NAMIBIAN ANCIENT SHIPWRECK

When Kapaandu Shitake from Namdeb discovered two damaged bronze "pipes" at Mining Area 1 at Oranjemund he never would have guessed the importance of the find. The two bronze pipes were later identified  as cannon originated from a sixteenth century Portuguese shipwreck sunk off Oranjemund.
Soon afterwards other artifacts including copper ingots, elephant teeth, pieces of wood and gold coins were discovered.
Dr Dieter Noli an archaeologist and his colleague Dr Bruno Werz a marine archaeologist assisted in identifying the artifacts.
The cannon and majority of the coins were from Spanish origin. The view was rejected due to reliable historic and other archaeological reasons.
The notion that the wreck was Bartholomew Dias caravel, one of the ships in Pedro Allvares Cabrals fleet witch had gone astray in 1500 from Brazil to India was also rejected when a Portuguese coin was found which was struck during the reign of king Joao 111.
During the first phase of the archaeological recovery of the wreck 5438 artifacts  of priceless cultural and scientific value have been found. This include 2159 gold coins, 1845 copper ingots (with stamp of the German Fugger family), 109 silver coins, 67 elephant teeth, 14 cannon balls, 8 bronze cannon, 5 anchors, 3 quadrants, chains, 3 navigational compasses, part of a compass, tableware of tin and copper cooking utensils.
The copper weighed approximately twenty ton and the tin ingots 3,5 ton. Other items included various cast iron cannon, swords, rifles and a chest with sword blades.
Paulo Montero was credited with the possible date and identity of the wreck due to his research on the Portuguese 10 cruzado piece, a rare coin of pure gold struck between the reigns of king Manuel 1 and king Joao 111.

The Portuguese coins were struck in 1526 and were out of circulation by 1536 contributing to its rarity.The Spanish coins dated back to the reign of king Ferdinand and queen Isabella.