Page 221 - Vol_2_Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaport Trade

12 Clues to Internationalism in the Manila Galleon Wreck … 193

Fig. 12.3 The investigation of the remote site on the west coast of Baja California in 1999

about thirty meters long, had a cargo capacity of four or !ve hundred tons, carried
six sails which drove her across the ocean at an average speed of three nautical
miles (5 km) per hour, and was crewed by a mixed group of perhaps a hundred
men: Spaniards, Mexicans, Filipinos, and perhaps other nationalities, as suggested
by the artifacts on board.
In June of 1999, our team of specialists in many subjects was led to the very
remote site on the west coast of Baja California by the beachcombers. We
approached by sea in small Zodiac boats (Fig. 12.3), landed on an unnamed beach,
and began to explore a desert shore characterized by low dunes, sand flats covered
with millions of shells, and high dunes up to !fteen meters tall, with sand flats
among them (Fig. 12.4). In all those environments, for a distance of 11 km, there
are porcelain sherds (Fig. 12.5).

12.2 Chronology

Dating the porcelains proved to be fairly easy because Clarance Shangraw, the
Senior Curator of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, and I had created a chart
of Kraak plate rim designs based on dated shipwreck !nds some years earlier. This
2
chart turned into a chronology from the late 1570s through the 1640s. Our
porcelain !nds in the desert placed the shipwreck into the mid- through late-1570s.

2
Kraak Plate Design Sequence. See Von der Porten (2016) and Shangraw and Von der Porten
(1997).