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Excavation

  • Sinagoga
  • 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)

  • Having analyzed the masonry of IV.17.1.1-3 and IV.15.1-2 during the previous season, the team returned to record other evidence for the uses of opus mixtum A, B, and C at Ostia. The purpose of this season was to document techniques used in dated, or datable, contexts so as to suggest chronological parameters for the construction phases of the buildings at IV.17.1-2. The database of these measurements and the buildings from which they were taken is forthcoming.

    Members of the staff were also granted permission to clean, draw, and photograph previously excavated but unpublished trenches (= ‘T’) from the 1960s excavations, now designed T Alpha (α), Beta (β), and Gamma (γ). Tα is located in IV.17.1.12 (the room defined by the central columns). Tβ is located in the southeastern corner of IV.17.1.9. Tγ is the interior of the Torah niche, located in IV.17.1.13.

    Due to the presence of poured foundations, none of the balks of Tα (IV.17.1.12) preserves a stratigraphic profile.

    Tβ (IV.17.1.9) revealed two earlier features of the building never reported. The first is the remains of a threshold and doorway, both of which predate the extant mosaic floor in room 10. Adjacent to this earlier threshold was also discovered the foundation of a supporting pier, or wall spur, which originally projected c. 0.15 m into the room (room 9). Although the current evidence for the separation of rooms 9 and 10 does replicate this same spatial division, the removal of the pier, or wall spur, in a later phase suggests a slight remodeling of the earlier space. The absence of any stratified ceramic or numismatic evidence has cautioned against assigning an absolute date to these phases.

    Tγ revealed the following features: The mosaic pavement located outside the Torah nice (in IV.17.1.14) continues under the aedicula into Tγ. Within Tγ evidence for this mosaic extends 0.62 m to the south; it measures 0.55 m at its widest extent. On the south it abuts a tufa platform, 0.785 m high. This platform measures 1.53 m from north to south; it is 0.60 m wide. On its east side it abuts a mixtum A reticulate wall, measuring 1.30 m, north to south. To the east of this wall is cocciopesto surface, located at the level of the latericium bedding course in the mixtum A wall. This surface (1.944 m ASL) is roughly at the same level of the foundation for the mosaic floor (2.002 m ASL) although the two are not contiguous.

    Finally, a field-walking survey of the site was conducted to plan future areas of research. The team noticed the damaged remains of a reticulate wall, never recorded on any plan of the buildings at IV.17.1, located at the southeast corner of IV.17.1.10, directly to the north of the modern highway ( via della Scafa ). This wall appears to abut the exterior wall of IV.17.1.10, suggesting that it was constructed at a later time. Excavation is planned to investigate the relationship between this wall and the extant remains of the building.

  • Douglas Boin 
  • Susan Gelb - University of Texas at Austin 
  • L. Michael White - University of Texas and Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins 

Director

Team

  • Darius Arya - The American Institute for Roman Culture
  • Milton Torres

Research Body

  • The University of Texas at Austin (Ostia Synagogue Masonry Analysis Project, OSMAP)

Funding Body

  • The Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins at the University of Texas at Austin

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