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Every year Juan Ramón Muñiz juggles to stay in the profession he loves, that of archaeologist. Every fall he spends a few months digging the secrets of the Neolithic on a hill in Jordan. Then, a few weeks scrutinizing the memory of Panama Viejo, the ruins of the first Spanish port on the American Pacific Coast. The rest of the year is dedicated to teaching, carrying out historical studies on civil works, organizing workshops or archaeological excavations in his homeland, Asturias.

"It is a precarious job for which we had to reinvent ourselves during the 2008 crisis . We had to specialize and combine archeology with other jobs," admits EL MUNDO Muñiz. The economic crisis unleashed by the spread of the coronavirus has now dusted off the bitter memories of a badly wounded guild. Since the state of alarm was decreed last March, the sector has lost 36 million euros , according to a survey signed nationally by the State Platform of Professionals of Archeology and the College of Professionals of Archeology in Madrid. The study puts the damages at 14,500 euros per professional or small company.

64% of the around 2,500 Spanish archaeologists carry out their activity as a freelancer. "The type of client we usually have is that of a private promoter who makes small promotions or that of a public administration," Carlos Caballero, president of the Madrid College of Archeologists, explains to this newspaper. "In the case of small promoters, many of them have decided to stop the promotions they had planned," admits Caballero. Professional archeology, linked to the construction and the lifeline of many, has suffered the effects of paralysis with greater severity than the works themselves. "The type of archeology that most do is monitoring a civil work that is carried out in protected areas of cities and that requires an archaeologist during the works," he explains. The survey highlights that, despite the fact that construction only stopped completely between March 30 and April 9, 55% of those surveyed say that their activity is completely paralyzed and 71% have suffered the definitive cancellation of one or more contracts.

"In our case, we have been unemployed for a month, but there are no new projects. There is also no investment by the administration and the private work is waiting to see what happens," admits from Cádiz, Juan Miguel Pajuelo, one of the founding partners. Tripmilenaria, a company that manages the Gadir site, one of the oldest Phoenician settlements in the West. Its wide catalog of activities includes dissemination through routes through the Andalusian city and the carrying out of archaeological projects. "We also manage a store in which we make archaeological reproductions and we have opened an archaeological food restaurant, dedicated to the reconstruction of food from the Roman era. To survive with archeology it does not come to you, " says Pajuelo, very skeptical of the future that will bequeath the Covid-19. "We fear that what is to come is even worse. This is a very vocational and surviving profession," he adds.

"It seems we don't exist"

The union that has made equilibrium its oxygen ball, deregulated and not professionally recognized by the administrations, is considered abandoned to its fate by the authorities. "Archeology does not even figure in the mentions that the Ministry of Culture has made about the sectors that will receive aid. It seems that we do not exist", denounces Caballero, determined to publicize a key profession in the cultural, tourist and economic and essential revitalization in the pending structure of emptied Spain. The absence of subsidies and economic rescue plans in the sector also extends to the autonomous communities. A bleak picture to which is added the delay in the committed payments - 45% of the surveyed people expect them.

" We generate wealth, knowledge and identity. We fill the museums . We establish spaces for people to do tourism in the future and we create the difference so that other sectors can be created. But, in return, what we receive are problems and an exaggerated bureaucracy" , regrets Pajuelo, worried about the obstacles that complicate a generational replacement among "the guardians of the heritage of all". For Caballero, uncertainty is the state in which archaeologists are submerged. "In 2008 administrations responded by turning off the tap. It seems that now the answer may be different. Depending on how we get out of this current situation, we can rebuild the sector or return to the horrible numbers of a decade ago. What is clear is that This profession is not prepared to go through two such consecutive crises in such a short time. Those of us today are the same ones that survived the one of 2008 ". The professional associations advocate the postponement or cancellation of the debt to the self-employed, tax breaks or the reduction of the cultural VAT, a long-standing claim.

Muñiz has given up on the international excavations until - at the earliest - next spring . He has had to suspend an international congress and a few days of archeology and he plans to finish in July the work interrupted by the pandemic. "I have a work stopped in the cathedral of Oviedo and I take it for granted that there will be no regional subsidies for excavations in summer," he details. "It remains to execute what was in progress because the rest no longer assure the work. We have recommended to the younger people on the team that they look for alternatives. We do not know the future of archeology," he concludes.

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