The question if Ostia possessed an harbour basin has recently been resolved positivily through drilling and geophysical research in the area between the Palazzo Imperiale and the Torre Boacciana. A deep harbour existed at least between the 4th and 2nd century BC, but it is not sure if the successive silting up led to its abandonment or if it was substituted, in the first half of the 1st century AD, by a shallower basin created in the same location. The existence in Ostia of a harbour basin, or at least a landing place, was already presumed in the 19th century, because of the evident depression in the landscape and the lack of structures, but was only proven by the investigations of the last years. The struggle of the town with the Tiber was already known to Strabo, who wrote at the beginning of the 1st century AD that “[Ostia] is harbourless on account of the silting up which is caused by the Tiber“. It results from the new data that indeed at the time the older harbour basin was already filled in naturally.

Continue with Part 2 of the River Harbour Series