they have begun excavating the wreck of a Dutch ship that sank off the English coast in 1740, recovering leather shoes, silver and the bones of its lost crew.

The Rooswijk, a Dutch East India Company ship, was on its way to what is now Jakarta when it went down with around 300 people and a large cargo of silver ingots and coinage aboard.

Following its discovery in 2005, most of the precious goods were removed, but a full excavation is now underway due to concerns it could be destroyed by shifting sands and currents.

Remains of some of the sailors who perished have been found preserved on the seabed 26 metres (85 feet) down, along with more coins, leather shoes, an oil lamp, glass bottles, pewter jugs and spoons and ornately carved knife handles.

"It's a snapshot of a moment in time," said Alison James, a maritime archaeologist at the Historic England cultural agency, while one her colleagues said it was like "an underwater Pompeii".

The items brought ashore for conservation also include wooden seaman's chests which will be x-rayed to see if they are contain cargo or personal possessions.

James told AFP it was a remarkable site: "It's incredibly well-preserved, it's a very early wreck and there's a lot of material on the seabed."

The wreck is under the legal protection and management of the British government, although the excavation is led and financed by the Dutch government, which also owns any finds.

The project is the largest of its scale on a ship from the Dutch East India Company, which lost a total of 250 vessels to shipwreck -- of which only a third have been located.

VOC ship sunk off the coast of England in 1740 to be investigated

DutchNews, April 18, 2017

Coins salvaged from the Rooswijk were sold on Ebay in 2007

A Dutch ship laden with chests of silver which sunk off the coast of England in 1740 is to be partly excavated and its cargo recovered, the education ministry said on Tuesday. 

The Rooswijk was a VOC ship and sunk close to the Goodwin Sands sandbank on its way to Asia in a heavy storm. The ship had a crew of some 350 and was laden with silver and coins to trade. 

The wreck is now threatened by shifts in the current and a project to extract sand from the area, the Telegraaf said on Tuesday. The Netherlands and England have therefore decided to carry out a proper survey of the ship and its spoils, which will take place from July 1 to October. 

Education minister Jet Bussemaker said there is increasing awareness of the importance of wrecks as part of the Dutch identity. Wrecks, she said, are ‘time capsules’ full of stories. 

‘The two century history of the VOC is part of our collective memory, including all we are proud of, but also what we are now ashamed of,’ she said. 

Divers first found and explored the wreck in 2004. In 2005, they recovered one thousand bars of silver, gold coins and a mustard jar which were given to the Dutch government. 

VOC

The Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC (Dutch East India Company) was established in 1602 when it was given a 21-year monopoly to trade with Asia. It went on to trade throughout Asia for two centuries before being dissolved in 1798. 

The VOC is often described as the world’s first multinational corporation and was also the first company to issue stocks.

Whey to go: 17th-century cheese found in Baltic wreck

Yahoo – AFP, Gael Branchereau, July 28, 2016

Divers exploring the historic royal shipwreck "Kronan" off the south-east coast
 of Sweden have discovered 340-year-old cheese buried in the sea bed below
the wreckage (AFP Photo)

Stockholm (AFP) - Divers searching the wreck of a 17th-century Swedish warship on the bed of the Baltic say they have found de Brie.

Sifting through the ancient timbers of the Kronan, a ship that sank in 1676 off the Swedish coast, they found not diamonds as they had hoped... but a cheese.

Inside a watertight pot was a semi-firm 340-year-old "dairy product" smelling of yeast and Roquefort cheese, expedition leader Lars Einarsson told AFP on Thursday.

"Unlike the others, I find its smell is quite pleasant," he said. "It smells of life."

The unusual find is being sent to the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences for tests.

The Kronan (Crown) sank off the island of Oeland, southeastern Sweden on June 1, 1676 in a battle with a Danish-Dutch fleet.

Squabbling officers and too much sail caused the ship to capsize and then explode. Only about 40 of the 800 crew survived.

The wreck was found in 1980 by Anders Franzen, an amateur naval archaeologist who 24 years earlier discovered the warship Vasa, which sank in 1628 in Stockholm port on its maiden voyage.

The Vasa's timbers were brought to the surface -- the ship, housed in a maritime museum in Stockholm, is now one of Sweden's star attractions.

