Africa News
Namibian government takes custody of 500 year-old treasure trove Portuguese shipwreck─── 05:10 Fri, 17 Jun 2016
Gabarone - The Namibian government has taken custody of the 500 year-old shipwreck which was discovered 8 years ago and found to contain millions of dollars worth of ancient treasures which date back to the 15 the century.
A team of archaeologists from Zimbabwe, Namibia, Portugal and South Africa have unearthed, analysed and dated the treasure trove, which includes gold coins, antique weapons made of silver and copper and copper ingots since the discovery of wreckage in 2008.
According to archaeologists, the wreckage is the remains of a Portuguese ship ‘The Bom Jesus’ which sunk off the Atlantic coast of Namibia nearly 500 years ago and remained unaccounted for until it was found by mining geologists from De Beers in 2008.
Namibian curator Elliot Mowa said the government had decided to preserve rather than sell the treasures in the interest of preserving the cultural and historical value of the artifacts. He said the discovery of the ship showed that there was a connection between Asia, Africa and Europe. He said an analysis of the cargo showed that some of the items on the ship had been traded for Portuguese merchandise that was needed in other parts of the world.
“This find has a lot of historical significance for us as country, but beyond that also for the region and entire world. We want to make sure that all the items are preserved to the best of our ability, mostly as a matter of historical importance. The items have now been moved to a permanent home for the foreseeable future, and will stay there until they are moved into a museum where the public can view the items,” Mowa told the Namibian Sun.
The Bom Jesus went missing while en route to India from Portugal about 500 years ago. The Portuguesse government claimed the wreckage soon after discovery. However, it dropped the bid after considering United Nations maritime laws which stipulate that such wrecks can only be re-claimed by their countries of origin within a time span which had already lapsed at the time of the discovery of the shipwreck.
The Namibian government has since taken custody of all the items found aboard the vessel. Mowa said the wreckage of ‘The Bom Jesus’ would be housed at a museum to be built in the tourist resort town of Oranjemund in the south of the country.
ANA
