More than 2,200 artifacts dating from "prehistory to the present day"—including a Roman gold ring and a Bronze Age ax—have been collected in an archaeological prospecting project in Portugal.
The project, which involves the use of metal detectors, identified the artifacts in the dredged sediments of the Arade River and Alvor estuary, located in the Algarve region in the south of the country, Portuguese news agency Lusa reported.
The metallic objects are extremely varied in nature, including everyday items, those used in rituals and instruments related to certain professions. As a collection, the items serve as a "material reflection" of the lives of the people who have inhabited this region, archaeologist Vera Freitas, one of the directors of the project, told Newsweek.
While the original context for the pieces is unknown, it is assumed that some of the objects came from shipwrecks or were dropped from vessels. Others may have originated from populations living on the banks of the river and estuary.
Objects found by the project have been delivered to the Portimão Museum, which is located in a city of the same name that lies adjacent to the Arade River, with the Alvor estuary situated to the west. The most significant and representative of these objects can now be seen as part of an exhibition at the museum called "Stories that the Sea Brings to Us."
"For millennia, the river Arade has been a route between the coast and the interior of the Algarve," the opening text of the exhibition reads. "The silting up of the river made it inevitable to carry out extensive dredging, through which huge quantities of silt and sand were removed and subsequently deposited on the beaches."
"With these submerged sediments also came numerous objects torn from their original context, from prehistoric times to the present day."
Among the objects collected from the sediments are a group of items related to shipbuilding and navigation, including those integrated into boats, such as nails, bolts and caulking lead, as well as various instruments that supported navigation—a notable example being a 16th-17th-century compass, Freitas told Newsweek.
Other objects shed light on how the mouth of the Arade River has served as a gateway for "goods, people and ideas" for thousands of years. These include a nautical probe and amphora (a type of ancient storage vessel) labels from Roman times.
The mouth of the river provided an important natural shelter that various ancient civilizations used as a site for a port.
Another set of objects provide insights into how the harbor of the river was defended and guarded throughout history—among the highlights being a Roman phalera, a sculpted disk that was awarded to soldiers as a kind of medal.
A further group of items shed light on life by the riverside. These pieces relate "to the functioning of the urban settlement in its basic daily tasks, such as the various craftsmen who produced clothing, furniture, weapons, utensils or work tools, as well as construction tasks and food production, from 4,000 years ago to the present day," Freitas said.
These objects include a hairpin, gold ring, basin and mirror from Roman times, as well as artifacts from earlier periods, such as a Bronze Age ax.
Finally, another collection of items consists of objects that had ritual or religious significance. These include a Roman chalice and an Iron Age artifact depicting a bull that was intended as an offering to the gods.
The aim of the exhibition is raise awareness of the Arade River as a "repository of heritage" and the need to safeguard it, according to Freitas.
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