The National Museum of Archaeology (MNA) houses a collection of thousands, in fact hundreds of thousands, of objects. These were either recovered during planned archaeological excavations or as chance finds and they were incorporated in the collections on the Museum’s own initiative or as a deposit or donation on behalf of researchers and collectors.

All cultural and chronological periods, as well as all kinds of artefacts, dating from the earliest Pre-history until recent times (in the case of the latter attention is drawn to ethnographic objects), are represented in the MNA. In addition to Portuguese collections, there are also collections of foreign origin, covering very diverse periods and regions.

Moreover, the MNA is the Portuguese museum that includes the largest number of artefacts classified as "National Treasures" in its collections.

Since new discoveries are constantly made in the collections of the National Museum of Archaeology, a new object is discussed each month.