A lecture entitled ‘Anchors Through History: The Case of Lagos’ will be given by Joana Baço, an underwater archaeologist, on Tuesday, April 7. Organised by the Algarve Archaeological Association (AAA), the lecture will first be held at the São Brás Museum at 2.30pm and later at the Lagoa library at 6pm.
Can you imagine diving down to the ocean bed and finding anchors that have been on ships coming from Egypt, Africa, Asia or the Mediterranean, knowing that you were touching part of the maritime traffic as early as the late-Roman age? Knowing that Lagos was one of the most dynamic cities in the Portuguese Discoveries and therefore many ships had anchored there, bringing in their exciting cargos from around the world?
Some of that cargo would be the slaves coming out of Africa, others would contain rare and exotic spices from lands far away. Maybe anchors from boats that fed tuna to the Roman soldiers camped nearby.
Joana Baço is one of those fortunate people who has helped bring up these parts of history and has gone on to study them. This has been aided by a grant from the AAA to assist with her M.A. thesis on this very subject.
Attendance costs €6 per person, with money raised going to assist in the work carried out by students and professional archaeologists seeking funding.
Lunch and dinner on the day of the lectures are being arranged. Call 917 267 948 for bookings.
Photo: GABRIEL CLEMENTE
