Lisbon, The Tagus And The Global Navigation

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Lisbon, The Tagus And The Global Navigation," at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Lisbon became a major maritime centre during the Early Modern Age, functioning as a commercial, political and military platform. A considerable number of vessels used in ocean navigation, of different European flags, were common in their ports. Moreover, historical research has revealed a pre-industrial belt along the Tagus River, connected by river navigation.

Archaeological research has revealed this maritime dimension. At the river mouth, several shipwrecks covering the period between the 16th and 20th centuries were documented. Since the 1990s, more or less structured remains of boats and ships, with dates between the 16th and 19th centuries, have frequently been unearthed in the riverine area of Lisbon. The same excavations have revealed several port structures, piers, jetties and shipyards. On the south bank, pottery kilns, biscuit ovens and tidal mills were studied. This session provides contributions from terrestrial and underwater archeology on these topics.