Women Archaeologists’ Contributions to Uncovering the Pre- and Proto-Historical Occupation of Northern Portugal

Abstract

The history of women archaeologists in Portugal and their contribution to the development of the discipline is yet to be studied. However, in recent years, some articles published in Portugal have contributed to the construction of this history. Some of these are from the year 2020, and although the coronavirus pandemic has affected the progress of these investigations, especially regarding fieldwork. Generally, these are quantitative studies based on the number of publications by women archaeologists and their references and interviews in newspapers. These articles, which require significant time for database analysis, have not yet explained the existing gaps. It is not the scope of this paper to pursue this quantitative scope; instead, it intends to conduct a qualitative analysis of the contribution of women archaeologists to the development of prehistoric studies in Northern Portugal. To achieve this goal, we are focusing on analysing the doctoral theses developed by women concerning pre- and proto-historic archaeology in Northern Portugal. With this evaluation, we intend to contribute to the history of Portuguese women’s archaeology and, at the same time, highlight their methodological and conceptual achievements.

Keywords

• women archaeologists
• Northern Portugal
• doctoral theses
• prehistory
• proto-history