Season Director

• AIAC_2521 - Sinagoga - 2002
  In 2002 an OSAMP team comprising 14 student workers and 5 senior staff members returned to the area to conduct a masonry analysis of IV.17.1-3. Working in teams of two or three, the OSAMP staff assembled a detailed catalogue, including architectural drawings, of all wall segments at the synagogue (IV.17.1) and its adjacent structures (IV.17.2-3). This analysis included measurements and descriptions of the following: all wall lengths, heights, and widths (differentiations were made between ancient and modern sections of the extant walls); a selection of tufa blocks, clay bricks, and mortar beds from each wall; all visible quoining, framing, or bonding techniques which characterized individual wall sections, where appropriate; and all features, such as thresholds, windows, benches, etc., which formed part of the ancient phases of the building. A‘5+5 modulus’ (five courses of tufa or brick plus five courses of mortar, measured in 1 m increments) was also recorded, where evidence permitted. Once completed, each team then provided an assessment of the relative chronology of construction techniques used in their assigned rooms. This study has yielded the following preliminary results: A total of 10 masonry types and subtypes were employed in the construction and repair of the buildings in the synagogue complex (IV.17.1-3). Modulus measurements of the purported earliest type, _opus mixtum_ A, are consistent throughout the site; these measurements vary no more than ± 0.05 m. This data suggests that the superstructure of rooms 7, 9-10, and 14 was likely constructed at the same time. They may have even constituted the walls of an early structure. Today, these walls form the “shell” of the visible structure of building 1. No partition walls, however, have survived from any earlier phases. This fact suggests that the interior spaces of building 1 witnessed significant modifications over time. Building 2, on the other hand, the _edificio con ninfeo_, was constructed in _opus mixtum_ B although this technique was also identified in portions of building 1 (for example, in room 18, the southern wall). An absolute chronology for the phases of these construction techniques and repairs cannot as yet be determined from the available evidence for two reasons. First, techniques like _opus mixtum_ A (which use _latericium_ bedding courses at regular intervals) are now known to have been used at Ostia into the mid and late second century with some examples extending into the third (see van Dalen, below). Second, no stratigraphic data exists from the site’s earlier excavation, either in print or in the Ostian archives. Further data, acquired through more scientific excavation, will now be needed to refine the individual phases of all three buildings in the survey area.
• AIAC_2521 - Sinagoga - 2012
  The 2012 season marked our final large-scale excavations at the synagogue. Nine trenches (=T) were excavated in areas at least partially undisturbed by the 1960s campaigns in order both to better understand the stratigraphy of the present buildings and to explore evidence of earlier structures on this site. T27, located in Room 4 of IV.17.2, also extended 2.0 meters outside the west doorway. The soil outside the building was disturbed down to the level of ground water, but below topsoil in Room 4 was a mosaic floor (unexcavated, pending conservation). T29, located between IV.17.2 and IV.17.1, continued the examination of the western foundation uncovered in T23 (2011). Room 18 of IV.17.1 contained three trenches, each of which revealed a partially preserved cocciopesto surface below the topsoil. T32 was located in the SW corner. Its western wall was constructed on the cocciopesto floor, but the southern wall was deeply bedded. T31A was located in the middle of Room 18 extending from the northern wall. The foundation of the northern wall consists of a lower pour (an earlier building phase) and an upper pour (later). The upper foundation is integral with a N-S foundation, connected to another E-W foundation (possibly for low walls or for floor support). T31B extended from the west of T31A, revealing features associated architecturally with the lower level foundation of the northern walls, including a step and part of a reticulate wall. T34 was located in the southeast corner of Room 17 of IV.17.1. Two surfaces were uncovered: a cocciopesto surface below topsoil with a hole surrounding the opening of a decapitated Dressel 20 amphora. This surface rested on 0.75 meters of sand (into which the amphora was set), below which was a partially preserved cocciopesto floor. The trench exposed the foundations of the east wall which showed a clear seam, suggesting the mixtum A east wall is secondary. The lower cocciopesto floor was probably associated with an earlier structure represented by the lower foundation. In T30, located in Room 17 of IV.17.1, five distinct phases were identified. The lowest floor level (Phase 1) ran 0.60 meters below the latericium bedding course of the eastern wall, and the foundations were plastered. In the north, stairs were uncovered, ascending from the west in Phase 2 before the construction of the western wall. In the 3rd phase, two large amphorae were set into the floor (storage or latrine?). Phase 4 contained a latrine/drain construction in the space of the southern doorway (later covered by Phase 5, a floor covering all of Room 17). T33 was located in the open area east of IV.17.1. The predominant feature was a well-packed ground-raising fill containing numerous finds dating from 1st-2nd c. CE. T28, located to the north of the synagogue, revealed three layers of pavement spanning from the 3rd to the 6th cent. CE. T18BE (2011) was reopened to excavate beneath the robbed-out area of the Via Severiana. There were several preparation layers below the highway but no evidence of an earlier road.