In 2013 the American Institute for Roman Culture, in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (Scavi di Ostia Antica) and with a permit from the Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo, began a 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. This area, part of the suburbium of Roman Ostia, is crossed by a 60-m long stretch of basalt-paved road leading from ancient Ostia towards the borgo, presumably part of the Via Ostiensis. Activity was concentrated in two areas, named A and B. Area A, located along the Via della Stazione, consists of two Renaissance cisterns built against an Imperial structure of undetermined function uncovered in 2012. In Late Antiquity the floor of one room of the structure was replaced with an elaborate geometric design in _opus sectile_, of which only a small portion has been revealed, and the walls were decorated with colored fresco, poorly preserved. The _opus sectile_ and fresco decoration indicate a prestigious space, probably part of a _domus_, guild headquarters, or ecclesiastical structure. In the Medieval period the _opus sectile_ pavement was buried, the floor level was raised, and the space was sub-divided into a series of workshops containing traces of worked bone. Activity in Area A was restricted to documentation of the _opus sectile_ pavement and exposed baulks, conservation of the frescoes, and removal of the thick modern fill above one of the Medieval spaces. Area B, located along the Roman road in close proximity to the castle of Julius II, is centered on the remains of a small circular Late Republican mausoleum built of concrete faced with large travertine blocks. At an undetermined moment between Late Antiquity and the Renaissance the upper core of the mausoleum was demolished and replaced with a square brick-faced concrete block, around which in turn was constructed a narrow brick-faced concrete wall in the form of an octagon; the spaces between the outer wall and central block defined four tombs, measuring approximately 2 x 0.5 m, and two additional tombs were created between the two tombs on the N-S axis. One of the tombs was partially excavated in 2012, yielding two burials (adult and child) near the surface. Activity in Area B consisted of cleaning, documentation, and analysis of the mausoleum; clearance and documentation of five of the six tombs to an average depth of 0.5 m (no burials were encountered); and removal of the topsoil on the southern and eastern sides of the mausoleum, where a series of small walls and a cemetery containing at least three burials were uncovered. These features are likely associated with the castle of Julius II and therefore date to the 15th-16th century.

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 x 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 x 2 x 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 x 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.