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.
The emperor Claudius expanded the river harbour of Ostia with a large basin just inside the left side bank of the Tiber…
Posted by Friends of Roman Ostia – FORO on Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Did you know that #Ostia had its own small harbour adjacent to the #Tiber? This detailed reconstruction depicts a grand…
Posted by Friends of Roman Ostia – FORO on Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Before the river harbour of the 1st century AD was created, there existed near Ostia from the 4th to the 2nd century BC…
Posted by Friends of Roman Ostia – FORO on Tuesday, October 24, 2017
When did a tsunami strike Ostia? Two successive harbour phases are presumed to have existed along the west bank of the…
Posted by Friends of Roman Ostia – FORO on Wednesday, October 25, 2017
But…could there really have been a tsunami at Ostia in the Roman period? Tsunami deposits may be triggered by extreme…
Posted by Friends of Roman Ostia – FORO on Friday, October 27, 2017
We are always discovering something new about Ostia. The recent study of core samples taken from the area of the…
Posted by Friends of Roman Ostia – FORO on Saturday, October 28, 2017
Scientific research is not linear. It advances by resolving apparent contradictions. So, based upon the analysis of two…
Posted by Friends of Roman Ostia – FORO on Saturday, October 28, 2017
Continue with Part 2 of the River Harbour Series
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