Joaquina Soares with Carlos Tavares da Silva were the first professional archaeologists in Portugal, Gabinete da Área de Sines, 1972-1988. Joaquina Soares´s career in archaeology, spanning more than four decades, correspond to a changing period of Portuguese archaeology (institutionalization process) mostly characterized by the academic autonomy of archaeology, just separated from History. Joaquina Soares directed and co-directed more than one hundred archaeological excavations integrated in research projects or in rescue programs. She preferred fieldwork: “new ideas emerge from the direct contact with the empirical record”. She has been working in the largest archaeological project of Southern Portugal, in Alqueva, 1997-2002 (dump of the Guadiana River), and even in the precedent phase (1984-85) of archaeological survey for the environment impact evaluation of that public work on the cultural heritage, with Carlos Tavares da Silva and José Manuel Mascarenhas. Joaquina Soares improved, since 1975, a new concept of Regional Museum oriented to research and regional development. This has been experienced with the foundation of the MAEDS- Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography of the District of Setúbal. MAEDS is an advanced center of social archaeology. Joaquina Soares promoted the first regional network of museums – FIDS-Forum Intermuseus do Distrito de Setúbal, since 2003. She always managed to combine research with social application, educational and informational purposes. So, she have done dozens conferences, workshops and organized several international symposia as: “Pré-história das Zonas Húmidas. Paisagens de Sal”. Setúbal, 19-21 de Maio/2011; Produção e Comércio de Preparados Piscícolas na Costa Atlântica da Península Ibérica, durante a Proto-história e a Época Romana. Setúbal, 2004. She has also been devoted between 2009 and 2016 to university teaching of Prehistory and Proto-history (FCSH – Universidade Nova de Lisboa and FL - Universidade de Lisboa). Joaquina Soares took a big part in the improvement of the urban archaeology in Portugal, mainly in the cities of Setúbal and Sines. She organized the first national congress with Carlos Tavares da Silva on the following subject: I Encontro Nacional de Arqueologia Urbana. Setúbal, MAEDS e IPPC, 1985. Their main contributions in the field of research archaeology are: I) The identification, with Carlos Tavares da Silva, of the first Chalcolithic fortifications from the III millennium cal BC in Southern Portugal. II) The study of the neolitisation process in the Southwest Portuguese Coast. III) The emergence of complexity in the III millennium cal BC on the Southwest of Iberia. IV) The discovery and study of the settlements of the Middle Bronze Age of SW Iberia (Cultura do Bronze do Sudoeste).