The Mercedes 2015–2017 Project: Exploration and Excavation of the Wreck Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes

Abstract

Between 2015 and 2017 the National Museum of Underwater Archaeology completed three scientific expeditions to the wreck of the Nuestra Seora de las Mercedes (located in the Gulf of Cdiz, at a depth of over 1 100 m), collaborating with the Spanish Oceanographic Institute, the High Council of Scientific Research, and the Spanish Navy. This institutional coordination and multi-disciplinary collaboration made it possible to carry an archaeological intervention at a very unusual depth of over 1 100 m, counteracting the looting of the wreck by the 'treasure hunter' company Odyssey Marine Exploration in 2007.