Roman Republican Oriental imports in Monte Moliao (Lagos, Portugal)

Archaeological interventions carried out in Monte Moliao (Lagos, Portugal) provided a small set of materials imported from the Eastern Mediterranean, specifically Hellenistic mouldmade bowls and eastern sigillata A, totaling 18 fragments. In the vast majority of cases, these specimens appear in conserved layers of Roman-Republican chronology, more specifically between 125 and 50/25 BC, revealing the adoption, during this period, of certain Hellenistic traditions related to the consumption of liquids and perhaps even the existence of a particular demand for more aesthetically appealing vases. Despite being a quantitatively scarce assemblage, it assumes a particular relevance for the widening and understanding of the scale of distribution of these oriental products on the Atlantic coast.