Former Portuguese Colonial Arsenal Excavated in India

GOA, INDIA—The Indian Express reports that construction work near the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa uncovered a pile of cannonballs and other colonial-era European artifacts believed to mark the location of a former Portuguese arsenal. The Archaeological Survey of India said that the site was not only used to store weaponry but was part of a broader defensive complex that included a gun foundry, a coin mint, stables, and a naval dockyard. There may have been an Adil Shahi structure existing at the site prior to the Portuguese conquest. When General Afonso de Albuquerque captured the city in 1510, he heavily transformed it, creating an imposing and heavily guarded fortified enclosure within the walled city of Goa itself. At its zenith in the sixteenth century, it may have employed as many as 700 workers. The arsenal eventually shuttered 300 years later, in 1856, due to the decline of Portuguese influence. To read about the cargo of a Portuguese ship that sank in 1533 en route to India, go to "Ship of Ivory."