2 - Paleontology and archaeology

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="181d8c00dduajq.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="id500.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Geography"><U>Geography</U></A></div> <div> <B>2 - Paleontology and archaeology</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id502.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="3 The climate of the Estuary "><U>3 - The climate of the Estuary </U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id580.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="4 Navigation restrictions in the protec"><U>4 - Navigation restrictions in the protected areas</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id583.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="5 Free height for navigation under the "><U>5 - Free height for navigation under the bridges</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id586.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="6 Routes and Destinations"><U>6 - Routes and Destinations</U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="6" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="151" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#FFFF00" BORDERCOLORDARK="#999999" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#0099CC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 99 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id498.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="3 Sado Estuary"><U><IMG SRC="433805d0.png" border=0 width="128" height="93" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFF99" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#0066FF" FACE="Arial" ><B> Roteiros Fluviais      PORTUGAL      River Pilots </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#333399" FACE="Arial" >   </FONT>  |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE=" Roteiros Fluviais PORTUGAL Ri"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> back to  <A HREF="id498.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="3 Sado Estuary"><U><B>3 - Sado Estuary</B></U></A></div> <div> 2 - Paleontology and archaeology</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="758" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFF99 > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFF99 HEIGHT= 3572 WIDTH="758"><div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="733" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 1278 WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="325a26a0.png" border=0 width="162" height="106" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <IMG SRC="429a1660.png" border=0 width="161" height="102" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <IMG SRC="42aa2760.png" border=0 width="162" height="118" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <IMG SRC="42ba2660.png" border=0 width="162" height="102" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <IMG SRC="42ca26c0.png" border=0 width="162" height="108" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <IMG SRC="42da2660.png" border=0 width="162" height="102" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Geo-evolution of the estuaries, for 30 million years.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="4a0a17a0.png" border=0 width="161" height="122" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="4a2a0790.png" border=0 width="160" height="121" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="4a4a0790.png" border=0 width="160" height="121" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="4a6a0790.png" border=0 width="160" height="121" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Geo-evolution of the estuaries, for 10 000 years.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="557"><bR> <div> The Sado estuary was part f the Tejo estuary up to two million years ago, as show the common palaeontological evidences.</div> <div> The sea periodically occupied vast adjacent areas during the Palaeozoic Era (that stared 2.500 million years ago), while Europe separated from America and the volcanic massif was consolidated on the North margin of the river Tejo.There are plenty of gastropods, mollusc and ammonite fossils of this era.</div> <div> In the Mesozoic era (started 225 million years ago) the Iberian Peninsula was covered by salty and warm lakes and, at the end, Africa was still separating from South America. At the end of this Era, the great saurian were extinct (evidences can be found in Arrábida). Dinosaurs were abundant in the Sado and Tejo estuaries region, proving the existence of luxurious vegetation. </div> <div>  In the Cainozoic Era (that begun 65 million years ago) they were important forward and backward movements of the sea, related to the volcanic activity and glaciations that covered Europe periodically, with a big impact in the formation of hydrographical basins and in soil erosion. Sharks, mastodons, Miocene crocodiles and Pliocene Elephants inhabited the estuary and adjacent zones.</div> <div> In the Superior Miocene that started 10 million years ago, with the formation of the Arrábida Mountain, the river Sado curves to West and definitely separates from the river Tejo.</div> <div> The Sado and Tejo estuaries didn't only share geology and palaeontology, but due to their proximity they also have archaeological evidences of a common history, that sometimes in entwined due, in part, to the rivers that join them like Cala Real, Judeu and Coina.</div> <div> Nowadays the term “Setúbal Peninsula” is much in use not only for geographical reasons but also for cultural and historical affinities.