LISBON, PORTUGAL—CNN reports that the wreckage of a ship thought to have sunk between 1575 and 1625 has been found in 40 feet of water off the coast of Portugal. Chinese ceramics dating to the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, cowrie shells used as slave trade currency in some parts of Africa, and spices have been discovered at the site. The Portuguese coat of arms was emblazoned on the ship’s bronze cannons. “From a conservation perspective, both of the assets and the ship itself, this discovery is of great patrimonial value,” commented Jorge Freire, science director of the excavation project. The ship’s crew may have been traveling to Portugal from India, he explained. Archival research could help the team identify the name of the vessel. To read about a diverse array of artifacts recovered from a seventeenth-century Dutch shipwreck, go to "Global Cargo."