Mértola Museum Town: An archaeological project of integrated development

Abstract

Mértola Museum Town is one of the designations used to identify a pioneering experience in the field of archaeological heritage that has been growing in a small countryside village in southern Portugal since the late 1970s. At that time, its goals were not very different from what is now becoming the widespread philosophy in broad sectors of archaeology: to involve the local population with the aim of consolidating its identity and contributing to local development. However, what may seem an unquestionable programmatic postulate emerged in a concrete context and only took hold thanks to the persistence of a group of individual and collective agents who see themselves as part of the local population.