Gribsunden was the flagship of King Hans of Denmark and Norway. In 1495 it caught fire while at anchor off Ronby when the monarch disembarked to meet with the local authorities.

The wreck was discovered by divers in the 1960s, but has only been thoroughly explored in recent years.. Previous dives have brought impressive exhibits.

But an expedition by Brendan Foley, an archaeologist at Lund University, found something particularly unusual at the crash site: well-preserved spices.

“They couldn’t have been so well preserved anywhere else”– Foley argues, explaining this by the special conditions of the Baltic Sea (low salinity, low oxygen content and temperature).

Spices were a luxury item at the time, as only the wealthy could purchase them from markets outside of Europe.

“This is the first time that saffron has been mentioned in archaeological finds. So it’s something unique and special,” says researcher Mikael Larsson from Lund University.

Source: Reuters, APE-MPE.