Fragments of the Sea: Luso-African Ivories and the Materialisation of Maritimity

What does an archaeology of the sea look like? Is it even possible to study something so vast and ephemeral, ever-shifting and monstrously big? In this article, we argue that it is, if we are willing to render the gigantic small by tracing where the sea intersects with other entities, and to transform the ungraspable into the material by following its footprints. Luso-African ivories, artefacts produced between the 15th and 17th centuries in African contexts but shaped by Portuguese influence, offer one such venue. They embody, enable, influence and are influenced by maritimity, that is, the way human beings interact with the sea. Through their materiality, symbolism, mobility, hybridity, and individual journeys, these ivories allow us to understand how the sea acted and was acted upon, co-constructed new cultural forms, and left its traces. In doing so, this study reframes maritimity not as a fixed identity or cultural trait, but as a shifting constellation of relations among humans, non-humans, and watery spaces. It offers a relational archaeology of the sea, not as a passive backdrop but as an active, shaping entity entangled in the making of the post-medieval world.