03 May 2022
Miguel Lago and Rita Dias : ERA - 25 Years of Public Arcaheology
Archaeological activities in Portugal were traditionally undertaken by institutes, museums, municipalities, universities and some associations. Archaeologists were civil servants or professionals from other areas who carried out this activity. The state was responsible for concerns about archaeological assets and in the Portuguese mentality the issues of heritage are still strongly marked by a static attitude.
Changes in environmental and patrimonial legislation, the socio-political repercussions resulting from the discovery of rock art in Côa and the autonomization of archaeology through the creation of IPA caused profound changes in Portuguese archaeology. It was evident that the lack of structures that were operational were inadequate to respond to the requirements that this type of heritage raised in Portuguese society.
In 1997 the company ERA was founded in order to meet the increased demand for archaeological projects with technical-scientific quality and in a constant attitude of innovation. The current talk will cover 25 years of experiences in this area of public arcaheology.
Miguel Lago
Archaeologist. Graduated from the University of Lisbon. He initiated his professional activity in 1988 as a self-employed archaeologist.
In 1997 he was one of the founding partners of ERA Arqueologia, of which he is Managing Director and responsible for the Projects’ Area, coordinating and scientifically directing projects, namely in the Perdigões Archaeological Complex.
Until 2021 he was head of the Commercial Department.
He is very interested in issues related to the professionalization and dignification of Archaeology and, has assumed different responsibilities in associative contexts.
Rita Dias
Archaeologist, PhD, specialized in Zooarchaeology, more specifically in Ichthyological remains and seasonality studies using Sclerochronology and Stable isotopes analysis on fish remains.
She has successfully applied to external funding to pursue training in Scleochronology at the Sclerochronology Laboratory at Bangor University (Wales, UK) and, also attended DEST training ‘Fish Osteology’ given by Prof. Van Neer and his assistant Wim Wouters at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels.
The results of my PhD investigation have so far been published in International Peer Reviewed Journals and hopefully are a contribution for the development of the use of Sclerochronology and Stable Istotopes use in the Archaeological Science through the establishment of suitable methodologies for archaeological remains.
She has established collaboration relationships with researchers from both Portuguese and foreign research centres like the Hercules Laboratory (University of Évora, Portugal) and the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, at the University of Cardiff (Wales, UK).
In the last 3 years, she as joined ERA Arqueologia as a researcher and Project Manager. She has been involved in several archaeological projects throughout the Algarve, in several chronologies and contexts, applying her knowledge in archaeosciences in those projects.
Since 2021 she is Odyssey project manager. Odyssey is a European funded research project with Aveiro and Maia Universities. Odyssey is a remote sensing and Artificial Intelligence project using innovative, non-invasive techniques like aerial LiDAR and Multispectral and Thermic photography and machine and deep learning.
Archaeologist. Graduated from the University of Lisbon. He initiated his professional activity in 1988 as a self-employed archaeologist.
In 1997 he was one of the founding partners of ERA Arqueologia, of which he is Managing Director and responsible for the Projects’ Area, coordinating and scientifically directing projects, namely in the Perdigões Archaeological Complex.
Until 2021 he was head of the Commercial Department.
He is very interested in issues related to the professionalization and dignification of Archaeology and, has assumed different responsibilities in associative contexts.
Rita Dias
Archaeologist, PhD, specialized in Zooarchaeology, more specifically in Ichthyological remains and seasonality studies using Sclerochronology and Stable isotopes analysis on fish remains.
She has successfully applied to external funding to pursue training in Scleochronology at the Sclerochronology Laboratory at Bangor University (Wales, UK) and, also attended DEST training ‘Fish Osteology’ given by Prof. Van Neer and his assistant Wim Wouters at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels.
The results of my PhD investigation have so far been published in International Peer Reviewed Journals and hopefully are a contribution for the development of the use of Sclerochronology and Stable Istotopes use in the Archaeological Science through the establishment of suitable methodologies for archaeological remains.
She has established collaboration relationships with researchers from both Portuguese and foreign research centres like the Hercules Laboratory (University of Évora, Portugal) and the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, at the University of Cardiff (Wales, UK).
In the last 3 years, she as joined ERA Arqueologia as a researcher and Project Manager. She has been involved in several archaeological projects throughout the Algarve, in several chronologies and contexts, applying her knowledge in archaeosciences in those projects.
Since 2021 she is Odyssey project manager. Odyssey is a European funded research project with Aveiro and Maia Universities. Odyssey is a remote sensing and Artificial Intelligence project using innovative, non-invasive techniques like aerial LiDAR and Multispectral and Thermic photography and machine and deep learning.
