11-19-2010, 03:48 PM
There's way too much history being bandied about here. Am I the only one here who has studied folklore? This whole thing is one of countless variants of the "Lost Dutchman Mine" story. Its salient features are as follows:
1. Amateur doing something else entirely (hunting, prospecting, sightseeing, etc.) stumbles across vast treasure, archaeologically important site, etc. but doesn't understand what he/she has found.
2. Consults with experts and learns that this is, indeed, the Lost Dutchman Mine, the silver hoard of San Saba, the Tomb of Genghis Khan, the original site of Atlantis, etc.
3. Goes back but is unable to relocate the discovery because it has been reburied by an earthquake/tsunami/flood, cordoned off and reburied by the government, etc.
I mean, give me a break! Is the government of Brazil going to obliterate a lucrative tourist site because they think a 2000-year-old shipwreck will somehow invalidate their Portuguese heritage?
1. Amateur doing something else entirely (hunting, prospecting, sightseeing, etc.) stumbles across vast treasure, archaeologically important site, etc. but doesn't understand what he/she has found.
2. Consults with experts and learns that this is, indeed, the Lost Dutchman Mine, the silver hoard of San Saba, the Tomb of Genghis Khan, the original site of Atlantis, etc.
3. Goes back but is unable to relocate the discovery because it has been reburied by an earthquake/tsunami/flood, cordoned off and reburied by the government, etc.
I mean, give me a break! Is the government of Brazil going to obliterate a lucrative tourist site because they think a 2000-year-old shipwreck will somehow invalidate their Portuguese heritage?
Pecunia non olet