HARBOR ARCHAEOLOGY IN BRAZIL: EVALUATION AND PROPOSITION OF RESEARCH METHODS

• Grant number: 12/10259-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: September 01, 2012
• End date: April 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Archeology - Theory and Methods in Archaeology
• Principal Investigator: Pedro Paulo Abreu Funari
• Grantee: Paulo Fernando Bava de Camargo
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research Project aims to evaluate the methods which are now used in the study of Brazilian harbor areas and also to propose other research methods that would be specific to the Harbor Archaeology in an attempt to consolidate the discipline in Brazil.The project's development is justified by the fact that the country is in an ongoing moment of huge economic vitality, with heavy investments in infrastructure, especially in the construction and remodeling of harbors. However, once the Brazilian Harbor Archaeology is not developed to answer scientific demands of contract and academic researches yet, there are some evidences that the archaeological work conducted in dynamic harbors have been leading to very modest interpretations. This situation would occur because of three main reasons: first, the study of harbor's archaeological sites in Brazil is very recent, dating back to the 1990 decade. Second, these researches have been mainly developed in regions with a low shipping traffic and with specific social and archaeological contexts, which means that their results cannot be automatically applied to the study of more dynamic naval centers. Finally, the scientific basis for Harbor Archaeology's consolidation - Urban and Underwater archaeologies - have only recently gained some substance in Brazil, whereas other Western and Middle Eastern countries have been developing standard methodologies to Harbor Archaeology's researches since World War II.