The work will be carried out as part of the PaleoCoast project, which began in 2017 "with an extensive campaign of speleoarchaeological surveys, on land and at sea," the Vila do Bispo City Council, in the district of Faro, said in a statement.

"This multidisciplinary initiative, which crosses the fields of archaeology, geology, speleology, and archaeosciences, both on land and underwater, will allow us to deepen the knowledge acquired in the survey underway since 2014, within the scope of the municipal project 'Archaeological Map of the Municipality of Vila do Bispo'."

The research is being promoted by the municipality, the Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behavior, and the Center for Marine and Environmental Research, both of the University of Algarve, and will allow us to deepen the scientific work carried out by Ricardo Soares, a municipal archaeologist working for the Vila do Bispo Museum - History Barn, in 40 karst cavities, including caves, sinkholes, and shelters, the municipality also stated.