This handout picture shows the wreckage of Kronan at the bottom of the Baltic

sea of the coast of southern Sweden (AFP Photo)

But in the Kronan's case, the blast was so powerful that pieces of the ship were scattered over a wide area of seabed. Fishing nets, minesweeping and the forces of the sea have added to the dispersal.

Around 80 percent of the estimated site has been explored, revealing a trove of treasure and historical artefacts.

Around 30,000 items have been brought to the surface so far, including bronze cannon, chests, dishes, navigational instruments and a German-made trumpet, as well as diamonds and gold coins.

Divers have also found flour, animal bones, liquor and wine — items that are a potential bonanza for historians eager for insights into how food was made centuries ago.

The cheese survived thanks to the chill and low salinity of the Baltic and the fact that it lay under a thick layer of sediment, which protected the pot from corrosion.

In 2010, divers recovered 145 bottles of vintage Champagne from the wreck of a ship that sank off the Finnish archipelago of Aland between 1825 and 1830.

Israel divers find ancient marine cargo in Mediterranean

Yahoo – AFP, May 16, 2016

Artefacts from a merchant ship that sank off the ancient Mediterranean port of
Caesarea 1,600 years ago are presented to the press by Israel's Antiquities Authority
on May 16, 2016 (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)

Caesarea (Israel) (AFP) - Israel's Antiquities Authority on Monday displayed cargo from a merchant ship that sank off the ancient Mediterranean port of Caesarea 1,600 years ago, including rare bronze statues and thousands of coins.

The find, happened upon by two divers a few weeks ago who then alerted the authority, consisted primarily of "metal slated for recycling" borne on the ship from Caesarea in the late Roman period, IAA experts said.

But a storm at the entrance to Caesarea harbour crashed the large ship into the seawall and rocks, the IAA said, spilling the cargo into the sea and preserving the "exciting finds".

Artefacts recovered off the ancient Mediterranean port of Caesarea in Israel 

includes thousands of coins in two lumps weighing around 20 kilogrammes bearing

the images of Constantine the Great and of Licinius (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)

"Metal statues are rare archaeological finds because they were always melted down and recycled in antiquity," Jacob Sharvit, director of the Marine Archaeology Unit of the IAA and his deputy Dror Planer said in a joint statement, noting such a trove hasn't been found in Israel for 30 years.

The artefacts include "a bronze lamp depicting the image of the sun god Sol, a figurine of the moon goddess Luna, a lamp in the image of the head of an African slave (and) fragments of three life-size bronze cast statues," the IAA said.

There were also "objects fashioned in the shape of animals such as a whale (and) a bronze faucet in the form of a wild boar with a swan on its head," the statement said, noting the sand protected the statues which were "in an amazing state of preservation."

Items, which the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) estimate to be around 1600 

years old, are displayed after it was recovered from a merchant ship in the 

ancient harbor of the Caesarea National Park May 16, 2016. Reuters/ Baz Ratner

The find includes thousands of coins in two lumps weighing around 20 kilogrammes (44 pounds) bearing the images of Constantine the Great and of Licinius, an emperor who ruled the eastern half of the Roman Empire and was a rival of Constantine.

Fragments of drinking jars were also found, as well as iron anchors, apparently cast from the ship in the vain hope of preventing it crashing in the storm.

The discovery comes a year after the exposure of a record trove of some 2,000 gold coins in the same area, with Sharvit crediting the abundance of divers with the growing number of finds.

According to Sharvit and Planer, the finds reflect the "economic and commercial stability in the wake of the stability of the Roman Empire," a period in which "Christianity was on its way to becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire."

Colombia finds treasure galleon, ending 300-year mystery

Yahoo – AFP, Paula Carrillo, 6 Dec 2015

The remains of the Spanish galleon San Jose sunk off the Caribbean coast

 of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia in an undated picture released on 

December 5, 2105 by the Colombian Culture Ministry's press office (AFP Photo)

Cartagena (Colombia) (AFP) - Colombia says it has found the shipwreck of a storied Spanish galleon laden with gold, silver and precious stones, three centuries after it was sunk by the British in the Caribbean.

"This is the most valuable treasure that has been found in the history of humanity," President Juan Manuel Santos declared on Saturday.

