The Brazilian archaeologist Cris Amarante interviewed, in the city of Ílhavo, Portugal, her workmates Portuguese archaeologists, Soraya Sarmiento and Natalia Quitério. They talked about a very interesting subject: Ílhavo, the oldest submerged archaeological site in Portugal.
Cris: So, Natalia and Soraya, how did you find this archeological site?
Soraya: Well, we were working on a perfectly normal day of monitoring, preventive archeology, on a suction dredger. In the meantime, we were dredging to a dump, and some values began to appear, some changes in the dredger, which immediately gave us a first warning – which was later confirmed by Natalia Quitério in the dump. It really started to be noticed that some materials were appearing. As she was the first person to have contact, then I ask her to explain.
Cris: What did you find, Natalia, when you arrived at the dump?
Natalia: I’ll tell the story. I was at the dump, as Soraya already mentioned, on a normal day, and then pieces started to appear. Initially it was a wing, and I thought: strange, it’s so well preserved, and so whole. A few moments passed, other pieces were emerging. Darker, coarser folders, and clearly, looking at them at first glance, they couldn’t be pieces of medieval, modern chronology. But we never thought (and after having communicated with Soraya on the dredger) that they would be pieces that old, so far back. So what did we find at the dump? It was essentially two wings, one of them with nipple decoration; another wing still with parts of the lip; then we have a bowl with dark black paste with dotted decoration; we have other fragments of bulges that have no decoration whatsoever; and also, in addition to ceramics, we also find some lithic materials. Namely flint chips, one brownish and one black.
Relatively, the lithic was also found with a moving one; it had the base, and then we had the normal part where the grains went. So that’s essentially what we found. Of course, we have many other pieces, without any kind of decoration, but these really are the ones that attracted the most attention, and that are worthy of, who knows in the future, being part of a museological exhibition.
Cris: Natalia and Soraya, you are nautical archaeologists, especially Soraya; there’s this special view of a nautical archaeologist too. What’s the difference there to follow a dredger and notice the changes?
Soraya: The work is a little different. When information appears, that material is actually appearing (which we’re not always aware of, even if we see the cutter), the position of the dredge is removed. And this position is the the same of the GPS, and then the dive is done in those places. It is done using the technique of prospecting through radials, which in the end are complete circles around the GPS point. Here, as the water is quite dark due to the characteristic of the ria water, we chose to have two divers in water past two and two meters (it was the most we could have to be able to visualize each other, and at the same time have a field view). And then we were doing the radials every 2 meters up to an extension of 12 meters in length. So, in the various places, in the various dives we made, in 12 meters of radial, we identified the reality that Natalia was saying at the dump. This is important to have confirmation of what the nautical archaeologist on the dump is seeing, and what the nautical archaeologist on the dredge is also seeing, and will then confirm.
Cris: What is the meaning of this finding for Portuguese archeology and for international archeology?
Soraya: From an international point of view and also from a national context, it is very important because it was the first prehistoric site identified in an underwater context. And this is very important for us, because evidently on earth chronologies with 4,000 or 3,000 years are a bit common. We are dredging together the prehistoric coastline 60km from the sea. It wasn’t really a surprise, but we managed to find a place, and that is important. Now, it also has another importance, from a national point of view. As Natalia is here from Ílhavo, she can tell, and say what this really means for the people who live here.
Natalia: Exactly. In addition to being important at the national level, it’s in fact even more important for the people of Ílhavo, because it was something found in their territory, it’s something that had to be immersed in, and it’s something that will build part of their history. We cannot forget that so many years have passed, and this is still here – something extraordinary, which can be shown to the world; we must not keep this knowledge to ourselves, we must spread it to the world.
Cris: It’s a new page for the history of Ílhavo.
Soraya: It’s true.
Cris: This scientific project took place in what context?
Soraya: This project took place in the context of the dredging works of Pólis Litoral, and we’d like to thank our contractor ETERMAR and MMAS for helping us. If it weren’t for this project, if it weren’t for the fact that we are doing this work, it would be impossible (or quite difficult) to find an archaeological site like this; it was found in the context of preventive archeology. I would also like to thank and mention that when the materials appeared and we removed the position of the dredger and, together with Natália, we verified the information necessary to inform our scientific director Tiago Fraga, he gave us a lot of support, took all the necessary steps to information to our heritage department, the contractor, and took all steps to protect the site.
Cris: What are the steps to protect the site? When a site is found under preventive archeology environmental licensing projects, what are the measures after the site is found here in Portugal?
Soraya: Well, the General Heritage Management is advised. But to do that, you have to have information. The scientific director, Tiago Fraga, has to have indications, because we took the position of the dredge. From this position, diving work emerged to confirm the archaeological site. Now, giving this information to the scientific direction, evidently a preliminary report was made which is informed to our tutelage. The site is still under the purview of the scientific direction and the tutelage, who will jointly decide on the site’s preventive measures; there may be excavation, or simply the site will be left and no more dredging here. Basically, these are minimization measures.
Cristiane: Soraya and Natalia, thank you very much for the interview. It was amazing to learn about Ílhavo, the oldest submerged archaeological site in Portugal!
Text by: Cris Amarante & Débora Blair
Translation: Débora Blair
Photo on the top: Paulo Resende. Source: Pixabay
