Maritime Cultural Landscape: A New Approach to the Cascais Coastline

Abstract

Portuguese Archaeology only recently began to address the concept of maritime cultural landscape. In this article we intend to analyze the impact that this kind of approach has upon the study of a littoral characterized by a cliffed coast and a seafloor that is morphologically complicated by the estuary influences of the Atlantic Ocean and the Tagus River. The coast of Cascais, located near Lisbon, is the space that we wish to address with this epistemological paradigm. A large spectrum of sites composed of fortresses, lighthouses, harbors, anchorages, and shipwrecks permits a longue duree examination. The relationships and networks between humans and archaeological remains, directly and indirectly linked to the nautical past, are observed diachronically with a focus on the early Modern Period.