Trabalhos arqueológicos na Cidade Velha (Ribeira Grande de Santiago, Cabo Verde): reflexões sobre um projecto de investigação e divulgação patrimonial

Between 2018 and 2020, archaeological work took place in Cidade Velha, the former capital of Cape Verde, which flourished amid the 16th and 17th centuries as an Atlantic trading post for the slave trade and a support base for the ocean navigation. The excavations focused on two sites: a housing context in one of its main arteries, Rua da Banana, and the other on one of the oldest religious spaces in the archipelago, the church of Nossa Senhora do Rosário. These archaeological interventions made it possible to collect new data on the urbanism and habitat areas of the old city, when it was abandoned in the 18th century, as well as on the configuration of that religious structure. The investigation was linked to the educational program of the Museum of Archaeology, of Cape Verde.