Steel Tracks and Copper Wire: 19th-Century Railway and Telegraphy Equipment from Minas Gerais (Brazil)

Summary

In recent years, commercial archaeology (CRM) projects in various parts of the the State of Minas Gerais (Brazil) have revealed important evidence relating to stretches of the now abandoned railways and telegraph lines which crossed the interior of Brazil during the second half of the 19th Century. This paper illustrates the evidence from several key sites and examines how it may be used to address ideas of colonialism, globalisation and international trade. These remains are the traces of an era which is quickly being forgotten, in which new technologies brought into Brazil from the industrial powers of Europe and the United States, opened up the interior of the country. The railways connected formerly isolated regions to a new universe of cultural and economic exchange with the coast of Brazil and thus to the rest of the world. This paper attempts to use the archaeological evidence to examine these themes and relationships.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Welcome to the Machine: Industrial Sites and Communities   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

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PaperId(s): 297