This area of downtown

Felicitas Iulia Olisipo - near the Tagus shore and the river branch that, at the time, connected the Arroios and Valverde river streams, which ran aboveground and converged in the present area of Praça da Figueira - was just outside the city walls, near the city's Southwestern

via (road).
After the mid-1^st century BC, the area was used as a funerary area, where rituals of

inhumation and

cremation were practiced, but in the mid-1^st century AD, a fish products production complex was built over this

necropolis. The complex was active until the 5th century AD. Archaeological excavations identified 31

cetariae (tanks used to salt fish) and some support structures, as well as a residential area. Excavations also discovered part of a house and its bathing facilities, with several pools and bathtubs. One room in particular still retains its mosaic pavement.
The archaeological collection is representative of the important and abundant local and regional ceramic production, but also of the great trade dynamics of the

Felicitas Iulia Olisipo port, as indicated by the presence of several ceramic recipients imported from

Baetica (Roman province corresponding roughly to present-day Andalusia), Italy and North Africa.
After this factory was abandoned, in the 5^th century AD, the roadway continued to be used and this area recovered its peri-urban character, as evidenced by an isolated tomb from the High Middle Ages.