Ceramic supply of Portuguese Ksar Seghir: through the Mediterranean commercial networks

Description

Between 1458 and 1550, Ksar Seghir or Alcácer Ceguer was one of the various Portuguese fortresses in North Africa. In the almost a hundred years under the military, political, economic and social dominance of the kingdom of Portugal, this city and its community witnessed considerable transformations, naturally materialized in its material culture. In this presentation we will analyse one of the most significant components (in quantity and quality) of material culture: ceramics.
It is largely known the privileged connection between North African cities and the Andalusian ones to guarantee a regular supply of the most varied kind of products. Also, it seems crucial the understanding of this supply net, assured at the time by the Portuguese Crown, in the long tradition of the Mediterranean commercial networks that it ends up integrating without any apparent interruption. We start off from these well documented premises to verify the extension of its expression at the archaeological level.
All the data here presented will be based on the registry and the materials recovered during the Morocco-American archaeological surveys of C. L. Redman in the 70’s and 80’s fo the 20th century. We must underline the singular characteristics of Ksar Seghir for this study, particularly the fact that the walled city was not again occupied till today, resulting in an extremely well preserved archaeological site.

Period	2 Oct 2015
Event title	XIth Congress AIECM3 on Medieval and Modern Period Mediterranean Ceramics
Event type	Conference
Location	Antalya, TurkeyShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International