They found a wooden anchor that would be the key to recover the ships that Hernán Cortés sank 500 years ago.

Last July, experts from National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), with North American colleagues, began the first season of the underwater archeology project in Villa Rica, in the waters of Veracruz, an initiative that has to locate the ships that sank Hernán Cortés on this coast 499 years ago, and that he has already achieved a first and remarkable discovery.

It is "of a European anchor found 12 meters from the surface, almost covered with marine sediments, which allowed to preserve a good state of conservation, even if it has almost five centuries at this place", informed Roberto Junco, chief of the Underwater Archeology Sub-Directorate (SAS) of INAH, in a statement.

The iron element he measures 2.59 meters long in his cane and keeps his two arms of 33 cm each, as well as its arganeo and part of its wood stock.

A first examination carried out in the mbad spectrometer of the Institute of Physics of UNAM by a team led by Mrs. Corina Solís, wood, with a probability of more than 95%, in a time interval between 1417 and 1492. In parallel, another sample was sent to the Beta Analytic laboratory in the United States, and it was, with an identical probability, between 1450 and 1530.

"Knowing that the tree from which the wood was made belongs to the 15th century, we carried out other badyzes (…) showing that this tree was an oak endemic to the Cantabrian corniche, north of l & # 39; Spain"said Susana Xelhuantzi, head of the INAH's Archaeobotanical Laboratory.

However, "there is still no indication of linking the anchor to one of the 10 presumably sunk vessels of Cortés in 1519, nor to the boats of Pánfilo de Narváez and other Iberian explorers who, since this year, they regularly landed in these waters.", explains INAH.

According to documentary sources, the conquistador has neutralized most of his ships in order to prevent the insubordination of part of his troops and their return to Cuba. The remaining ship of the 11 who integrated his fleet, sent him to Spain under the control of Alonso Hernandez and Francisco de Montejo to deliver gold and get the favor of King Charles I.

On the debate over whether Cortes bored or burned his ships, the archaeologist said that there is no consensus and maybe there is not until a wreck badociated with these 10 ships is found which keeps the indications of one or the other act.

"We believe that the idea that he burned his ships was built by the chroniclers and it's no longer a reference to clbadical antiquity; A specific example is the work Túmulo Imperial, where Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, in the middle of the sixteenth century, describes the burning ships. In navigation, in addition, it is more efficient to drill because an immediate collapse is obtained, however, a torched ship fails to sink and can even be recovered from the hull, "explained Junco.

When we talk about the processes to follow in the anchor, project managers indicated that the fourth and final sample from stocks would be sent to the European For Sea Discovery research projectdirected by spanish Ana Crespo, to search the wood and corroborate its origin.

"Not finding any materials badociated with the anchor makes us wonder how did it end up there or was it abandoned while, we know, it was extremely expensive instruments in their time"commented Dr. Melanie Damour.

Scientists have carried out a reconstruction 3D anchor, which continues under the water.

Roberto Junco concluded in the future: the ideal would be to remove it from the sea and stabilize it to guarantee its conservation. Similarly, we would like the historical object to remain in Villa Rica and become a cultural and tourist attraction of this population of Veracruz, where are also the archaeological area of ​​Quiahuiztlán and the remains of the Villa Rica de Vera Cruz , the first Spanish municipal council in Mesoamerican territory and the second on the American continent, after the Darién, in Panama.