A Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (FCUL), através do Centro de Geologia e do Departamento de Geologia e o Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA), estão a organizar em Lisboa a VII edição Simpósio sobre a Margem Ibérica Atlântica, convidando à participação de todos os interessados nesta região do Atlântico (site internet: http://www.fc.ul.pt/pt/conferencia/mia-2012 ).
Esta edição do Simpósio sobre a Margem Ibérica Atlântica associa outras reuniões internacionais com objectivos comuns: a reunião ibérica do IGBP e a reunião dos Grupos Português e Espanhol do Projecto UNESCO IGCP 588 (Preparing for Coastal Change) e do Working Group Long-Term Sea-level Records (Commision of Coastal and Marine Processes) da INQUA.
O Simpósio decorrerá entre 16 e 20 de Dezembro de 2012, na Faculdade de Ciências de Lisboa.
This film shows the paddles being cleaned at the Moesgård Museum. The film has no sound.
Stone Age people didn't only use tools made out of rock – they also used tools made from wood and antlers, according to a new discovery in Danish waters.
The Stone Age settlement has been hidden under water and a thick layer of sand over millennia. But over the past few years, sea currents have exposed it by pushing the seabed aside.
Settlement known for decades
The village lies deep underwater by the coast in Horsens Fjord, Denmark.
Archaeologists have known about the site since the '70s, but due to the inaccessibility, it wasn't until a recent trip to the site by an archaeology student at Aarhus University that something started to stir.
Peter Alstrup went to his nearby beach to trace old footsteps from when he used to go to the beach with his parents. As part of his frequent swims along the coast back then, he had built himself a glass box through which he could study the seabed in great detail from the surface.
He had heard about an area where a Stone Age village was supposed to be buried. He often visited this area and found flint flakes from ancient times, and this is what made him want to go on and become an archaeologist.
The 6,000-year-old paddles were found exposed on the seabed. (Photo: Claus Skriver)
Revisiting the underwater playground
More than a decade later, in the summer of 2010, Astrup went back to the beach, this time wearing a diving suit.
He noticed straight away that the seabed looked different, with most of the sand vanished from the subsurface. This enabled him to spot some beautifully shaped pieces of wood, which at some point had clearly been crafted by humans.
“As soon as I got home, I called up my local museum to tell them about what I had found. We agreed that I should go down and pick up few items and bring them in,” says Astrup, who is currently a PhD student of archaeology at Aarhus University.
He brought back with him undamaged antler axes, wooden knife handles and the skull of a dog.
When the archaeologists at the museum saw this, they realised they had run into something unique. They quickly assembled a group of archaeologists from the area who rushed into their digging.
The paddles had black patterns drawn on them. (Photo: Moesgård Museum)
Ideal location for excavation site
In many ways the area is ideally placed for archaeological excavation. Located just off the coast, it's neatly hidden away from all beach activities. But since it lies in shallow waters, excavation is relatively easy, regardless of whether the archaeologists wish to dig into the underground, chart the area or simply pick up objects from the bottom of the sea.
They looked specifically in a certain sediment layer under the sand, characterised by its low oxygen levels and its ability to preserve organic materials.
Here they found objects that revealed an industrious community of hunter-gatherers. These included beautifully ornamented antler axes with well-preserved wooden shafts and a highly surprising find of a pair of wooden rowing paddles, richly decorated with black patterns.
Anoxic sediment preserves wood
The archaeologists also found a 1.6-metre high wooden bow of a hitherto unknown type. These bows have probably been used some 6,000 years ago, when large parts of Denmark were covered in woods, making it an ideal hunting ground.
In addition, they also found a piece of string made out of bast fibres, which was as thick as a woollen thread. These strings are thought to have been used for frapping tools.
Excavation leader Claus Skriver of the Moesgård Museum explains what makes these finds so special:
“When we excavate settlements on land we only find tools of stone, since all organic matter has long since rotted away. This settlement is unique because we also found well-preserved objects made out of wood and antlers, and that gives a much more nuanced insight into how people lived back then.”
Axes with well-preserved wooden handles were also found at the bottom.
(Photo: Claus Skriver)
Seasonal or permanent residence?
The excavation can also help the researchers find answers to some great questions such as whether the settlement was being used throughout the year or whether it was a seasonal dwelling place where people lived over certain periods of the year.
The archaeologists found the answer looking through their bore holes through the organic silt. Here they found an abundance of fish bones, which are remnants from the residents’ meals. They also found well-preserved seeds and hazelnut shells.
There are examples of Stone Age people moving into certain sites when, for instance, fishing prospects looked good, when it was colder than usual or when the surrounding woods were crowded with herds of animals.
“With all these bones, we can now outline in detail what these people lived on and also which periods of the year they lived there,” says Skriver.
Specifying which parts of the year the site was inhabited is a demanding task, but the new finds make it relatively easy to date the village.
“We’re trying our hardest to date the settlement using the Carbon-14 method,” says the researcher. “But the design of the site suggests that it’s from the middle or late Ertebølle period [see factbox]. The oldest section of the site was habited some 6,700 years ago.”
A sea of objects left to explore
The excavations are currently limited to only a few square metres of seabed.
Most of the objects discovered so far have come loose from the subsurface as a result of ocean currents. This means that the archaeologists manage to find new and exciting objects every time they visit the site.
