From archaeology to the Museum
MÉRTOLA MUSEUM
A museum is more than a place that displays objects and preserves the memories of a given space and time. It is, above all, an important link with people, while representing their collective identity.
Archaeology comes to life through the objects and scenarios displayed in museum cabinets, where historical and archaeological information is translated into a simple language aimed at passing on knowledge and enriching its audiences at the personal and cultural levels.
This is the Mértola Museum!
The case of Mértola is a national reference for the way it studies, analyses, and presents Heritage. Currently, the Mértola Museum has 14 theme-based units, most of which have archaeological structures that have been preserved on-site, or set up in buildings that stand out for their architecture or importance for local history.
Thereby, the visitor has the opportunity to better understand the territory and its human occupation over time.
From archaeological excavation to the museum
Cláudio Torres1
Palaces and castles, once regarded merely as symbols of decrepit manorial powers, can now be seen as unique elements of the landscape, positive centres for local or regional aggregation and identification. Ruins, spaces and even the rhythmic tone of ephemeral festivities, in danger of survival, often serve as banners of resistance against the seemingly inevitable cultural trivialisation.
And, as it turns out, the archaeological artefact, hidden and forgotten heritage, representing the gestures and voices of those who never had a place in history, following paths often opposed to those suggested by written records, not only opens unexpected doors to the past but also directly touches the soul of small communities, solidifies memories, and may even justify the search for a lost dignity.
The simple archaeological artefact – the poor, chipped pot blackened by fire, the imposing standing stone, the sacred site of all fables, the small chapel of humble miracles – all firmly anchored in a humanised landscape, are the inalienable heritage of the land and the people who work and inhabit it.
1 TORRES, Cláudio, “Da escavação arqueológica ao Museu” in, PALMA, Maria de Fátima e RODRIGUES, Clara (coords.), Mértola – da escavação arqueológica ao Museu, Mértola, Campo Arqueológico de Mértola, 2016, pp. 7-11.
Preserving ancient knowledge
This is the most endangered heritage in the rural world because its custodian, the farmer, is on the verge of extinction. He had the knowledge of the land, knew the ancient paths, the springs of the purest water, the boundary markers of the roads, the best pastures for bees and cattle. He alone was the keeper of collective memory. Only he could pass on this knowledge.
It is our society’s duty to collect, study and try to save this knowledge. The same applies to the gestures and techniques of traditional cooking, where knowledge represents cultural forms uniquely capable of seeking and finding alternative ways of surviving. The skilled hands of a woman adjusting a chickpea pot in the hearth are monuments of rural wisdom, capable of awakening all the fondest memories.
In archaeology, there are also choices. We also believe there are priorities. The rubble of empires, by their very nature, leaves strong, imposing and almost always quite solid traces. This is the case with Roman ruins, where the well-fired terracottas, marble slabs and hard mortars have withstood successive attacks by curious folks. However, in more recent archaeological layers, when these same sites were occupied by farmers during the Islamic period, the fragility of their mud-brick dwellings requires more careful excavation, a different approach to archaeology.
A new perspective on everyday life
A new perspective on the everyday object is needed. The negative space where a wooden post once stood is valued; a simple grape seed or apricot pit is carefully collected. These food leftovers are sometimes the only evidence left to us. Often, they are the necessary heritage to explain a family’s daily life, to justify a community’s existence. Preserving and cherishing their memory can give new hope to those who inhabit the same area today and cultivate the same lands.
Preserving and valuing archaeological artefacts is an operation that spans both the museum’s venue and the time of scientific dissemination. The museographic publication, which is necessarily more pedagogical and therefore more accessible to a non-specialised audience, does not replace the coded, elitist language of scientific journals aimed at other objectives that would otherwise be unattainable.
The museum, as a protected space, a space of memory, a place of sacralisation of the archaeological object, communicates and dialogues naturally with the researcher, the specialist. However, its primary audience is the general public. An audience that is often inattentive and even oblivious to the ciphered and almost biased messages of science, yet always curious about a fact, an object, a novelty presented in clear language, in a simple and accessible way.
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