An overview on Oriental Commerce in the Tagus Estuary Region: Late Phocean and Cypriot Tablewares in the 5th and 6th Centuries AD

Maritime commerce connected distant geographies during Late Antiquity, through networks that surpassed different political entities. The Atlantic shores of Iberian Peninsula played a relevant role on the process, and archaeological data provided by ancient harbour capacity regions is crucial for the reading of rhythms over time. The Tagus Estuary was a long term key-point in navigation, linking this part of Western Hispania to Mediterranean and North Atlantic trade routes, therefore facilitating supply of imported goods, and the export of local and regional commodities. Between the 5th and 6th centuries AD oriental table wares produced in Phocaea and Cyprus were a relevant cultural habit, strongly widespreaded in coastal Western Europe and Maghreb, becoming one of the most distinguishing elements of the material culture present in the archaeological record of such chronologies. The authors present an overview on the presence of this specific oriental commodity in the Tagus Estuary region, and discuss the historical significance of time scale rhythms observed, namely the known floruit registed in Britannic and Lusitanian contexts c. 475-525 AD.