Visitors to Ostia who have exhausted themselves wandering the streets of the sprawling archaeological site might wonder if there is really anything left to learn about a city that has been so extensively excavated. Few realise that the ancient Roman city was, in fact, plundered for centuries. In the late medieval period vast quantities of its decorative marbles were torn from ancient buildings to adorn Italy's cathedrals. During the Renaissance Ostia become a source for the fine inscriptions and statuary destined to fill the noble palaces of Europe. A proto-scholastic interest in the site's materials also appeared in this period, with antiquarians like Pirro Ligorio beginning to record (and even invent) epigraphic, architectural and sculptural discoveries from Ostia and nearby Portus. Only in the early nineteenth century was plundering officially outlawed, but since the site was the exclusive property of the Vatican, its statuary and inscriptions were instead mined for the Papal collections. When Ostia became the property of the Italian state in 1870, greater care was taken with recording and publishing descriptions of excavations, and the first ‘scientific’ excavations began under the direction of archaeologist Dante Vaglieri in 1906.
By this time Ostia had endured nearly eight centuries of plundering and unsystematic excavations. Although the site had long been a valuable resource for objects, it was only just beginning to be viewed as a valuable resource for knowledge about the past. Scholars began to wonder how ancient the city truly was, how long it had flourished, and what kinds of buildings it contained. In the introduction to her Ph.D. thesis The Cults of Ostia (1912) Lily Ross Taylor lamented that, despite Ostia's obvious importance, ‘its history and topography have received a relatively small share of attention. This neglect is due, at least in part, to the desultory and unscientific character of most of the excavations, and to the fact that, even when the excavations have been carefully conducted, the results have often been inadequately published’.
This situation was not immediately remedied: Vaglieri passed away quite suddenly in 1913 before publishing any detailed reports. Scientific excavations continued apace until 1938, when the site became the locus of Benito Mussolini's nationalistic propaganda. Over the course of just five years (1938–1942) the excavated area of the site more than doubled. Entire sectors of the city were uncovered and restored. Yet, this too was a form of plundering because, in their haste to reconstruct the ancient city to the satisfaction of Il Duce, archaeologists were given no time to record details of their discoveries. After the end of World War II the Scavi di Ostia volumes began to appear, giving shape and form to the history and development of Ostia, and smaller-scale excavations have been carried out almost continuously, filling in the details of this picture.
What we have lacked until now is a systematic exploration of the site with an eye towards urban development. This is where the work of Heinzelmann and his team comes in: Forma Urbis Ostiae presents detailed results of stratigraphic excavations undertaken in previously unexcavated areas of the site. The archaeological community has waited some time for the appearance of this volume, which presents the stratigraphy and chronology of 37 trenches excavated between 1997 and 2001, and we still eagerly await the publication of the next volume, which will present the results of a series of important geophysical surveys that were also carried out by the project. (Several preliminary reports and studies have been published in journals such as RM, MAAR and JRA.)
The extensive field project was carried out by the German Archaeological Institute in Rome, in collaboration with the American Academy in Rome and the Archaeological Superintendency of Ostia. A combination of geophysical survey and the study of aerial photographs revealed the shapes of underground structures, allowing the archaeologists to identify key features to be investigated by the excavation of strategically located trenches. The research focused on a variety of buildings spanning all occupation phases of the site and even pre-occupation periods, from the river harbour that was in use from the eighth century bce (much earlier than the castrum walls built in the late fourth or early third century bce) to the late antique and medieval periods (most notably the Constantinian Basilica and a sprawling Villa Suburbana). Road networks, residences, grain storage facilities and a navalia/port/temple complex as well as the late republican defensive walls are among the variety of areas investigated.
The volume is organised by region (regions III, IV and V), and each trench from that region is presented in a systematic fashion: a brief discussion of the relevant geophysical survey results, a concise narrative of the important features of the trench and the significance of the discoveries, and finally the nuts and bolts of the excavation. Here, Heinzelmann and his team have been meticulous in showing their work. Each stratigraphic unit is succinctly described, and the Harris Matrix for each trench is presented in a chart that provides an at-a-glance reference for understanding the phase, depth, important chronological indicators and dates associated with the stratigraphic unit. These are amply illustrated with photographs with visible stratigraphic units clearly labelled, and drawings showing the trench profiles and top plans. Presenting the records with this level of detail is crucial for archaeologists to be able to reconstruct the stratigraphy of the trenches for themselves, ensuring that we can verify the methodology underpinning the conclusions and hypotheses provided in the discussions.
Architecture and site phasing are the principal focuses of this volume, and for this reason the photographs of excavation finds are limited mainly to architectural features such as marble decorations, mosaics and painted stucco. Ceramics are only mentioned by class and/or form as chronological indicators. Presumably, the ceramics and other finds will be the subject of another volume.
Some particularly important structures were the subject of more extensive investigations, involving numerous trenches. These structures therefore merit significantly greater discussion and analysis than some of the others and are illustrated with magnificent architectural reconstructions. The Constantinian Basilica, the Villa Suburbana and the navalia/temple/harbour complex are the shining stars here. The sheer variety of structures, and the detail with which they are presented, ensures that even the less spectacular among them will spark interest among archaeologists and historians. For example, portions of the republican defensive wall were uncovered in four different trenches. This wall had been traditionally dated to the Sullan period, based on building technique (opus quasi-reticulatum), but a fragment of Italian sigillata discovered in the occupation surface associated with the construction of the wall's foundation (Sondage 10, SE 1072) suggests that the date might be considerably later – Italian sigillata begins to appear in the archaeological record after about 50 bce. A single pottery fragment is hardly incontrovertible evidence, but the occupation layer immediately above the construction level (SE 1064) contained several ceramic fragments dating to the mid-to-late Augustan period. Some interesting, if somewhat problematic, epigraphic reconstructions of the Porta Romana inscription (I. Manzini and F. Zevi, Epigrafia 2006 [2008]) had already suggested that the wall construction could date to the 60s–50s bce, but this excavation evidence might point to an even later date. We might even consider the possibility that Ostia's defensive walls were constructed as late as the 40s or early 30s, in response to the naval threat represented by Sextus Pompeius in his opposition to Octavian.
This volume is not meant to stand alone, and the publication of the geophysical surveys and the archaeological finds promises to present a fascinating picture of the urban development of Ostia, particularly when put into conversation with the most recent geophysical surveys of Isola Sacra (S. Keay et al. [2020]) and the most recent discoveries of other exciting projects, such as the Ostia Forum Project and the Ostia Marina Project.
