Resumen de Nuovi dati e argomenti per Ostia tardoantica dal Progetto Ostia Marina
Massimiliano David, Mauro Carinci, Stella Maria Graziano, Stefano De Togni, Angelo Pellegrino, Marcello Turci
A new and very relevant bulk of informations is coming from the researches currently being carried out by the Department of History, Cultures and Civilizations of the University of Bologna, as part of the « Ostia Marina Project », developing in these years in the neighborhood outside Porta Marina (a gate of the ancient city), a suburban area that is proving to be a significant potential of archaeological data. For now it has been possible to record the different moments of the life of Ostia (Ist-VIth cent. AD), and also the time of abandonment and decomposition of the urban structures (VIIth-XVIIIth century). The sea front was characterized by the via Severiana, already documented by the twentieth-century excavations. In area A, block IV, IX, the excavations have revealed a new public « balneum », which takes now its name from the mask of Silenus carved in a dionysiac frieze fragment discovered in 2011. The building was significantly renovated in the second half of the IV century. The area B includes a large building complex (the so-called « House along the street of Marciana », IV, ix) of Hadrian�s age (post 134 AD, according to the stamps of Servianus III found in the masonry) with various stages of life extending up to the V century. The researches focused on a large building, that in the Severan period was divided and used as a shop, and occupied between IV and V century by one or more workshops (ergasteria) specialized perhaps in metallurgical activities. The exceptional discovery of a large number of small bronze coins seems to underlie the particular intensity of the exchanges by retail.