The objects need to be picked up carefully. Wood that has been in water for long periods has had all its cell membranes dissolved. So when the wood dries up, there is nothing left to hold it together, and after only a few hours in dry air, the wood starts to crumble and fall apart.
Settlement known internationally
Peter Alstrup has taken part in all the excavations so far and is excited about the next visit to the site:
“The settlement is no longer something I can keep to myself – now I’m just happy to share it with others,” he says.
“Thanks to our excavations, this site has now entered the top 10 list of the best archaeological finds in Denmark in 2011 and is already a much discussed topic in international archaeological circles.”
O canhão encontrado em janeiro de 2010 no norte da Austrália, que se supôs ser do século XVI e de origem portuguesa, "não o é", disse hoje à Lusa um arqueólogo da Universidade Nova de Lisboa (UNL).
Alexandre Monteiro, arqueólogo náutico e subaquático do Instituto de Arqueologia e Paleociências da UNL, explicou que se trata de "um canhão cópia dos portugueses, mas de fabrico asiático do século XVII ou XVIII, na medida em que após a chegada dos portugueses ao Extremo Oriente, e depois de terem introduzido as armas de fogo, muitas foram as fundições que começaram a produzir modelos idênticos, mas de deficiente qualidade".
"Não há um escudo português ou brasão de armas, nem inserções de peso", explicou o cientista que afirmou poder tratar-se de um canhão de fabrico "malaio ou indonésio".
"Depois da introdução das armas de fogo naquela região do globo pelos portugueses, muitas foram as cópias - tecnologicamente mais fracas, claro está -, as designadas lantakas", explicou o Alexandre Monteiro.
O arqueólogo sugeriu que o canhão encontrado por Christopher, de 13 anos, numa praia do norte da Austrália, e sobre qual surgiu notícia em janeiro deste ano, terá sido "deixado na costa australiana por pescadores chineses de pepinos do mar [invertebrado marinho], que o usavam em sua defesa".
Os especialistas australianos e portugueses realizaram vários testes de autenticidade ao achado e concluíram que "não é de origem portuguesa, nem do século XVI, mas sim uma cópia das muitas fundidas na região, que seguiam o modelo das armas portuguesas".
Há muito que os historiadores gizam a hipótese de os navegadores portugueses terem alcançado as costas australianas no século XVI, antes da chegada oficial em 1606 do navio holandês Duyfken, a mando de Willen Jansz.
Caso este canhão fosse de facto português e do século XVI era uma prova material da primazia portuguesa na descoberta do continente australiano.
Quando foi noticiado o achado, o historiador Francisco Contente Domingues disse à Lusa que era "muito provável" que o canhão fosse de facto português.
"Não tenho dúvidas de que os navios portugueses possam ter chegado à costa Norte da Austrália no século XVI", disse o historiador, especialista na História das navegações e da expansão europeia dos séculos XV-XVII, que citou uma tese segundo a qual duas ilhas situadas a Norte daquele continente foram descobertas por portugueses.
"Os portugueses andaram pela Insulíndia [zona entre o Japão e o Norte da Austrália] e terão de facto aportado à Austrália e entrado em contacto com as populações", acrescentou na altura.
Mais de um século depois da chegada do navio neerlandês, em 1770, o capitão James Cook reclamou a costa oriental da Austrália para a Coroa britânica sob o pretexto jurídico de ser "terra de ninguém", tendo permanecido uma colónia inglesa até 1901. Actualmente, a Austrália é membro da Commomwealth, sendo Isabel II de Inglaterra, formalmente, a sua Chefe de Estado.
SPLASHCOS is a European research network that operates under the COST scheme (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).
COST Actions are intended to facilitate coordination of research activities and information gathering across national and disciplinary boundaries, and to stimulate new ideas and collaborations.
Funds are provided for meetings, workshops, training activities, and dissemination of results. During the course of the Action we expect to collate and publicise information on a variety of topics, and to develop ideas for new collaborative research programmes including new fieldwork investigations, but the COST scheme does not provide the funds for these programmes, which have to be sought from other European funding schemes, or national funding agencies.
The main objectives of SPLASHCOS are to promote research on the investigation, interpretation and management of the drowned landscapes and prehistoric archaeology of the European continental shelf, to create a structure for the development of new interdisciplinary and international research proposals, and to provide guidance to heritage professionals, government agencies, commercial organisations, policy makers and a wider public on the relevance of underwater research to a deeper understanding of European history, reconstructions of palaeoclimate and sea-level change, and the social relevance and likely future impact of these changes.
European continental shelf with maximum extent in red of exposed land 20,000 years ago
The scope of SPLASHCOS extends to all European coastal waters, and in some cases beyond. The work of the Action is overseen by a Management Committee (MC), with two representatives from each participating country (currently 19 European States), which normally meets twice a year.
The detailed work is undertaken by four Working Groups (WG), comprising members of the MC, and additional members recruited for their particular scientific or geographical expertise. We are keen to hear from new members who think they have a useful contribution to make to the WGs, especially Early Stage Researchers (pre-doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers within 8 years of their PhD). See the WG page for further details
Meetings and discussion forums are normally restricted to the Action membership, but workshops or conferences open to the wider community will be organised from time to time.
