ROMANS AND MUSLIMS IN THE PORTUGUESE ATLANTIC

Abstract

The Atlantic coast of the South of Portugal, conveniently located near the straigth where the Mediterranean and the Atlantic World meet, has been continuously visited and populated by people of the Mediterranean – societies of maritime tradition such as the Romans and the Muslims who transformed the Atlantic maritime space. The main Portuguese coastal cities have grown and expanded with the development of ports and maritime trade, whose consolidation dates to the Roman period. In addition, evidence throughout the Islamic era confirms both the proliferation of maritime commerce and the preference for estuaries for the installation of harbour structures. Today’s Portuguese maritime landscape is, thus, shaped by harbour complexes made up by a set of harbours all integrated in the same geographical context. The same network of harbours that has served the Expansionist activity of the fifteenth century. The study of ancient maritime installations must also take into account the economic complexity of territories. Underwater archaeology and its relationship with archaeological evidence on land, such as imported ceramic materials for instance, has provided our study with natural connecting links where ancient harbour activities existed.