The Colombian government has removed five objects and fragments from the wreck of the Spanish galleon San José, which sank in 1708 near Cartagena de Indias and was found in December 2005, the Ministry of Culture said. “The pieces collected on board the Colombian Navy ships were a cannon, a porcelain cup and three macuquinas (coins), as well as two fragments of porcelain and remains of sediment associated with these objects,” the ministry said in a statement.
“This material evidence will be used to carry out archaeological studies and archaeometric analyses, i.e. laboratory studies on the composition that allow us to answer questions related to the research project, such as provenance, chronology and production technologies, among others, with which these results can be confirmed,” the text reads. The San José, which belonged to the Spanish Navy, was sunk by a fleet of English privateers on 8 June 1708 while it was headed to Cartagena de Indias loaded, according to the chronicles of the time, with almost 11 million gold and silver coins that it had collected at the Portobelo fair (Panama).
“To select the collected archaeological objects, rigorous protocols were implemented that allowed, starting from the scientific relevance and technical feasibility of the Navy’s underwater robotics, to justify which are the representative inorganic materials, such as ceramic (porcelain) and metal (gold and bronze) that contribute to answering the questions of the research project”, specifies the document.
On December 5, 2015, the then Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, announced the discovery of the wreck, which Spain claims ownership of because it is “a state vessel” under its flag, under UNESCO regulations. The Colombian government, for its part, declared the San José “an asset of submerged cultural interest” and from the beginning invited Spain to treat the wreck as a shared heritage.
The first phase of the Colombian research project explored the ship’s remains, found about 600 meters deep, and cataloged 1,138 objects in what it called a non-intrusive study of the archaeological context. “The second phase seeks to deepen the study through the direct analysis of archaeological objects, which involves their collection to stabilize them, that is, gradually adapt them to the transition from the marine to the terrestrial environment, and preserve them in optimal conditions”, explained the Ministry of Culture.
