In pics | Archaeologists find over 500-year-old ‘unique’ cache of well-preserved spices
A 'unique' find
Archaeologists have found what has been called a "unique" cache of well-preserved spices from a royal ship that sank off Sweden's Baltic coast more than 500 years ago. The image shows Brendan Foley who led the excavation.
Who did they belong to?
According to a report by Reuters, the once-royal ship belonged to King Hans of Denmark and Norway and has been sitting off the coast of Ronneby since 1495. It is thought to have caught fire and sank the monarch attended a political meeting in Sweden.
What makes this discovery unique?
Over the years, there have been sporadic excavations of the ship but it was not until recently that a team lead by Brendan Foley, an archaeological scientist at Lund University in Sweden that found spices like strands of saffron, peppercorns and ginger buried at the silt of the ship, reported Reuters.
"The Baltic is strange - it's low oxygen, low temperature, low salinity, so many organic things are well preserved in the Baltic where they wouldn't be well preserved elsewhere in the world ocean system", said Foley. He added, "But to find spices like this is quite extraordinary."
Symbol of high status
According to the archaeologists, the spices would be a symbol of high status in Europe. Therefore, only the wealthy could afford spices such as saffron or cloves which were not grown on the continent. "This is the only archaeological context where we've found saffron. So it's very unique and it's very special," said Mikael Larsson, the researcher who is studying the findings and also from the Sweden-based Lund University, as per Reuters.
Was the cache of well-preserved spices all they found?
As mentioned earlier, there have been several excavations of the ship over the years but it wasn't until recently that the "unique" cache of well-preserved spices was found. Previously, divers have also found large items such as figureheads and timber from the sunken ship.
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