[Archport] Entretanto, na Namibia....

[Alexandre Monteiro <no.arame@gmail.com>]

... mais do mesmo.

Parece que ninguém informou a Associated Press, ou o New York Times,
do cheque-museu. Esta gente prefere sempre o negativismo às boas
notícias na óptica do Governo.

Felizmente o nosso poeta-ministro continua atento e dedica ao assunto
um haiku. Ou dois, se para tanto lhe chegar a inspiração.





In Namibia, 1533 Portuguese Shipwreck's Relics Hidden Away

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SEPT. 15, 2017, 8:42 A.M. E.D.T.

ORANJEMUND, Namibia (AP) — Diamond prospectors in Namibia nearly a
decade ago stumbled upon remnants of a shipwrecked Portuguese vessel
whose trading journey to India was cut violently short by a storm in
1533. Today the artifacts from the doomed ship, described by
archaeologists as one of that era's most important finds, remain a
hidden treasure.


Relics stored in a dimly lit warehouse at a diamond mine on Namibia's
Atlantic coast include bronze cannons, copper ingots, eroded musket
stocks, cracked ivory tusks and rusted sword sheaths, but they are
seen by only a small number of visitors who navigate sealed doors and
other stringent security features at the mine operated by Namdeb, a
joint venture between Namibia and the De Beers company. More than
2,000 gold coins from the wreck, most of them Spanish and Portuguese,
are in a central bank vault in Windhoek, the capital.

The remains of the ship owned by Portuguese King Joao III, identified
by archaeologists as the Bom Jesus, are in limbo in this southern
African country where many vessels foundered over the centuries on its
treacherous coastline. While Namibia says it needs resources to
preserve, restore and display the trove, some archaeologists believe
political will is lacking and worry that the chance for valuable
research and a tourism bonanza is closing as decay takes its toll.

"It would have been a wonderful bonus for the Namibian government,"
said Dieter Noli, who worked at the Bom Jesus excavation site, which
had been safe from plunderers in a diamond-mining area called the
Sperrgebiet, or "prohibited area" in German.

The significance of the ship "lies in the fact that it is the only one
from that time that is untouched, unlooted," Noli said. "Therefore, it
offers a more complete window into the past."


Plans to open a Bom Jesus museum in the mining town of Oranjemund,
near the shipwreck site, are languishing.

Namibia needs a sponsor to "kick-start" the museum project and
Oranjemund has set aside land for it, said Esther Moombolah-Goagoses,
head of Namibia's national museum, which oversees the shipwreck.

Mowa Eliot, a Namibian maritime archaeologist, said the discovery of
the Bom Jesus was a "turning point" in Namibia's appreciation for
maritime heritage and that the government is committed to conserving
the remains.

Portugal decided not to reclaim possession of the artifacts "as the
country whose flag it was flying under," the Portuguese culture
ministry said in written responses to questions from The Associated
Press. It said Portuguese teams assisted Namibian and Zimbabwean
archaeologists working on the wreck in 2008 and 2009, and that it is
in touch with Namibian authorities about staging a traveling
exhibition of the finds in Windhoek and Portugal.

Portugal plans to hold a conservation and restoration course in
Oranjemund and "is waiting to hear from Namibia about its training
needs," the ministry said.

Since independence from white minority rule in 1990, Namibia has
sought to reinforce national and indigenous culture, highlighting the
long history of the San people as well as the brutal legacy of German
colonizers. At the same time, it receives extensive funding from
Germany and vigorously promotes itself as a destination for
international tourists.

While the fate of the crew of the Bom Jesus is unknown, the ship's
relics include pewter plates, cutlery handles, a brass medical syringe
and goods that were to be traded for spices in India — ingots stamped
with the trident symbol of a German trading house, and elephant ivory
believed to have been transported from West Africa to Lisbon, the
Portuguese capital. Wood planks from the ship's structure and weapon
parts are kept in tanks of water, a conservation process that removes
corrosion-causing salt.

Noli, the archaeologist, said the ingots are "quietly going green and
are literally flaking away" while other materials such as wood and
leather are slowly disintegrating. Three astrolabes, devices used for
navigation, should be flown to Portugal for restoration and research,
Noli said.

In a 2016 report, the Portuguese television channel RTP visited the
Windhoek bank vault in hopes of seeing the stash of gold coins. In one
awkward scene, Namibian officials standing in front of a padlocked
safe box said to contain the gold say they can't open it because there
is a problem with documents.

Alexandre Monteiro, an expert at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa in
Portugal, said Namibia should ask UNESCO, the United Nations cultural
body, to send a technical team to evaluate the artifacts.

"With every passing day, the opportunities we have to stop this
process of degradation are diminishing," he said in the RTP report.
"The Bom Jesus will indeed disappear in a few years' time if nothing
gets done."

___

Associated Press writer Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal contributed.


https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/09/15/world/africa/ap-af-namibia-shipwreck-relics.html?mcubz=0

http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/world/article/In-Namibia-1533-Portuguese-shipwreck-s-relics-12199981.php#photo-14113433

http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/wireStory/namibia-1533-portuguese-shipwrecks-relics-hidden-49866975