</div> <div> This peninsula, drawn by the two great estuaries, Tejo and Sado, is subject today to a big urban pressure that threatens the Parks and Natural Reserve that surround it.</div> <div> The human occupation of the Tejo and Sado estuaries goes back to the Palaeolithic, as you can see at the stations of the Montijo Air Force Base, Cascalheira and Alto da Pacheca in Alcochete. The Muge Mesolithic Shell Beds, that area known by their vast deposits of shells, are among the most important in the world, with a record of over three hundred skeletons 6.000 years old, some in a good state of conservation. They already were a people of sedentary habits, with social and funerary practices.</div> <div> There are remains of the Palaeolithic on the North margin f the Sado estuary and of the Neolithic on the South margins, in the resting-places of Celeiro Velho, Malhada Alta, Possanco, Pontal Barrosinha and Sapalinho and on the North margin at Rua General Daniel de Sousa / Rua Frei António das Chagas (Setúbal), Mitrena and Faralhão.</div> <div> Of the Megalithic culture, thought to have been born in the Iberian Peninsula and then spread throughout Europe, we have to refer the artificial caves, excavated during the Calcolithic era of witch the Quinta do Anjo Caves, in Palmela and the Canha dolmen are fine examples.</div> <div> The natural characteristics of the estuary were then a lot different without the dune cord of Tróia, that was an island, and the Comporta zone integrated in a lagoon system open to the sea, that brought it special conditions of fishing productivity. </div> <div> These extraordinary estuarial conditions allowed the farming revolution to grow everywhere and the fist Big Civilization Wave with the progressive sedentary habits and demographic growth, based mainly on a fishing / recollecting economy, complemented with farming and cattle breeding, already in use at that time.</div> <div> The Neolithic resting-places in this zone (Celeiro Velho, Malhada Alta, Possanco, Pontal, Barrosinha and Sapalinho), show levels of Shell Beds and artefacts that allow us to establish the evolution since the fist human fixation in the zone (Pontal), up to the beginning of the Bronze Age, when the agricultural, herd keeping and commerce development increased.  War generalization that forced the Calcolithic populations to exchange their low places for high zones with good natural defence conditions, may be the origin of the abandonment of the zone on behalf of the human group, hence the lack of posterior archaeological residues. </div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> The first boats were fluctuating tree trunks to which they hung on to, then they made pirogues and first with their hands and then with other instruments they learnt to impel them and to use the wind, and later ventured out to sea.</div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="723" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 279 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="4a87bfb0.png" border=0 width="379" height="251" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="255"><bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Figure 7 </B>- Phoenician commercial boat. Recreation by the author from a photograph of an Egyptian low relief dated about 1400 a.C., from the Kenamon tomb, in Tebas, that shows Phoenician boats unloading in and Egyptian port.</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> Estuaries were the privileged fixation places of populations, forming true commercial centres sought out by the ships that crossed all the Mediterranean for commercial exchanges, while they spread civilization modes that later historians called Mediterraneanization.</div> <div> It was about 3.100 years ago then the first vestiges of Phoenicians appeared in the costal regions of the Iberian Peninsula that came from the other side of the Mediterranean, in ships that were up to 30 meters long.</div> <div> They came in search of gold, copper and iron, and started this Age in the Peninsula.</div> <div> The Sídon and Tiro naval shipyards built the best ships of that age, with the famous Lebanon cedar-wood that were over 30 meters long.</div> <div> This famous very resistant and elastic wood, made it possible to build big sea ships, without the need to use numerous articulations that made them weaker. </div> <div> Its use led to the maritime commerce that the Phoenicians so well profited from. The Keops funerary barge, from the 3rd millennium a.C., that is exhibited in the pyramid museum, in Cairo, was made with this precious wood. </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="726" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 203 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="4a922c50.png" border=0 width="290" height="197" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="346"><bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>                       Keops solar boat.</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> Although we know that it only had a ritual finality, it doesn't cease to impress us by its dimensions and wood quality of which it was made five thousand years ago.</div> <div> Egyptian pharaohs ordered their boats and even expeditions from the Phoenicians, like the ones they made to the Punt region (Somalia). The most famous one was the one made by Queen Hatshepsut, in the 15<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond" >th</FONT> century AC, documented on her funerary temple, and later the circum-navigation of Africa by Necho II, in the 7<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond" >th</FONT> century AC.</div> <div> Antique Greek probably had, in the Sado mouth, a commercial post during some time, but the conflicts with the Cartages, all over the Mediterranean, led them without doubt to abandon the area due to the greater power of Cartago in that age.