The ancient tunafish village of Barril. Algarve. Awareness for maritime heritage (original) (raw)

Harbour Facilities at the Fish-salting Production Centre of Tróia (Portugal)

ENTRE MARES. Emplazamiento, infraestructuras y organización de los puertos romanos (Hispania Antigua, Serie Arqueológica, 15) , 2023

The site of Tróia is a well-known archaeological site for its outstanding fish-salting production activity. Located in the Sado River estuary and part of Lusitania province, presents, on the shoreline, in the area of the so-called “Porto Romano”, two very thick walls with rounded corners that face the estuary. Is it possible to interpret them as harbour structures? The majority of the fish-salting factories and workshops identified in Tróia extend along the north shore of the archaeological site along c. 1km. Next to this long line of fish-salting infrastructures and other buildings is the so-called “Fundão de Tróia”, a subaquatic area 25 to 28m deep in the south channel of the Sado River estuary, where many vessels and objects were collected, most of them amphorae, suggesting an anchorage area. The shoreline was extensively eroded, but docks or harbour constructions were needed to disembark raw materials and empty containers and embark products for sale. As traditionally viewed, the large walls parallel to the coastline with a building on the rear could be a harbour, but they may also act as a bulwark, shielding against high tides several times a year. This paper presents these masonry structures in the shoreline of Tróia and discuss for the first time the type of harbour infrastructure and port operation of this fluvial-maritime interface.

Castelo Belinho's village (Portimão, Algarve) and the sea. Landscape, resources and symbols

2013

The excavation of an Islamic structure named Castelo Belinho, conducted by the author and Rosa Varela Gomes, in 2004 and 2005, led to the identification of the most Far Southwest Neolithic village, in Western Algarve, dated back to the second half of the 5th millennium BC. The settlement strategy shows localization on high, naturally defended ground, from where a vast area of territory could be controlled, surrounded by productive agricultural lands and pastures, with Mediterranean red soils, located 5 km away from the sea shore, a distance an individual could travel in a day, and not far from two important estuary areas (Arade and Alvor rivers). Longhouses with wooden posts identified by holes in the ground, grain storage pits, cobbled hearths, ritual and funerary pits for inhumation, were the architectural elements found, all presenting a large variety of forms. Twelve 14C determinations indicate a second half of the 5th millennium B.C. settlement. The material culture is composed...

Renewing Terraces and Drystone Walls of Algarvian Barrocal: Cultural and Touristic Values

INCREaSE, 2018

This paper aims to enhance the functions of terraces and drystone walls as structural elements and distinctive factors of the traditional rural zone known as the barrocal of the Algarve, south of Portugal. In fact, such elements define the character of the landscape that forms the background of a traditional touristic region along the coast. The core of this paper will be the knowledge of construction processes, spatial distribution, and hydrological, ecological, economic and social functions, once it is quite necessary for the Algarve region. Some projects and studies have been developed in the Mediterranean context, but there is not enough research on this subject in the south of Portugal. Secondly, the social meaning, or acknowledgement of the landscape characterized by drystone wall structures, will be the key for finding real possibilities of renewing the terraces. Therefore, the landscape will be assumed as a common good. In this subject, we take into account the potential role and sensibility of tourists and resident population. Beyond static patrimonial statutes, we can design some practical possibilities to enhance plastic features and new uses leading to an acknowledgement of the Algarvian drystone wall structure, referred as a part of Mediterranean coastal landscapes. Some examples that can add cultural and touristic value could be: recreation areas for urbanites, new cooperative forms of agriculture, hobby farming, workshops about harvesting traditional products, circuits and pedestrian paths, and interchange with similar Mediterranean regions defining broader circuits.

The harbour installations of the coastal settlements of Boca do Rio and Cerro da Vila (Algarve, Portugal).

