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Cabo Verde unearths early Portuguese church

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  Cabo Verde unearths early Portuguese church RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2015-11-12 10:04 +0300

#1929 — Cabo Verde unearths early Portuguese church

Is there no archeo group on Usenet?

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http://www.archaeology.org/news/3860-151106-cabo-verde-church

CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND—In the late fifteenth century, the Portuguese 
constructed a church on Santiago Island, one of the ten barren Cabo 
Verde islands located off the West African coast. Eventually, Cabo 
Verde became a hub for the transatlantic slave trade. Archaeologists 
from the University of Cambridge have excavated the structure, thought 
to be the oldest European colonial building discovered in sub-Saharan 
Africa. “We’ve managed to recover the entire footprint-plan of the 
church, including its vestry, side-chapel, and porch, and it now 
presents a really striking monument,” Christopher Evans, director of 
the Cambridge Archaeology Unit, said in a press release. More than 
1,000 people are thought to have been buried in the floor of the church 
by the mid-sixteenth century. Preliminary analysis shows that about 
half of them were African, while the rest came from various places in 
Europe. “From historical texts we have learned about the development of 
a ‘Creole’ society at an early date with land inherited by people of 
mixed race who could also hold official positions. The human remains 
give us the opportunity to test this representation of the first people 
in Cabo Verde,” Evans said. To read about extraordinary African 
structures dating to the same period, go to "Stone Towns of the Swahili 
Coast."

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