Ancient anchor found in Yucatan.

[Eugenio Treviño]

https://www.archyde.com/ancient-anchor-found-in-the-port-of-progreso-in-yucatan/
 

A recent discovery in Progreso port in Yucatan, Mexico. 
I hope you like it. 
Best regards to all !

[Louie da fly]

It's good that they've found it, but I wish they wouldn't use the word "ancient" - I got quite excited there for a moment and it turns out to be only a few hundred years old.

 

Steven

[mtaylor]

15 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

It's good that they've found it, but I wish they wouldn't use the word "ancient" - I got quite excited there for a moment and it turns out to be only a few hundred years old.

 

Steven

Depends on how one defines "ancient".  By some standards, many of us here on MSW are ancient.

[Gregory]

Two or three hundred years is pre-historic as far as I'm concerned..

[druxey]

Oh, you youngsters!

[Bob Cleek]

Interesting that this anchor was dug up on land during the remodeling of a boardwalk. Somebody must have hauled it ashore at some time previousl

[Canute]

Seems to be the state of Journalism these days. Sensational words to grab our attention.

[Cathead]

15 hours ago, Bob Cleek said:

Interesting that this anchor was dug up on land during the remodeling of a boardwalk. Somebody must have hauled it ashore at some time previousl

 

Not necessarily. Shorelines change naturally all the time, especially if there's a river mouth nearby dumping sediment into the area. Waterfronts also routinely get filled in by humans to make more usable land. For example, a significant amount of downtown Boston is built on fill and its modern shoreline would be nearly unrecognizable to 18th century residents. So it's pretty easy to imagine the anchor being lost in a harbor area 200 years ago that has since filled in. Reading the Spanish account, this was found along a seafront promenade, so a variety of scenarios are possible, from it being dropped in an area that's since filled in (naturally or anthropogenically), to it being washed ashore and buried by a long-ago hurricane (to which the Yucatan is prone), to even theoretically being abandoned on land as naval stores and buried.

[Bob Cleek]

18 minutes ago, Cathead said:

 

Not necessarily. Shorelines change naturally all the time, especially if there's a river mouth nearby dumping sediment into the area. Waterfronts also routinely get filled in by humans to make more usable land. For example, a significant amount of downtown Boston is built on fill and its modern shoreline would be nearly unrecognizable to 18th century residents. So it's pretty easy to imagine the anchor being lost in a harbor area 200 years ago that has since filled in. Reading the Spanish account, this was found along a seafront promenade, so a variety of scenarios are possible, from it being dropped in an area that's since filled in (naturally or anthropogenically), to it being washed ashore and buried by a long-ago hurricane (to which the Yucatan is prone), to even theoretically being abandoned on land as naval stores and buried.

Quite true. Although anchors, by their nature, usually stay put where they first fell unless moved by human intervention. The other thing is that large anchors like that one which are lost in harbors are usually lost in water shallow enough to have been recovered by free divers at the time they were lost. Iron was a sufficiently precious commodity that a big hunk of it like that would have been worth recovering. An origin from a ship blown ashore and wrecked before the area was settled may be more likely. That could have put it ashore and it could have been covered over by beach sand. I'm very familiar with the archaeological excavations of Gold Rush Era ships which were sank for fill on the shoreline of San Francisco. We don't find much in terms of nautical artifacts. There's often lots of garbage, bottles and china shards, but it seems anything on the ships that was useable was stripped for recycling when they were abandoned.  The same was true for unburied sailing ships left to rot on the mudflats. I suppose we'll have to wait for more information to know anything more about this anchor. 

[Cathead]

I could easily imagine it being a storm-driven wreck. Even if it happened post-settlement, hurricanes can move incredible amounts of sediment, easily covering a large anchor before anyone had the chance to salvage it.

[KBo]

On 3/10/2022 at 6:10 AM, Louie da fly said:

It's good that they've found it, but I wish they wouldn't use the word "ancient" - I got quite excited there for a moment and it turns out to be only a few hundred years old.

 

Steven

Agreed. I was christened in Greensted Church dating from mid 9th c. 

[Louie da fly]

That's mediaeval, not ancient! 

[thibaultron]

Well medieval, is better than highevil, lower class demon and all. Though there could be some philosophical discussion about whether an anchor could really be evil or good. Though, if it is not holding while you are on a lee shore, during a storm, most sailers would tend toward "Evil".

[Louie da fly]

That's rather like the fact that if the household contains the "good scissors" it must also contain the evil scissors . . . 

 

Steven

[liteflight]

ALL the right-handed scissors are Evil.

 

I would consign them to the drawer dedicated to Anoia, patron Goddess of unidentified utensils which jam drawers, but I can’t get it open.  ;-{

[Louie da fly]

Sample prayer to Anoia: "It got INTO the drawer, why the XXX won't it come OUT???"

 

Steven