Europeans spread rumors about degraded gold from their Akan trade partners. A new analysis of artifacts from the “Whydah Gally” shipwreck tells a different story A gold ornament of a lion created by an Akan artist Metropolitan Museum of Art When the Whydah Gally shipwreck was discovered in 1984 off the coast of Cape Cod, scientists and historians studied its artifacts to update historical narratives about 18th-century transatlantic trade. New research about the ship’s bounty, published last month in the journal Heritage Science , corrects what its authors consider an old myth: the belief that West African traders “passed off adulterated materials of lesser value as high-karat gold.” “The accusations of systematic fraud that Europeans wielded for generations to justify their distrust of African traders now confront scientific evidence,” writes Guillermo Carvajal for La Brújula Verde .…