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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)

  • In 2010, we continued with preparation for formal publication of materials from the 1960s excavations of the synagogue. We also completed the analysis of the ceramics and faunal remains from previous OSMAP excavation seasons. With these analyses complete, we revisited and dated the strata from trenches excavated in the 2005, 2007 and 2009 seasons.

    Daniela Williams produced a report on a group of coins discovered during excavations in 1962 and recorded by the Giornali di Scavo as having been found in “quadro 4B,” which corresponds to the northern half of Room 10 of IV.17.1. The assemblage, consisting of 51 base bronzes concreted together, was reportedly found between the mosaic floor and the cocciopesto surface below. Although the current location of the original specimens is unknown, each coin was recorded in a card catalogue, from which Williams was able to reconstruct and analyze the group as a purse or hoard. The group contained coins dating between 327 and 340/347 AD, suggesting AD 340 as a firm terminus post quem for the deposition of the coins and hence the construction of the mosaic floor of Room 10.

    Brent Nongbri produced a report bringing together the results of the analysis of the archival material completed in 2008. The report takes account of all known archival and published information on the 1961 and 1962 excavations and also includes a summary of the available evidence for excavations carried out in and around the synagogue in 1963, 1964, and 1977, for which no formal publications exist. The report details the methodology employed in Floriani Squarciapino’s campaigns and presents evidence for a number of finds that were informally recorded but never published.

    Synthesis of the data from the 2005, 2007, and 2009 OSMAP excavations yielded suggestive evidence about the uniform layer of sand beneath the entire area of the synagogue complex. The ceramic profile for the sand layer in all areas in which it was exposed shows a wide variety of sherds, but there is throughout a notable lack of African sigillata, which was ubiquitous at Ostia by the middle of the second century. This suggests a terminus ante quem for the sand layer.

  • L. Michael White - University of Texas and Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins 
  • Mary Jane Cuyler - University of Sydney 

Director

Team

  • Nicoletta Conti
  • Brent Nongbri
  • Douglas Boin
  • Daniela Williams - Università degli Studi Roma Tre
  • Adele Rinaldi
  • Letizia Ceccarelli - University of Cambridge
  • Marzia Di Mento - L.A.T.E.R.E.S. ARC. TER
  • Luca Mocchegiani Carpano - Responsabile del Servizio di Prevenzione e Protezione (H&S Officer) per l'attività di ricerca e studio archeologico della UTEXAS

Research Body

  • The University of Texas at Austin

Funding Body

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

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