A study of gold artifacts recovered from the 1717 pirate shipwreck of the Whydah Gally found that West African gold ranged from 70 to 100 percent purity—consistent with the natural composition of ore from the Ashanti Gold Belt.

Researchers concluded that longstanding European claims that West African traders were adulterating their gold were unfounded.

Co-author of the study Christopher DeCorse, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, along with Tobias Skowronek and Brandon Clifford, analyzed 27 gold artifacts from the Whydah that appeared to be from West Africa. Those objects included fragments of cast artifacts, some of which featured the delicate threadwork that was characteristic of Akan gold.

“These gold artifacts are very, very distinctively 18th-century Akan goldwork,” says DeCorse. The largest artifact was no more than half an inch across. “These are not big pieces,” he says.

Read more in the New York Times article, “Pirate’s Booty Corrects a Myth About West African Gold.”