Accession Number

1986.008.0972

Alternate object names

Jar (Neck);Jar Part

Creation Date

circa 1620

Description

The neck from an earthenware “olive jar” recovered from the wreck of the 1622 galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha is stamped with a conjoined MB. This mark is the personal sigla of Miguel de Munibe, a Peru-based merchant who was sailing on the Atocha with a large cargo of silver. Olive jars (botijas in Spanish) generally carried wine, and this marked jar might have been part of Munibe’s personal cargo and carried his preferred wine. Munibe drowned when the galleon sank.

Exhibition Label

Case Caption (2023):

COUNTING CARGO

Jacopo de Vreder was the silver master aboard the Nuestra Señora de Atocha. It was his job to make certain that the cargo was accurately accounted for, royal duties on it were collected, and that everything, including the passengers and the goods that they were transporting, was safely stowed. His written manifest traveled with the ship, but a copy would sail aboard another vessel, so that his record would get to Spain, even if his ship did not.

De Vreder recorded the silver bars individually and stamped each one with his initial, “V.” Other cargoes were listed by weight.

The inventory included:
Silver Bars – 1038, 30 tons, about 70lbs each
Silver Coins – about 200,000, loaded in chests
Gold Bars, Bits and Discs – 161, with a total weight of 3,462 oz.
Copper Ingots – 582, totaling 15 tons
Silverware – 1,200 lbs.
Tobacco – 525 bales, about 25 tons
Indigo – 350 chests
Object Caption (2023):

Jar Neck
Earthenware (c.1620)
Gift of Jamestown Inc.
1986.008.0972

Marked with a conjoined MB, the personal sigla of Miguel de Munibe, a Peru-based merchant who was sailing on the Atocha with a large cargo of silver. Olive jars generally carried wine, and this marked jar might have been part of Munibe’s personal cargo containing his preferred wine.