Under the guidance of Dr. Kathleen Morrison, Brian Wilson will explore the social and material production of space in Velha Goa during the Portuguese colonial period. Before the Portuguese conquered the city in 1510, Velha Goa was already an important port of trade in South Asia, and it quickly became the administrative and religious capital of the Portuguese Asian Empire. The city sharply declined in the latter half of the 17th century and the capital was eventually moved to Panaji in the 1840's. However, the site remains largely intact and unoccupied today yet almost completely undocumented outside of the well preserved administrative and religious core of the city. It thus provides an ideal location to investigate the production of colonial space in both elite and non-elite contexts.
An underlying goal of the project is to describe how 'space' is conceived and utilized in a complex society and the Velha Goa site, both because of its state of preservation and the accompanying historical documentation provides an excellent context for this. The conclusions which emerge will provide a framework which can be employed in social reconstructions of numerous sites, many prehistoric, where less control is possible.
As the first European power in Asia, the Portuguese opened the door to European socio-economic expansion into the region effectively inaugurating the modern colonial era. Therefore, knowledge of this initial colonial venture is critical to increasing understanding of the broader processes that have shaped the last 500 years of world history. As local practice and global networks continue to become more and more enmeshed today, a greater understanding of the historical development of modern socio-economic and political practices is highly relevant to our contemporary world. To understand these processes in Goa and in other localities, however, scholars must not only grasp global socio-economic and political trends but also understand the specific and historically contingent, local manifestation of these forces. By using archaeological resources, this project adds a much needed material dimension to our knowledge of colonialism, urbanization, and the way these processes are mediated by local social groups.
Mr. Wilson's research will begin the process of documenting this important colonial site through archaeological survey, systematic surface collection, artifact analysis, and historical research. In addition, this research will test the effectiveness of a new low level aerial photography (LLAP) platform using both color and near infrared photography for surveying dense urban environments. The use of affordable LLAP systems has great potential to significantly increase the speed and reduce the costs of traditional archaeological survey, and this project will help to demonstrate the overall usefulness with which this method can be implemented into research designs. In addition, modern industrial, commercial, and agricultural developments are beginning to negatively impact the archaeological site, making the documentation of the site an increasingly urgent matter.
The project will also make significant contributions to archaeological education, training, and knowledge dissemination. It will be carried out in close affiliation with the Archaeological Survey of India, and student volunteers from various universities will participate in the research. Furthermore, the project has a close association with the Goa Heritage Action Group, and it will help their mission to educate the public and to preserve the cultural heritage of Velha Goa. The results of the research will also be disseminated through publication in scholarly journals, participation in conferences, and Wilson's dissertation will be available to the public through UMI.
The project was highly successful in terms of its general intellectual merit through providing a much needed material dimension to our knowledge of colonialism, urbanization, and the way these processes are mediated by local social groups in Goa, India. In particular, the field work portion of this research revealed trends in both material culture and the formation of the urban landscape that reveal the daily lives and the changes in land use by the more subaltern and socially marginalized populations in colonial society. These new insights can challenge the widely accepted historical narrative that claims that Velha Goa was in essence ruined, abandoned, and continued to decline from the late 17th century onwards. The data from this research call into question what classifies as ‘ruination’ and ‘decline’ and how these definitions and the assumptions made by colonial administrators affected past populations living in the area. In addition, the current influx of global capital into the area in the form of tourism and money from mining operations provides a contemporary point of comparison to processes that occurred in the past during the development of the city and concomitant increase in prosperity during earlier colonial times. These issues continue to be highly relevant in Goa due to changing government policy regarding land use and management as well as the administration of the UNESCO world heritage monuments. Modern development initiatives, real estate speculation, and the increasing prosperity from tourism during the last few decades are greatly (and at times negatively) impacting the local landscape in strikingly similar ways to the past. From a practical level the project demonstrated the effectiveness of using low level area photography (LLAP) as a survey technique in archeology. Analysis of infrared photos thus far has unfortunately found it to be somewhat ineffective in terms of revealing any completely unknown structures or other archaeological features due to the highly varied nature of the low lying vegetative regime (where visible) and the dense, varied nature of the tree cover. Some larger landscape features such as moats and fortification walls were, however, more visible with infrared photography. While the location of these features was previously known, it demonstrates the potential usefulness of its continued incorporation into research designs, especially because of the very low cost of modifying digital cameras to shoot in infrared. In addition, LLAP was generally effective as a tool for mapping dense, architectural remains, showing infrastructure such as roads and paths, and revealing connectivity between sites that were otherwise not visible even with high resolution satellite imagery. Overall, LLAP’s usefulness as a supplement to more traditional survey techniques was largely confirmed considering its relatively low initial cost, low operating costs, its low level of required labor, and ease of use. The project had further broad impacts by documenting existing cultural heritage that lies outside of the protected UNESCO zones. This heritage is under increasing threat from real estate developments. The Co-PI was able to not only document and publish these remains in collaboration with local archaeologists from the Archaeological Survey of India, but also presented much of this research to the general public through several open lectures on local heritage and the results of the project. Several local university students also participated in the project gaining valuable knowledge and experience conducting archaeological investigations. A number of conference papers and other publications are currently underway, and the Co-PI has continued his relationship with local NGOs focused on urban planning and heritage management. These organizations are using the projects results and insights to help form recommendations for updated policy initiates being considered by the new state government in regards to cultural resource management and development in Velha Goa and surrounding areas.
