Os primeiros mosaicos romanos descobertos em Caetobriga

In the lower Sado valley region, two Roman sites became proeminent: Salacia Urbs Imperatoria, located in the upper area of the estuary, currently known as Alcácer do Sal, and the other, at the mouth of the same river - Caetobriga, currently Setúbal. The later one had a satellite urban area specialised in fish processing industry, the Achale Island (Tróia). Caetobriga surpassed Salacia, as far as the economic protagonism is concerned, from the II century AD onwards, taking advantage of the abundant ichthyological fauna along its coastal area, the surrounding large salty environment and its good harbouring conditions. The archaeological urban project developed in Setúbal, by the Archaeological and Ethnographical Museum of the District of Setubal (MAEDS), since1975, allows the outlined scenery: Caetobriga might have been a prosperous harbouring and industrial city, economically specialised in large scale production of salting fish and sauces to be exported to faraway markets (Rome, for example). Its main connection with the centre of the Empire was assured by the commercial entrepôt of Gades. The most qualified residential area of Caetobriga, both architecturally and urbanistically, was yet to be unveiled. In November 2008 a rescue archaeological excavation at nº. 19 of the A. Joaquim Granjo Street revealed that urban sector, through a large building, built in the first century AD, with stuccoed and frescoed walls, and paved with polychromatic and geometric mosaics, probably in the transition to the third century AD. In 2009, another archaeological excavation at nº. 73 of A. Junqueiro Street brought to light part of a peristyle with an opus tessellatum pavement also polychromatic and with a geometrical design, more complex and later than the others. This building fell into decay at the later Empire (Late Roman C Ware). The Roman mosaics found, for the first time, in Setúbal, not withstanding its intrinsic value, highlight the functional structure of Caetobriga and emphasise the accumulation of capital on a local scale, at the dawn of the later Empire. The three mosaics that will be presented have a gamut of six colours, being largely used a dark red limestone tessellatum.