メキシコでマニラガレオンからの遺物発見

メキシコの考古学者がバハ・カリフォルニアの海岸から中国製陶磁器などを発見し、初期ガレオン船の遺物が流されたものと判断しています。

1560年代から太平洋間(マニラーアカプルコ）を往復したスペインの貿易船は天候などにより北に流されてカリフォルニア地方に行き着くことがあったそうです。この航海に使われた船は一般にマニラガレオンとして呼ばれています。発見されたのは中国製の遺物数点で、この地方は海岸の砂の移動が多いのでまとまった遺物は発見されないでしょうが、近辺の磁気探査により反応があれば沈没船の可能性が濃厚になります。

日本の貿易陶磁器研究者などにとっては期待が持たれる発見だと思います。船の年代などはまだ分かりませんが、伊万里からの遺物も遠くメキシコで発見されています。伊万里焼がまとまってメキシコの沈没船から発見されれば日本国内でも海洋考古学が盛んになるきっかけになるのでは？期待しています。

古伊万里、太平洋渡り中米に！

Mexican archeologists reported on Monday that porcelain plates and other artifacts found amid shifting coastal dunes in Baja California could be part of the wreckage of one of the earliest galleons that plied the route from the Philippines to Mexico, once Spanish colonies

Mexican archeologists reported on Monday that porcelain plates and other artifacts found amid shifting coastal dunes in Baja California could be part of the wreckage of one of the earliest galleons that plied the route from the Philippines to Mexico, once Spanish colonies.

Seals and other markings on some of the estimated 1,000 fragments of porcelain plates found so far indicate they were made in China in the late 1500s, said archaeologist Luz María Mejía of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), who was involved in the investigation.

The site, near the port of Ensenada, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of the U.S. border, is covered by shifting sand dunes that cover and uncover artifacts, and have apparently been doing so for centuries. Investigators spent several years searching the dunes.

The San Diego Maritime Museum has been cooperating in the research.

Jesuit missionaries, who were among the first to establish settlements on the Baja California peninsula in the 1700s, reported finding porcelain and wax in the area.

While early Spanish galleons — which began plying the Pacific route in the 1560s — were headed for the port of Acapulco, far to the south, it was common for sailing ships of the era to catch favorable winds that would bring them near the coast further north, around the California coast. They would then hug the coast as they traveled south to Acapulco.

While researchers have not yet pinpointed the origin of the artifacts, they believe they are the result of a shipwreck, although none has been found. That view is supported by results from metal detectors and other devices that have detected “anomalous” areas off the coast that could be a shipwreck site.

Spanish ships regularly shipped eastern trade goods from the Philippines to Mexico.

引用元：http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/23578.html