Abstract:

This work analyses the late antique ceramic contexts of Septimania between the end of the 5th century and the beginning of the 6th century AD based on the comparative study of the castrum of Collioure and the rural Roman settlement of Palol d’Avall (Elna). The study is carried out through a classical ceramological analysis, focusing especially on Mediterranean imports, previously proposed chronologies are revised and recalibrated, allowing the horizons of formation and amortization of various archaeological contexts to be refined. The studied assemblages show a remarkable chronological and typological homogeneity, dominated by African, Oriental and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic productions, which confirms the persistence of Mediterranean commercial networks after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The results highlight the economic continuity and regional integration of the territory during its incorporation into the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse, as well as the usefulness of the ceramic study for historical interpretation.