Subway construction works uncover archeological findings of São Paulo’s roots

The construction of a subway line in São Paulo is bringing vestiges of the city’s history back to the surface, helping to tell the story of the metropolis’s industrialization and recall part of its rich — yet overlooked — black history. 

During the excavation works for the new orange line of the São Paulo subway — that will link the center to the northern zone of the city — a total of nine archeological sites have been discovered so far.

“The city itself is an archaeological artifact because it is, in a way, aggregating strata of its own historical formation. From the original peoples to the present day,” says archeologist Rossano Bastos, speaking to The Brazilian Report. Mr. Bastos previously worked at the National Historical Heritage Institute (Iphan). 

“And the subway is a place of archaeological discoveries par excellence, due to the fact that its construction works reach depths that uncover the original traces of the city’s formation,” he adds.

Reports compiled by archeological firm A Lasca, hired by the subway line concessionaire Linha Uni, show that the first two sites were discovered between 2015 and 2016 in the northwestern São Paulo neighborhoods of Freguesia do Ó and Água Branca. 

After subway construction stalled for several years, archaeological monitoring resumed last year and another five sites were found in areas close to the Tietê River in the historically working-class neighborhoods of Lapa and Barra...