</div> <div> The Abul archaeological station proves the Phoenician presence. Here there was a trading post and it was certainly the fist oceanic port of the Western Coast of Europe that commercialized with the Mediterranean.</div> <div> After followed the Roman period, between the 2nd century AC and the 7th century DC, with the foundation of a powerful empire based on bellicose force, that colonized a big part of Europe and all the Mediterranean. Its naval power destroyed all the Phoenician resistance. Bridges and roads were built that allowed a fast access to all the points in the empire, and an armed naval force that protected the intense maritime commerce of an ever present piracy.</div> <div> The Sado, which served as a penetration way towards the interior, is then a roman course and ends up having an important role in the territorial structuring of the Iberian Peninsula. It was also a development post, determining the localization of several conglomerates, allowing during centuries for the connection of the coast to the inland, the enlargement of economy and for territorial consolidation.</div> <div>  The archaeological stations of Tróia, Cetóbriga and Abul with their ports prove the importance of commerce in this age.</div> <div> The marginal salt fields led to the fishing industry and its exportation to faraway places. The archaeological remains give us an image of what estuary margins functional specialization must have been, with amphorae being produced in the installations at Herdade do Pinheiro, Abul and Cetóbriga. During the Roman Empire, ports were built for navigation between the main towns, as a complement to roman roads, forming and economic basin that crossed all the Alentejo to the Algarve.</div> <div> Through the Sado the minerals from the Alentejo were drained for the florescent Mediterranean Iron age, salt and fish under the form of preserves, allowed for more daring navigations, as well as cereals from the fertile plains.</div> <div> The following German invasions weakened the local defences and opened the doors to Arab colonisation coming from the Maghreb that, in three years, covered almost all the Peninsula in the 7th century.</div> <div> After four centuries of peaceful cohabitation, the Christian reconquest begun, that in the Peninsula lasted almost three centuries, to then finish at the end of the 15<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond" >th</FONT> century.</div> <div> In the lower Sado we have to point out the navigability up to Alcácer do Sal, a true strong post that would reach a great vigour in the Arab dominium period.</div> <div> With the Moslem empire, centuries 7-8, the river regularization works and the energy profit with windmills continued and the riverside towns were fortified against frequent enemy attacks where Alcácer do Sal, Setúbal and Sesimbra dominated.</div> <div> In the 12th century, with the Christian reconquest, riverside town fortifications are reinforced to stop the covetousness of the neighbouring country and the Arab reconquest.In the fist millennium of the Christian Era, the Roman colonization left us a network of roads, a culture, a language, the roman Law and the imperial dream, but is was the Arabs that legated an advanced scientific knowledge of medicine, cartography and astronomy that made the Discovery Age possible.</div> <div>  The Arabs were a churn people between West and East. They had developed an intense commerce, taking artefacts and technologies from one place to the other, at the same time as they developed in their midst a pragmatic scientific knowledge, less philosophic that their Greek and roman predecessors and more technological, in chemistry, medicine, astronomy, cartography and nautical science, that allowed them and economic supremacy in the Mediterranean and the Indic Ocean up to the arrival of the Portuguese in the 15<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond" >th</FONT> century.</div> <div> This scientific knowledge was used by the Portuguese in their discoveries, and the Sado estuary become, although in second place to the Tagus, the epicentre of the colonial empire that was created.</div> <div> The Christian ideal that led to the end of the pacific cohabitation between the two religions also steered the Discoveries of the two peninsular people that, at a certain time, shared the World between the two greatest colonial empires ever, where the port of Setúbal had an important role. John the 2<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond" >nd</FONT>, that prepared the discovery of the maritime way to India and that despised Columbus's lunatic ideas, didn't live to witness the results of his preparations. </div> <div> Navigation beyond estuarial limits in Alcácer do Sal is only possible up to Porto do Rei, 16 miles upriver. </div> <div> The Sado estuary always stayed navigable and was the principal factor of the development of riverside zones.</div> <div> Its ecosystem integrates and enormous nursery of fish, crustaceous and molluscs, that contribute for the fishing renovation of the coast.</div> <div> Oysters that disappeared from the river Tejo due to pollution, can still be found in the Sado estuary and were from here exported to all Europe since immemorial times. In its extended marsh, many thousand migratory and resident birds look for food.</div> <div> In the 15th century it is in the Sado and Tejo estuaries that the Third and Last Great Civilization Wave started and the Setúbal peninsula became one of the most industrial zones of the country.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>