In recent decades, Lisbon has gained prominence in Portuguese nautical archaeology due to the frequent discovery of ships and small boats beneath the landfills that have progressively reclaimed space from the river over the past centuries. These findings have had significant implications for archaeological practice, influencing both research hypotheses and working methodologies.

This article examines riverfront archaeology in Lisbon, exploring the main strategies and methodologies used to record ships and nautical structures, and summarising the principal discoveries made over the past five years. It highlights the Boa Vista 5 ship, dating from the second half of the seventeenth century and the best preserved of all those excavated in Lisbon to date, as well as Bom Sucesso 1, Boa Vista 4, Boa Vista 6, Boa Vista 8, and Boa Vista 9, which are likely to have been small nineteenth-century river vessels.