The Archaeology of Shore Stranded Shipwrecks of Southern Brazil

Abstract

The Rio Grande do Sul coast, in southern Brazil, is an extensive and scarcely populated sandy shore, nearly 620km long, home of stranded ships representing various periods of navigation in the southwestern Atlantic. Investigations suggest a greater occurrence of maritime accidents in the last 200 years, especially in the 19th century, due to the losses of merchant sailing and steam vessels engaged in newly opened trading routes between Europe, North America, Southern Brazil, and River Plate provinces.

The shipwrecks are found partially buried in the sand, in the surf, near the waterline or near the dunes. The beaches in these areas experience both cyclical (seasonal) and non-cyclical (meteorological) events of natural flooding, burial and exposure, with significant implications for the preservation of the materials studied, as well as for the distribution of artifacts and the interpretation of archaeological data. This dissertation presents our current knowledge regarding stranded shipwrecks in southern Brazil, and discusses its potential contributions to nautical archaeology and shipwreck site formation processes.