Ostia Antica

Ostia antica

Italy · Lazio

Ancient cityIntermittent excavation
Approximate period350 BCE — 550 CERoman Republican, Imperial and Late Antique periods See on the map ↓

In brief

Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, was Rome's port city. Excavations allow commercial buildings, houses and later Christian buildings to be studied together.

What was found?

  • 1Republican-period castrum walls

    These are the remains of a fortified settlement enclosed by tuff blocks, with four gates. Dated by the archaeological park to the 4th century BC, this nucleus is the oldest archaeologically documented part of Ostia.

  • 2Baths of Neptune

    They include mosaics, cold and hot bathing spaces, and a sports area surrounded by columns. The complex was arranged for sport and social life as well as bathing.

  • 3Constantinian-period episcopal basilica

    The three-aisled church forms a complex associated with a forecourt and circular baptistery. Identified through aerial photographs and geophysical surveys, the building was confirmed by excavations.

What does it point to?

Ostia's sequence of buildings shows the transformation from a fortified nucleus into a city with an increasingly commercial character. The baths reveal communal life, while the basilica makes visible the place of Christian institutions in the city during Late Antiquity.

What did it teach us?

  1. As the settlement grew, the old castrum walls lost their defensive function.
  2. The bath complex combined bathing, sport, and residences on the upper floors.
  3. The basilica excavations confirmed the existence of the building known from ancient written sources.
  4. The basilica complex remained in use until at least the 7th–8th century AD.

Images

Frigidarium Terme del Foro Ostia Antica 2006-09-08
Marie-Lan Nguyen (User:Jastrow) · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons

Record

Culture
Roman
Team / historical
Sapienza University of Rome; Basilica of Constantine research project
Coordinates
41.7558°, 12.2917°

Sources

  1. en.wikipedia.org
  2. dipantichita.web.uniroma1.it
  3. Ostia Antica Arkeoloji Parkı — Cumhuriyet dönemi castrumu
  4. Ostia Antica Arkeoloji Parkı — Neptün Hamamları

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12.000

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