We the undersigned, (archaeology students of several universities, employees of the Instituto Português de Arqueologia, archaeologists, technicians and all those who regard the cultural heritage and in it’s safeguard an important and delicate issue) wish to register our discontent with the President of the Portuguese Republic, Minister of Culture, President of the Portuguese Assembly, and the Chairman of the committee for Culture, Technology and Science following the approval of the law concerning the union between IPA (Portuguese Archaeology Institute) and IPPAR (Portuguese Architectural Patrimony Institute).

Since the criation of IPA, the following areas have seen considerable developments:

- Through several regional extensions

• The National Centre for Nautical and Subaquatic Archaeology (CNANS), which has done much to preserve Portugal’s underwater heritage.
• The National Centre for Rock-Art Studies (CNART), responsible for the identification and study of several important Rock-Art Sites.
• The Côa Valley Archaeological Reserve (PAVC), established to preserve, manage and publish the archaeology of the Coa Valley.
• The Centre for Investigation of Human Palaeoecology and Archaeosciences (CIPA), established to provide a science service for Portuguese archaeology.

We believe that it is necessary to maintain and reinforce the present autonomous structure of Portuguese archaeology, rather than subsume archaeology within a larger goverment bureuacracy.

We appeal for the revocation of the act approving the amalgamation of the IPA and IPPAR union, as in article 2nd, Nr.2, b), chapter II, in the section respecting the extintions of the institutes under the heading of Ministério da Cultura in the motion of law 2/IX (Budget for 2002) recently approved.