Contribution to the Corpus of Roman Mosaics from the Western Algarve I – The Roman Mosaics of the Domus of Boca do Rio (Budens, Algarve)

From a very early stage on, the attention of archaeologists and the general public was focused on the eastern Algarve and the Roman mosaics found there: richly decorated manor houses, pavements of urban public buildings, statuary and other finds; having been the subject of the Corpus of Roman Mosaics of the Eastern Algarve, pushing the westernmost part of the Algarve - the Western Algarve - into the background for a long time. The aim of this work is to start filling this gap and bring together the Roman mosaics found in the westernmost part of the Algarve, which are less well known but no less significant for understanding the Roman settlement in the Algarve and for defining styles and individualising mosaic workshops in this part of the territory. In this first of a series of articles, we will focus on the mosaics of the roman site of Boca do Rio.