Location of Columbus’ Point of Departure Found in Spain

News October 7, 2014

(University of Huelva)
SHARE:
Columbus-Departure-Spain-Identified
(University of Huelva)

HUELVA, SPAIN—Traces of a fifteenth-century pottery and a reef unearthed at Palos de la Frontera in southwestern Spain have led archaeologist Juan Manuel Campos of the University of Huelva to claim he has discovered the exact location of Christopher Columbus’ departure for the New World in 1492. Historical sources describe La Fontanilla port as having a shipyard, a fresh water fountain, a pottery works, and a reef. “The reef was the port’s customs area, and it was the place where Columbus negotiated and made the arrangements necessary for the success of his historic voyage,” Campos told The Latin American Herald Tribune. To read about late medieval Jewish cemeteries in Spain, see ARCHAEOLOGY’s “Spain’s Lost Jewish History.”

 

  • Features September/October 2014

    Erbil Revealed

    How the first excavations in an ancient city are supporting its claim as the oldest continuously inhabited place in the world

    Read Article
    (Courtesy and Copyright Golden Eagle Global, Kurdistan, Iraq)
  • Features September/October 2014

    Castaways

    Illegally enslaved and then marooned on remote Tromelin Island for fifteen years, with only archaeology to tell their story

    Read Article
    (Richard Bouhet/ Getty Images)
  • Letter from the Bronx September/October 2014

    The Past Becomes Present

    A collection of objects left behind in a New York City neighborhood connects students with the lives of people who were contemporary with their great-great-great-grandparents

    Read Article
    (Courtesy Celia J. Bergoffen Ph.D. R.P.A.)
  • Artifacts September/October 2014

    Silver Viking Figurine

    Read Article
    (Courtesy Claus Feveile/Østfyns Museum)