Les premières mosaïques romaines découvertes à Caetobriga (Setúbal, Portugal)

The most significant residential area of Caetobriga, both architecturally and urbanistically, has yet to be discovered. In November 2008, a rescue excavation at no. 19 of António Joaquim Granjo Street revealed an urban sector, consisting of a large building, constructed in the first century A.D., with stuccoed and frescoed walls, and paved with polychromatic and geometric mosaics, probably during the transition to the third century A.D. In 2009, another archaeological excavation at no. 73 Arronches Junqueiro Street brought to light part of a peristyle with an opus tessellatum pavement that also is polychromatic and with a geometric design, more complex and later than others. This building fell into decay in the later Empire (Late Roman C Ware). The Roman mosaics found, for the first time, in Setúbal, notwithstanding their intrinsic value, highlight the functional structures of Cetobriga and emphasize the accumulation of wealth on a local scale, at the dawn of the later Empire. (D’après le résumé de l’auteur.)