What might turn out to be the oldest shipwreck in the sub-Saharan African region has been discovered in diamond-rich Namibia.
The country’s diamond mining company, Namdeb Diamond Corporation, a 50-50 joint venture between the government and South African gem miner De Beers, said on Wednesday that its geologists discovered the shipwreck during a routine search for gems along the south-western coast of the country. Namdeb mines diamonds in what has for the last 100 years been known as the “Sperrgebiet” or “Forbidden” zone where the company believes that for over hundreds of millions of years, diamonds have continuously been deposited on its beaches. The discovery was made inside Namdeb’s Mining Area 1, which can only be accessed with special permits from the country’s mines and energy ministry and Namibia Police’s Protective Resources Unit. “If the experts’ assessments are correct, the shipwreck could date back to the late 1400’s or early 1500’s, making it a discovery of global significance,” said the company in an announcement to the media. The company said that on April 1, its Head of the Mineral Resource Department, Bob Burrell, encountered some rounded copper ingots and the remains of three bronze cannons leading to the halting of all mining operations. An archaeologist, Dr. Dieter Noli, who is an expert on the area Namdeb is mining for diamonds, was called in and identified the cannons as being similar to those used by the Spaniards in the early 1500s. A joint excavation programme with the Southern African Institute of Maritime Archaeological Research yielded a wealth of objects including six bronze cannons, several tons of copper, more than 50 elephant tusks, pewter tableware, navigational instruments, weapons and thousands of Spanish and Portuguese gold coins, minted in the late 1400s and early 1500s, Namdeb said. “If this proves to be a contemporary of the ships sailed by the likes of Diaz, Da Gama and Columbus, it would be of immense national and international interest and Namibia’s most important archaeological find of the century,” it said.
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