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of history, and the degree given at the end of study generally combines history and archaeology. Integration with geography and the natural sciences is still very weak, but recent efforts by the central administration are designed to change this situation through the creation of independent research units specifically devoted to the study of archaeology as human ecology. The growing number of professionals, however, is still insufficient to meet the market demand for salvage and contract work. Largely as a result of this, the main weakness of Portuguese archaeology these days is that scientific publications are seriously lagging behind. Yet the fact that the pressing needs of dealing with the material record on the ground fully occupy most professionals also has a positive side effect. Postprocessualism has not really had an impact, and, theoretically, traditional cultural-historical and processual approaches continue to dominate a field in which the main concern for many years to come should continue to be pursuing a thorough, high-quality documentation of a rapidly disappearing empirical record.
House of the Fountains at Conimbriga
(Archivo Iconografico, S.A./CORBIS).