The beginning
Since 2006, archaeologists are studying the best harbor of the Algarve for some of the rich naval history of Portugal and the world. Our goal is to understand the amazing technology humans have created to survive in one of the most hostile environments Earth has to offer us and to understand the maritime culture’s level of participation on the shaping of the modern world. George Bass, father of nautical archaeology, states “Long before there were farmers there were sailors”. Sailors have with their blood and lives built the world. Has they explored, traded, fought and died they were carriers of news, of ideas, of new foods and of new technology. Sailors proved that the world was round, they linked earth’s continents, they were the first line of defense for several countries, and they were responsible for the economic prosperity that brought our society to today’s advancement. Even today most of the bulk traffic of the world is under the tender care of sailors. However, because sailors have very little participation on “land life” they have always been seen as second class citizens, and have been neglected in mankind’s tale. In the present time, scientists are trying to understand how did this culture impacted History, how did their technology evolved and what was the extent of their participation on humankind development. Not only to repair a past injustice, but also to plan for a better future. Our contribution to this study comes from understanding the maritime aspects of Lagos and at the same time to find and study shipwrecks that fill the gaps of our current knowledge of shipbuilding. This project was made possible thanks to the Council of Lagos. |
2006 SeasonShip typology of the wrecks sunk in the bay of Lagos
The first season had the main goal of ascertaining the U.C.H. potential of the bay of Lagos.
With that goal in mind was done a bibliographic and ethnographic survey, followed with diving on the "hot spots" The results were staggering, five well documented battles in or around the bay of lagos, 24 documented ship losses across five centuries and 34 suspected U.C.H. sites. The diving follow up located several artefacts and two shipwrecks, LagosA and LagosB |
The full report is available in PDF (Portuguese Language) - Requests by email: [email protected]