The South West Maritime Archaeological Group
- SWMAG - is a team of amateur divers with a passion for
History from the Sea. Over the years we have discovered a number of historically important sites and recommended their designation under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973.
Gold from the Salcombe Canon Site
Among these is the Tin Ingot Site in the Erme estuary, for which the team received the BSAC Duke of Edinburgh`s Prize in 1993 in recognition of their archaeological work and the historical importance of the site, and the Salcombe Canon Site, where the largest collection of Moroccan gold recovered in Europe was found.
Work on the Salcombe Canon Site continues in order to determine the full extent of the site, and if possible, to identify the nature of the wreck. Perhaps one day we'll be able to tell her story.
Latest Blog
Bronze Age Site
There seems to be a few fanciful stories out there regarding this site; so this is to set the record straight.There is no wreck. The seabed is rocky gullies in about 18m of water. Even in the gullies the sand cover is only 0.5m - 1m deep before you get to rock. This means that over 3,000 years any structure will have been smashed to pieces.There was not a hoard of jewellry. The artefacts were axe heads, rapier blades and fragments yet to be positivley identified. The only jewellry was a single torc.There were rapiers 3,000 years ago. These were the primary weapons of the age. As people from Eastern Europe moved west, they were using swords (the difference is essentially the width and weight of blade). As the guys in the west came up against these heavier weapons they to moved to swords to allow them to compete on equal footing.
