Infrastructure Development and Community Participation: the Efforts to Develop the Archaeological Site and Semedo Museum in Tegal Regency Nina Witasari 1 , Arfan Habibi 1 1 Faculty of Social and Sciences, Universitas Negeri Semarang Semarang , Indonesia Corresponding email: ninawitasari@mail.unnes.ac.id Abstract—Infrastructure development is one of the factors that support the development of Semedo Site as an ancient site with the discovery of fossils and artifacts when Plestosen found since 2005 located in Semedo Village, Kedungbanteng Subdistrict, Tegal Regency. The construction of the Archaeological Museum of Semedo will be open to the general public in 2019 as educational, research, and tourist destinations that will impact the social, economic, and cultural aspects of the community around the site. This study aims to encourage the acceleration of infrastructure development that is being implemented by the government by involving academics and community to support the development of the Archaeological Site and Museum Semedo. The method used in this study using qualitative and quantitative descriptive with data collection techniques conducted through interviews, observation, and data analysis. Based on the results of the analysis, it is concluded that in general the infrastructure tends to influence the condition of community participation in an effort to improve the economic welfare of the community around Semedo Site. So that the acceleration of infrastructure development will encourage the economic growth of the community in Semedo Village and facilitate the access of tourists to the Archaeological Site and Museum Semedo. Keywords—Infrastructure, Community, Participation, Archeological Site and Museum Semedo I. INTRODUCTION The existence of an ancient site area has an important value to reconstruct evidence of past relics that need to be preserved. The Semedo site is one of the archaeological sites that has just been discovered since 2005. The existence of erosion that occurred due to the opening of land that was originally covered with teak forest in the Semedo Site opened up new knowledge about the existence of ancient fossil discoveries. Site location located around teak forest area owned by PT. Perhutani, which is administratively still in Semedo Village, Kedungbanteng District, Tegal Regency, Central Java Province [1]. The existence of fossil discoveries that are periodically found to provide reinforcement in the Semedo Site area are old. This proves that the Semedo Site is a new site, in addition to the first discovery of the Sangiran Site, Patiayam Site, and other similar sites in Central Java. Infrastructure development in the Semedo Site area is one factor that supports the existence of an ancient site area. Through various infrastructure being carried out by the Government to support the existence of a Semedo Site area. The Semedo Site area is one of the protected cultural heritage, according to the mandate in the Government Regulation stated in the Law No. 11 of 2010 concerning Cultural Heritage that must be protected [2]. The process of building the Archaeological Museum by the Government is one of the supporters of the existence of a Semedo Site area that stands majestically on an area of 10,582 meters located in Semedo Village. The construction of the Semedo Archaeological Museum which will soon be completed and will be opened to the general public in 2019 as education, research and tourism will have an impact on the social, economic and cultural aspects of the community around the Semedo Site. However, infrastructure such as the road to the Semedo Site area, accessibility, and supporting facilities as well as the participation of the community around Semedo are still lacking. This is a breakdown in several road points to the Semedo Site area which can be accessed by road from the direction of Slawi City, Tegal Regency. Accessibility to the location of Semedo Village and tourism support facilities for cultural heritage is still not accelerated in its development. Lack of community participation in the awareness of a site and its impact on the social aspects of society in the welfare of the community is still not optimal. So it is necessary to accelerate infrastructure in various fields to support the existence of a Semedo Site area and the Construction of the Semedo Archaeological Museum. Community participation in Semedo Village is also one of the factors that support the existence of the Semedo Site area and the Semedo Archaeological Museum with government support in accelerating infrastructure towards access to the site area. The role of academics from 72 International Conference on Rural Studies in Asia (ICoRSIA 2018) Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), volume 313 Copyright © 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).