The Adventures of the Fearless Archaeologists - Crossing Walls in Portuguese Academia
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2023-01-27

Tânia Manuel Casimiro, Joel Santos, & Inês Almendra Castro (NOVA University of Lisbon)

In 1933 The Book Aventuras de João Sem Medo (The Adventures of Fearless John) was 
published in Portugal. The book was published divided into chapters in a magazine intended 
for little kids and bound together more than 30 years later. Its author José Gomes Ferreira was 
one of the most censured authors during the dictatorship and the book is a satirical critique of 
Portuguese society where you can only live in peace if you allow for your head to be chopped 
off. Almost 90 years after it was written and 48 years after its free circulation was allowed, we 
go back to this book where a fearless boy decides to overcome all types of troubles with two 
intentions: first, we will recognize the critique and try to reconstruct the social background of 
this book trying to understand how theoretical archaeology developed in a country where use 
your head was a dangerous business and second, we will debate if the Portuguese 
archaeological community nowadays relates more to John and its adventures or to the society 
this character left behind when he crossed the wall to the other side.