The archaeological site of Arruelas (Maiorca, Figueira da Foz, Portugal) in the context of the Roman Conquest of Western Iberia

Abstract

In 1992, during the construction of the highway connecting Santa Olaia to Figueira da Foz, that had no archaeological survey, several ceramic fragments were collected, mostly from italic import. The assemblage consists in pottery fragments of Dressel 1A amphorae, Campanian A ware (Neapolitan) and of a kalathos (iberian ceramic). The location and depth of the find suggests that we are dealing with the remains of a wreck of a roman republican ship, with a chronology (140-130 BC) that may relate to Decimus Junius Brutus (138-137 BC) military campaigns and the roman conquest of the Western Iberian Peninsula.