He was speaking from the northern port city of Cartagena, close to where experts made the hugely valuable find.

Treasure hunters had searched for the ship for decades, described by some as the holy grail of shipwrecks.

The loot is estimated to be worth around $2 billion, its value having dropped significantly due to the falling price of silver, according to US-based company Sea Search Armada.

SSA, whose subsidiary claimed in the early 1980s that it had found the galleon's final resting place, was engaged in a long-running battle with the government of Colombia.

The find was not confirmed and a US court ultimately ruled it was Colombian property.

The San Jose has long been the source of fascination and popular legends, and even figures in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "Love in the Time of Cholera."

Mystery solved after centuries

Although they found plenty of other wrecks, the San Jose's location had remained a mystery until now.

The San Jose was sunk in June 1708 near the Islas del Rosario, off Colombia's Caribbean coast, during combat with British ships attempting to take its cargo, as part of the War of Spanish Succession.

The galleon was the main ship in a treasure fleet carrying gold, silver and other valuable items from Spain's American colonies to King Philip V.

Only a handful of the ship's crew of 600 survived when the San Jose sank.

A team of Colombian and foreign researchers, including a veteran of the group that discovered the wreck of the Titanic in 1985, studied winds and currents of the Caribbean 307 years ago and delved into colonial archives in Spain and Colombia searching for clues.

The remains of the Spanish galleon San Jose sunk off the Caribbean coast of 

Cartagena de Indias, Colombia seen in an undated picture released on December 5, 

2105 by the Colombian Culture Ministry's press office (AFP Photo)

Experts confirmed that they found the San Jose on November 27 "in a place never before referenced by previous research," Santos said.

At least five other major shipwrecks were discovered when searching the ocean floor.

The experts confirmed that they located the San Jose, which was lying on its side, identifying it by its unique bronze cannons with engraved dolphins.

"The amount and type of the material leave no doubt of the identity" of the shipwreck, said Ernesto Montenegro, head of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History.

There could be up to 1,000 shipwrecks off the Caribbean coast of Colombia, but of those only between six and 10 had a large cargo of treasures, anthropologist Fabian Sanabria told AFP.

The biggest find, and the most sought after, was the San Jose, he said.

The discovery "is an unprecedented event for the country," said Cartagena Mayor Dionisio Velez.

On Twitter, the issue was trending under #GaleonSanJose, as users of the one-to-many social network debated whether to return the loot to Spain, and made various estimates about its current value.

Ancient warrior's tomb and huge treasure hoard found in Greece

Yahoo – AFP, October 26, 2015

An undated picture released on October 26, 2105 by the Greek Culture Ministry

 shows an ivory comb, one of the items found in a 3,500 years old warrior tomb 

unearthed in the Peloponeese region of Greece (AFP Photo)

Athens (AFP) - US archaeologists in Greece have uncovered the skeleton of an ancient warrior that has lain undisturbed for more than 3,500 years along with a huge hoard of treasure, the Greek culture ministry announced Monday.

The treasure is "the most important to have been discovered in 65 years" in continental Greece, the ministry said.

The wooden coffin of the unknown soldier -- evidently a person of some importance -- was found on the site of the Mycenaean-era Palace of Nestor on Greece's Peloponnese peninsula.

He had been laid to rest with an array of fine gold jewellery, including an ornate string of pearls, signet rings, a bronze sword with a gold and ivory handle, silver vases and ivory combs.

The jewellery is decorated in the style of the Minoans, the civilisation that flourished on the island of Crete from around 2000 BC, with the figures of deities, animals and floral motifs.

The archaeologists, Jack L. Davis and Sharon R. Stocker from the University of Cincinnati, have identified more than 1,400 pieces "whose quality testifies to the influence of the Minoans" on the later Mycenaeans.

The Mycenean civilisation spread from the Peloponnese across the whole of the eastern Mediterranean in the 2nd century BC.

The tomb, which stands at 2.4 metres (7 feet 10 inches) long and 1.5 metres wide, was unearthed during excavations begun in May near Pylos, on the site of the palace of Nestor.

Built between 1300 and 1200 BC, the palace's ruins were discovered in 1939.

