Shipwreck cargo reveals 400-year-old global trade secrets

An analysis of cargo from one of Australia's best-known shipwrecks uncovers complex global trade routes from nearly 400 years ago.

Researchers at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, analyzed stone blocks, bricks and ballast from Batavia, a Dutch East India company ship that sunk in 1629. They found that the materials came from multiple quarry sources in Europe, not just one site as previously assumed.

Stern section of the Batavia hull and gateway replica. Vunz/Wikimedia Few episodes occupy a darker place in maritime history than the wreck of the Batavia. Wrecked off the mid-west coast of Western Australia in June 1629, 159 years before the First Fleet entered Sydney Harbour, the disaster offers a stark alternative t