Valongo Wharf
Cais do Valongo
Brazil · Rio de Janeiro
In brief
Valongo is a historic wharf where enslaved Africans were landed in Brazil. Excavations in 2011 uncovered the stone paving of the wharf, whose construction began in 1811, and later wharf layers.
What was found?
- 1Valongo stone paving
The pé de moleque-style stone paving in the lowest layer belongs to the original Valongo Wharf. It is direct material evidence of the place where enslaved Africans were brought ashore.
- 2Empress's Wharf layer
The upper construction layers are associated with the Empress's Wharf, built in 1843. They show that the same waterfront area was later used with a different arrangement.
- 3Ramp and steps
The ramp and steps descending to the sea are parts of the stone-paved waterfront arrangement. They show how the wharf provided passage between water and land.
What does it point to?
Valongo is a tangible witness to the forced transportation of enslaved Africans and their arrival in Brazil. The overlapping wharf layers show that the waterfront bearing this painful past was later rearranged.
What did it teach us?
- Revealed the physical remains of the point where forcibly transported people were brought ashore.
- Showed that Valongo Wharf was preserved beneath the layers of the later Empress's Wharf and square.
- Documented that the wharf was built directly on beach sand, following the natural shape of the shore, rather than on fill.
Images
Record
- Culture
- Brazilian colonial and imperial periods; African diaspora
- First modern dig
- 2011
- Team / historical
- Tania Andrade Lima
- Coordinates
- -22.8971°, -43.1874°
Sources
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- Monte Verde Archaeological Site 3,471 km
- —
- —
- 12.000
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