Arqueología del arroyo Sauce: investigación aplicada en clave de desarrollo territorial

The Sauce cove, located on the north coast of the Rio de La Plata river  has been the aim of study of an archaeological research project applied to tourism and territorial development in Juan Lacaze, Colonia. Based on the fact that archaeology is a social activity that takes place in multiple contexts -historical, political, economic and institutional- different strategies, from research to protection, from popularization to economic development, have been carried out in order to position the role of archaeology from a perspective not only in function of the past but also in function of the present. This paper presents the project´s different lines of work together with their partial results, as well as reflects on the potential of archaeology and heritage approaches to face critical socio-economic contexts.