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Excavation

  • Parco dei Ravennati
  • Ostia antica
  •  
  • Italy
  • Lazio
  • Rome
  • Rome

Tools

Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • In 2014 the American Institute for Roman Culture, in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma, Sede di Ostia Antica, and with a permit from the Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo, continued its three-year archaeological investigation of the Parco dei Ravennati, a public green space located between the ruins of ancient Ostia and the Medieval borgo that replaced it. Activity was concentrated in three areas, named A, B, and C.
    In Area A, located at the edge of the park along the Via della Stazione, the floor of a second Medieval workshop space was removed to expose more of the opus sectile pavement, confirming that it extends at least ca. 4 m further to the west. In addition, the area immediately adjacent to the exposed opus sectile pavement was excavated up to a maximum of 5 m to the north, revealing a space (courtyard?) paved with re-used Roman basalt pavers and a stone press base adjoining a ca. 3 × 3.5 m shallow basin constructed of brick-faced concrete with plaster exterior lining, opus signinum interior lining, and corner drain. The recovery of several metal fishing hooks and fishing-net fragments immediately outside the basin suggests that this area was involved in activities related to fishing along the Tiber, which until 1557 lay just 10-20 m distant, between the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

    In Area B, located in the heart of the park alongside the Roman road (a Late Antique deviation of the Via Ostiensis?), excavation continued in the Late Antique tombs occupying the top of the Late Republican mausoleum, revealing several disturbed burials and at least one undisturbed burial. The complete removal of the fill in two of the tombs revealed that the core of the Late Antique structure is a single ca. 2.5 × 2 × 2 block of brick-faced cement resting on re-used Imperial-era architectural elements, which in turn rest on the remains of the Late Republican mausoleum. In the shallow cemetery area immediately to the south more than a dozen tombs were exposed, documented, and excavated, with grave goods consistently indicating a Late Antique chronology. The poverty and density of the tombs, with some placed in vertical sequence, suggest an early Christian cemetery developed around the tomb of an important local saint or martyr, perhaps Monica (the mother of St. Augustine, who died at Ostia and whose epitaph was recovered nearby) or Aurea, the patron saint of Ostia Antica, whose eponymous church stands just 100 m to the north, inside the borgo.

    Area C is a 6 × 4 m trench located along the northern boundary of the park and surrounding a ca. 40-cm tall mutilated Carystian green marble column suggesting the presence of buried architecture. Beneath the topsoil a thick layer of sterile sand was encountered, on which the column fragment was found to rest. Further excavation to ca. 2 m total depth revealed evidence of anthropic activity, including a small cement feature and ceramic fragments.

  • Darius A. Arya- American Institute for Roman Culture 
  • Alberto Prieto- American Institute for Roman Culture  
  • Michele Raddi 

Director

  • Angelo Pellegrino- former Director of Scavi di Ostia Antica
  • Darius A. Arya- American Institute for Roman Culture
  • Michele Raddi

Team

Research Body

  • American Institute for Roman Culture
  • SSBAR

Funding Body

  • American Institute for Roman Culture

Images

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