At the bottom of the Arabian Sea, a 500-year-old shipwreck from the fleet of Vasco da Gama
Source: Washington Post
But in the end, Mearns announced Tuesday at a press conference in Muscat, the archaeologists did find what they were looking for. The wreck uncovered off the coast of Al Hallaniyah is almost certainly da Gamas ship Esmeralda, which sank with its captain and da Gamas uncle, the swashbuckling, rapacious Vincente Sodré, on board in 1503.
A report on the find published in the journal Nautical Archaeology is still considered interim thousands of artifacts dug up from the wreck site have yet to be analyzed. But, if Mearnss conclusion is borne out, the Esmeralda will be the oldest ship from the Age of Exploration ever to be excavated.
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Shed been part of a massive armada led by da Gama in order to conduct trade and in many cases, wage war in India. The fleet followed the route famously pioneered by da Gama four years earlier: a circuitous, 24,000-mile voyage around the Cape of Good Hope and up Africas eastern coast that took the better part of a year and killed the better part of da Gamas crew. Nevertheless, his carreira da India provided the first link between Europe and the spices of the East that didnt depend on overland routes controlled by Arab traders and Venetian merchants. To 15th century Portugal, eager for trade riches and finally some flavor in their food, da Gamas new route was a very big deal.
That first successful voyage was a turning point in world history: the beginning of the ages of exploration, imperialism and globalization, with all their change and brutality. And what happened on da Gamas second voyage, including the demise of the Esmeralda, was a grim harbinger of the violent centuries that lay ahead for both the colonized and the colonizers.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/03/16/at-the-bottom-of-the-arabian-sea-a-500-year-old-shipwreck-from-the-fleet-of-vasco-da-gama/
The 'interim' report: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1095-9270.12175/epdf
livetohike
(22,147 posts)iandhr
(6,852 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,123 posts)They left out the "for Europe" part. Centuries before, peoples from other continents had already been there, done that. We're are living through the end of that European era.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Some of the wrecks found from the 1500s are full of cargo like porcelain plates, so much pottery, cargo holds were stuffed, a lot comes up for sale similar to this plate from the Hoi An hoard. I collected one with barnacles on it (not pristine) for $25.