More FIX on the NET @ FIArchaeologists say they have found part of an ancient ship near Rome during repair work to a bridge. The 11 metre vessel is one of the largest ancient vessels excavated near Ostia Antica, a port city founded some 2,500 years ago.The original river harbour of Ostia had limitations as larger ships such as this one could not enter it due to a sand bar near the mouth of the river. Mercantile goods that arrived in large sea going ships had to be transferred to smaller vessels at sea then these shallow-draught vessels could navigate the river and moor at the Tiber quays, but as time passed there was just not enough capacity for Rome’s growing needs.
The Emperor Claudius started the construction of an artificial harbour, in AD 42 a few kilometres to the north of Ostia. A huge basin was created by enhancing a natural bay, protected by two curved moles and a lighthouse. A number of ships filled with Roman concrete was used as foundations for these moles.
A ship of Imperial Rome
The remains of the ship, missing its bow and stern, was found at a depth of 4 metres during repairs of a bridge linking modern-day Ostia to Fiumicino, the town that hosts Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport. A tentative date for the vessel is early Imperial period (25 BCE – 197 CE)
This excavation showed that the coastline was 4 kilometres inland from where it is now.
Anna Maria Moretti, superintendent of archaeology in Rome and Ostia Antica, was quoted as saying that she had not expected this find, but the remarkably preserved vessel has even the remains of rope. The boat has to be constantly sprayed with water to ensure the timbers do not dry out. She added that restoring the ship “will be an extremely delicate operation.”
“When things are so important the money is there”, the Minister of Cultural Heritage, Giancarlo Galan was reported as saying in
Nuova Resistenza, about a possible financial commitment from the ministry after the discovery.
Click the image below to view the complete set from the ANSA.it website.
Archaeology at Ostia Antica
Archaeology has been undertaken in Ostia for decades, with the history and layout of the town being slowly uncovered providing a unique window into Rome’s sea port to the world.
Ostia was provided with all the services a town would require and of course its famous lighthouse. It also contained the earliest synagogue yet identified in Europe [1] which caused great excitement when first unearthed in 1960-61. Archaeologists also discovered public latrinas, which were laid out as a series of conjoined seats, a large theatre, several public baths, numerous taverns and inns, and even the evidence of a fire fighting service.
More information
Ostia – Harbour City of Ancient Rome
[1] Synagogue and Society in Imperial Ostia: Archaeological and Epigraphic Evidence,”
L. Michael White The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 90, No. 1 (Jan., 1997), pp. 23-58X University Cultural Campus
