The Portugal archaeologists confirmed they have found the 400-year0old ship at the sea near resort city Cascais, SkyNews reported. The discovery site is littered with bronze artillery, peppercorns and cowry shells, all these objects are lying 12m (40ft) beneath the surface.
The municipal council of Cascais, a resort city about 20 miles west of the Portuguese capital, said the ship was found at the start of September while dredging the mouth of the Tagus river, which runs past the resort town through Lisbon. Mayor Carlos Carreiras told the press it was an “extraordinary discovery”, which will reinforce their “collective identity and shared values”.
The find is part of a 10-year archaeological project supported by the town of Cascais, the Portuguese government and navy, and Nova University in Lisbon. The Minister of Culture, Luis Mendes, said the mouth of the Tagus river was considered a “hotspot” for wrecks.
“This discovery came to prove it,”
Mendes said.
The archaeologists suggest the ship was wrecked between 1575 and 1625 and, before then, it is thought to have been involved in the lucrative spice trade between Portugal and India. Jorge Freire, the scientific director of the Cascais Underwater Archaeological Chart Project added a wreckage covers an area approximately 100 metres long by 50 metres wide.
In fact, the recent discovery is not the first important discovery in the river Tagus, earlier, the excavations have already found Chinese porcelain dating from the late 16th and 17th centuries. According to the archaeologists, Chinese porcelain from the late 16th and early 17th centuries was also among the wreck, as were bronze artillery pieces and cowry shells – a currency used in the slave trade.