US family make million-dollar gold find from Spanish fleet off Florida

A treasure-hunting family has found more than $1m worth of gold artefacts from the wreckage of a sunken 1715 Spanish ship in the Atlantic Ocean

The Guardian, Reuters in Orlando, 28 July 2015

Gold coins and gold chain that were found in the wreckage of a 1715 Spanish fleet
that sunk in the Atlantic Ocean. Photograph: 1715 Fleet Queens Jewels LLC/Reuters

A Florida family has been rewarded for years of treasure hunting after finding gold artefacts worth $1m or more from the wreckage of a 1715 Spanish fleet that sank in the Atlantic, according to a salvage company.

The find included 51 gold coins of various denominations and 40ft (12m) of ornate gold chain, said Brent Brisben, whose company, 1715 Fleet – Queens Jewels LLC, owns the rights to the wreckage.

The Schmitt family, who hunt for treasure off their salvage vessel Aarrr Booty, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Brisben said he timed the announcement to coincide with Friday’s 300th anniversary of the sinking of 11 galleons brought down by a hurricane off the coast of Florida, as the convoy was sailing from Havana to Spain.

Eric Schmitt found the artefacts in 15ft (4.5m) of water off Fort Pierce, approximately 130 miles (210km) north of Miami.

The Spanish convoy’s manifests indicated the ships carried cargo valued today at about $400m (£257m), of which $175m had been recovered, Brisben said.

His company bought the rights to the site in 2010 from heirs of treasure hunter Mel Fisher. The firm allows others, including the Schmitts, to search under subcontract agreements.

The centrepiece of the Schmitts’ latest find is a perfect specimen of a coin called a royal, made for Spain’s King Phillip V and dated 1715. Only a few royals were known to exist, according to a news release from Brisben’s company.

The gold chains are made of small, handcrafted, two-sided links of six-petalled olive blossoms. They were called money chains and are believed to have been used as a tax-free coinage, the news release said.

Under federal and state law, Florida will take possession of up to 20% of the find for display in a state museum. Brisben’s company and the Schmitt family would split the remainder, Brisben said.

Divers find record trove of gold coins in Mediterranean

Yahoo – AFP, 18 Feb 2015

A handout picture released by Israel's Antiquities Authority shows some of the gold

 coins recently found on the seabed in the ancient harbour in Caesarea (AFP Photo)

Jerusalem (AFP) - Scuba divers have discovered the largest trove of gold coins ever found off Israel's Mediterranean coast -- about 2,000 pieces dating back more than 1,000 years, the country's antiquities authority said Tuesday.

"The largest treasure of gold coins discovered in Israel was found in recent weeks on the seabed in the ancient harbour in Caesarea," the authority said in a statement.

It was by pure chance that members of a diving club in the Roman-era port had come across the coins, which the authority said weighed nine kilograms (almost 20 pounds) but described as "priceless".

"At first they thought they had spotted a toy coin from a game and it was only after they understood the coin was the real thing that they collected several coins and quickly returned to the shore in order to inform the director of the dive club about their find," it said.

Experts from the authority called to the site uncovered "almost 2,000 gold coins in different denominations" circulated by the Fatimid Caliphate, which ruled much of the Middle East and North Africa from 909 to 1171.

Kobi Sharvit, director of the marine archaeology unit at the Israel Antiquities Authority, said excavations would be carried out in the hope of shedding more light on the origin of the treasure.

A handout picture released by Israel's Antiquities Authority shows

 a scuba diver holding in his hand some of the gold coins found on

the seabed in the ancient harbour in Caesarea (AFP Photo/

Kobi Sharvit)

"There is probably a shipwreck there of an official treasury boat which was on its way to the central government in Egypt with taxes that had been collected," said Sharvit.

"Perhaps the treasure of coins was meant to pay the salaries of the Fatimid military garrison which was stationed in Caesarea and protected the city.

"Another theory is that the treasure was money belonging to a large merchant ship that traded with the coastal cities and the port on the Mediterranean Sea and sank there," he said.

The Israeli Antiquities Authority declined to put a cash value on the coins, which it said had been exposed as a result of winter storms.

The find was "so valuable that its priceless," spokeswoman Yoli Schwartz told AFP, adding the haul was now the property of the state, and that there was no finder's fee.

Related Article:

Scuba divers discover hoard of ancient gold in Israel