Midas: Museus e Estudos Interdisciplinares (Jul 2023)
A importância de estagiar em Madrid: uma nova visão sobre os museus de arqueologia em Portugal (anos 50 do séc. XX)
Abstract
Between the late 1940s and the 1950s, archaeology in Portugal began to observe a greater internationalization, largely thanks to the granting of scholarships for training abroad. João M. Bairrão Oleiro (1923-2000) and Maria de Lourdes Costa Arthur (1924-2003) are testimony to that, as they specialized in Madrid and Barcelona with some of the most important archaeologists. On their definitive return to Portugal, they expressed similar ideas and scientific procedures, the fruit of their experiences, and the knowledge they gathered from the same mentors. This circumstance contributed in a significant way to the development of archaeology in the country, especially regarding the methodology of fieldwork, but also the conservation and restoration of archaeological materials and their presentation, especially in a museography context, precisely the one we propose to analyse. Based on the comparative scrutiny of primary and secondary sources, some still unpublished, we will identify common projects presented by these (then) two young archaeologists, as well as the origin of the ideas that influenced them. Specifically, we will understand to what extent the personal acquaintances made and the museums visited in Spain contributed to the development of proposals to build a new direction for archaeological museums in Portugal. In this context, we will pay special attention to the Museu Monográfico de Conimbriga (1962), trying, among other aspects, to understand the putative ascendancy exerted on it by the Museo Monografico de Ampurias and other similar Spanish museums visited at the time, mainly by Bairrão Oleiro, confirming the relevance of scientific mobility and the transfer of scientific knowledge in processes of this nature.
Keywords