In: Urteaga/Pizzo, ENTRE MARES. Emplazamiento, infraestructuras y organización de los puertos romanos, 2024

The maritime industry of the Roman Iberian provinces was located in both urban and highly specialised coastal settlements. Boca do Rio and Cerro da Vila in Portugal (Algarve) are two typical examples of these production sites, where favourable natural conditions were used in a far-seeing manner. In both settlements, harbour installations were added to the production facilities specifically for the pursued economic purposes. They did not serve trade purposes in the wider sense, save a specific and vital role regarding the operation of the production plants to ensure a connection to the immediate production network. In both cases siltation caused major problems in the long-term operation of the ports. Keywords: Fish sauce, garum, maritime economy, aglomeraciones secundarias, geoarchaeology. La industria marítima de las provincias ibéricas romanas se localizaba en asentamientos costeros tanto urbanos como altamente especializados. Boca do Rio y Cerro da Vila, en Portugal (Algarve), son dos ejemplos típicos de estos lugares de producción, en los que las favorables condiciones naturales se aprovechaban con visión de futuro. En ambos asentamientos, las instalaciones portuarias se añadieron a las instalaciones de producción específicamente para los fines económicos perseguidos. No servían a fines comerciales en sentido amplio, salvo un papel específico y vital en relación con el funcionamiento de las plantas de producción para garantizar una conexión con la red de producción inmediata. En ambos casos, la sedimentación causó problemas importantes en el funcionamiento a largo plazo de los puertos. Palabras clave: Salsa de pescado, garum, economía marítima, aglomeraciones secundarias, geoarqueología.

Baetic shipwrecks in the coast of Esposende (North Portugal)

2016

This paper present the results of the study of two roman Baetican shipwrecks and a fishery trap discovered in the coastal zone of Esposende (North Portugal). Those findings were possible due to particular meteorological and hydrological conditions responsible for a strong sand loss on the beach and the subsequent exhumation of former sedimentary deposits.

Vale Boi (Algarve, Portugal) y el Solutrense en el suroeste de la Península Ibérica

Located at the crossroads of two rather different ecological and cultural worlds (Mediterranean Spain and Portuguese Atlantic), the site of Vale Boi (Algarve, Portugal) is a crucial element in understanding the economic and social traits of the communities that inhabited Southwestern Iberia during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Combining an open-air with a rockshelter component, Vale Boi presents a lengthy Solutrean record starting with a Proto-Solutrean phase followed by a set of occupations in the 25 to 20.3 ka cal BP time-span. The very rich and well preserved assemblages proved that the site was treated, throughout, as a seasonal residential camp and although a striking combination of exogenous cultural traits has been identified, regional adaptive idiosyncrasies are quite evident. This paper focuses on the results of the lithics, fauna, beads and portable art analysis from Vale Boi, and their impact on the comprehension of the LGM ecodynamics in Southwestern Iberia. Resumen. Localizado en el marco de dos contextos diferentes desde el punto de vista ecológico y cultural (el Mediterráneo español y el Atlántico portugués), el yacimiento de Vale Boi (Algarve, Portugal) es un lugar fundamental para comprender la organización económica y social de las comunidades que habitaron el sudoeste de la Península Ibérica durante el Último Máximo Glacial (LGM). Situado en una zona en la que se combinan ocupaciones al aire libre y en abrigo, Vale Boi presenta un amplio registro solutrense que comienza con el Proto-Solutrense y a la que le siguen un amplio número de ocupaciones entre el 25 y el 20,3 ka BP. El importante y bien preservado conjunto demuestra que este asentamiento funcionó como un campamento residencia estacional. Aunque han sido identificados diversos caracteres culturales de origen exógeno, son también evidentes los elementos adaptativos idiosincráticos. El presente artículo se centra en los resultados de los análisis del utillaje lítico, la fauna, las cuentas ornamentals y los objetos de arte mueble de Vale Boi y su impacto en la comprensión ecodinámica del LGM en el sudoeste de la Península Ibérica.

Dunefield transgression and the lost fishing settlement of La Barrosa de Doñana

Journal of Coastal Conservation

Considering its etymological meaning, the aim of this work was to identify the location of La Barrosa, a lost fishing settlement located on the dynamic coast of Doñana, and to relate the origin of the name (barrosa = muddy), and the causes of its disappearance to its geomorphological landscape context, tracing its recent evolution over time. Historical documentation and cartography about the coast of Doñana have been analysed to find records on La Barrosa and contrasted with the geomorphological information available for the area. The results have shown that La Barrosa went from being a shallow pond on the coast during the fifteenth century, which mud was used in pottery, to a fishing settlement on the coastline (first quarter of the seventeenth century), to finally disappear in the second half of the seventeenth century. Due to its location, close to the anchorage of the Doñana coastal spit barrier, its origin could be related to the mouth of an old marsh channel that drained the a...