Living on the Edge: Commerce and Trade on the Southwest Lusitanian Port Ensembles in Late Antiquity

Abstract

ABSTRACT In Antiquity, coasts witnessed the growth of cities and the expansion of a range of different economic activities due to the maritime networks with which they were associated. Late Antiquity in Lusitania was a period of change, mainly as a result of adaptation to the socio-political events that determined different commercial flows within each region. These variations are very well identified in harbour areas with intense commercial activity. New ceramic contexts and the revisiting of existing data have resulted in the extension of the chronology of the occupation of many coastal sites into the sixth and seventh centuries, demonstrating that commerce and trade in Lusitania did not end, as previously thought, in the fifth century with the arrival of Vandals, Sueves and Visigoths. This article explores evidence for how populations lived on the edge, on the banks of rivers and along the Atlantic coast, while remaining attached to long-distance trading networks during this period.