on December 17, 2020.
By Rachel Nuwer
In 2008, workers searching for diamonds off the coast of Namibia found a different kind of treasure: hundreds of gold coins mixed with timber and other debris. They had stumbled upon Bom Jesus, a Portuguese trading vessel lost during a voyage to India in 1533. Among the 40 tons of cargo recovered from the sunken ship were more than 100 elephant tusks.
More than a decade after the ship’s discovery, a team of archaeologists, geneticists and ecologists have pieced together the mystery of where the tusks came from and how they fit into the overall picture of historical ivory trade. The researchers’ analysis also revealed that entire elephant lineages have likely been wiped out since the Bom Jesus set sail, shining a light on the extent to which humans have decimated a species once found in far greater numbers across large parts of the African continent.
Ivory from shipwreck reveals elephant slaughter during spice trade courant.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from courant.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Ivory From Shipwreck Reveals Elephant Slaughter During Spice Trade
A trove from a Portuguese trading ship that sank in 1533 preserved genetic traces of whole lineages that have vanished from West Africa.
The ivory from the shipwreck was identified as belonging to forest elephants rather than the species’ larger, more well-known savanna-dwelling cousins.Credit.Nicholas Georgiadis
By Rachel Nuwer
Dec. 17, 2020
In 2008, workers searching for diamonds off the coast of Namibia found a different kind of treasure: hundreds of gold coins mixed with timber and other debris. They had stumbled upon Bom Jesus, a Portuguese trading vessel lost during a voyage to India in 1533. Among the 40 tons of cargo recovered from the sunken ship were more than 100 elephant tusks.