Finding Alcatrazes – the lost 15th century settlement on Cape Verde
Author(s): Marie Louise Sorensen; Chris Evans; Richard Newman
Year: 2013
Summary
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 turn, will provide significant insights into the early beginnings of the transatlantic world – which factors influenced whether places succeeded or failed?
The preliminary results of the fieldwork will be discussed including the recording and excavation of a church. On this basis the extent to which such ephemeral remains within a deserted landscape can be used to inform about early plantation projects and early Portuguese colonialism will be considered.
Cite this Record
Finding Alcatrazes – the lost 15th century settlement on Cape Verde. Marie Louise Sorensen, Chris Evans, Richard Newman. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Leicester, England, U.K. 2013 ( tDAR id: 428553)
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Keywords
General
Alcatrazes
•
Cape Verde
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Portuguese settlement.
Geographic Keywords
PORTUGAL
•
Western Europe
Temporal Keywords
15th-18th centuries
Spatial Coverage
min long: -28.549; min lat: 32.638 ; max long: -6.19; max lat: 42.151 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 729