15th-18th centuries (Temporal Keyword)
1-2 (2 Records)
Cambridge University archaeologists have, since 2006, understaken rescue excavations at the historical Portuguese slave transhipment centre of Cidade Velha, Cape Verde. These new World Heritage Site excavations have revealed several structures related to domestic, public and religious functions, such as a church (and its early graveyard), hospital and the town's possible Customs House. From these hundreds of finds were recovered, including glass, metals and pottery. The latter is the most...
Finding Alcatrazes – the lost 15th century settlement on Cape Verde (2013)
The paper will outline recent National Geographic sponsored fieldwork on Cape Verde. The aim of the work was to find and characterise the ’lost’ settlement of Alcatrazes. Textual sources show that Alcatrazes was the centre of the northern captaincy, but it failed and disappears from the records around 1516. Today, it isn't known where exactly the settlement was or why it failed. The aims of the fieldwork are to determine its location and investigating possible reasons for its demise. This, in...