Torre de Palma was first discovered in late February of 1947 by a plowboy working at the Herdade de Torre de Palma (Vaiamonte, Monforte) the farm where the site gets its name. Joaquim Inocência Militão struck the remains of a marble column/base and returned back to the site after the workers’ dinner break to explore the area where the piece was unearthed. The digging conducted by Joaquim is what led to the hole in the lower right hand corner of the panel of the Mosaicos das Muses/Mosaic of the Muses (shown on this page). In an interview from 2005, he admitted that it was not his intention to destroy any part of the site but that he had hoped to discover gold or a coin horde so that he could take care of his family and offer them a better life.
Soon after this discovery, the local manager of the farm contacted the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia’s then director, Manuel Heleno, and the campaigns at this site began sometime in March of 1947 and continued until 1964 with the excavations being conducted during the off-harvest seasons.
In the early 1970’s, Dom Fernando Almeida, another director from the national museum, conducted excavations here in the area of the cemeteries although he never published his findings in detail or the location of the burials that exist on a map published in 1972.
In 1983, Stephanie Maloney and Luz Huffstot began directing a series of campaigns here in the basilica area and later, Maloney continued with the excavation of the pars urbana, pars rustica and the other complexes of the site. This excavation continued on until 2000.
In 2000, Maia Langley began accessioning, cataloging and studying the collections from the excavations conducted by both the Portuguese and American campaigns here and creating a concordance for the known areas. This work is still an ongoing project which is supported by the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia and funded by the non-profit organization PortAnta.
website last updated: August 27, 2007 by Maia Langley
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