The excavation at Ostia is an exciting joint program of work being carried out by Dr Luke Lavan (University of Kent) and Dr Axel Gering (Humboldt University, Berlin). It involves a systematic reinvestigation of buildings of late antique date that were excavated very roughly several decades ago, at the center of the city. The project aims to refine our understanding the street system of Ostia in the 4th and early 5th c. A.D.
Context is now offering its clients the opportunity to visit the dig in the company of Dr. Lavan and Dr. Gering, as they explain the importance of their work and the methods and techniques archaeologists are using to carry out the excavations. After a lecture and viewing of the excavations, you will be invited to an optional light picnic lunch with the excavators, where you will have the intimate opportunity to chat with the archaeologists one on one about their time in the field.
Below you will find a description of the dig and what the archaeologists are hoping to accomplish:
In 2008 we are surveying and excavating a market place - the 'Foro della statua eroica' - which blocks two streets, and is thought to date to the early 5th c. A.D. This was probably a commercial plaza, and may well be the 'macellum' restored in the early 5th c, described by an inscription found nearby. We will be cleaning the plaza, recording its walls, sieving its drains, and excavating areas of surviving stratigraphy. From all this we hope to be able date the creation of the forum and say something about what kinds of activities took place there.
By studying recycled building material used in the construction of the square we also hope to identify which of the surrounding classical buildings had been abandoned at this time - for example a decorative fragment from an adjacent temple was used to block one of the streets under the plaza, suggesting that it had been demolished by this time. It seems likely that the plaza, and adjacent building projects of similar date, have been designed to improve the monumentality of the main street of the city, onto which the forum opens. Here and elsewhere this decorative work was partly achieved by closing-off minor roads, so that architectural showmanship triumphed over functional rationality in the street system of the city.
This event is part of our Out of Context lecture series, and is only currently being held on September 13 and September 20 at 9:00 am. We can sometimes schedule it privately on a per-request basis, if given enough advance warning.
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