|
|
|
Pepper Wreck Astrolabes in Lisbon's Museu de Marinha
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Since the fall of 2001 part of the most important artifacts recovered in the
Pepper Wreck site have been included in the permanent exhibit of the excelent Portuguese Museu de Marinha. This
representative sample of the artifacts found in the presumable Nossa
Senhora dos Mártires shipwreck site include three astrolabes,
several pots made in China, Japan, and Siam, pewter plates, porcelain, sounding leds, and nautical dividers, among
other.
|
|
The three astrolabes from São Julião da Barra are now part of
the Museu de Marinha collection, the largest in the world with nine maritime astrolabes:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sacramento II
|
Santiago
|
Atocha III
|
Atocha IV
|
Ericeira
|
Aveiro
|
|
|
All astrolabes have a name, either taken from the shipwreck or the place where
they were found. There is a world inventory of shipwrecks at the English National Maritime Museum, unfortunately
not entirely accessible to the public.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The three astrolabes from the Pepper Wreck site, known as São Julião
da Barra I, São Julião da Barra II, and São Julião da Barra III, are now part of the
collection of astrolabes of Lisbon's Museu de Marinha, the largest in the world.
|
|
|
São Julião da Barra I
Diameter: 167 mm;
Thickness: 16 mm (upper end), 18 mm (lower end);
Distance between pinnules: unknown;
Weight: 1,690 gr.
No scale
No marks
Found: 18 June 1996.
|
São Julião da Barra II
Diameter: 173/175 mm;
Thickness: 22 mm (upper end), 20 mm (lower end);
Distance between pinnules: unknown;
Weight: 1,769 gr.
Scale: 90-0-90
No marks
Found: 4 February 1997.
|
São Julião da Barra III
Diameter: 174 mm;
Thickness: 20.3 mm (upper end), 21.4 mm (lower end);
Distance between pinnules: 65 mm;
Weight: 2,843 gr.
Scale: 90-0-90
Marks: "1605," "G," and four "x."
Found: 16 June 1997.
|
Bibliography:
Reis, António Estácio dos, Astrolábios
Náuticos, Lisboa: Inapa, 2002.
Vale, Jose Picas do, "Nautical Astrolabes," in Afonso, Simonetta
Luz, ed., Nossa Senhora dos Mártires, the Last Voyage, Lisbon: Verbo, 1998.
|
|