Mobility in Italy - Rome – L.S. F. Enriques 18/3/2019 – 23/03/2019 CLIL4DSN Project N°: 2018-1-RO01-KA201-049519 Visit of Ostia NECROPOLIS -“columbarium”= a tomb, but with a particularity, it had special spaces in the wall for holding urns where the ashes were put. Rectangular form, it had an upper floor that could be reached by walking up a staircase. In the middle of 1800 Ostia Antica’s necropolis was unearthed for the first time, it had around 60 tombs, it was situated outside the city. Tombs made of marble and terracotta, dead bodies could be put under the ground, in the wall, or in some urns outside, in the courtyard if present in the structure. Right next to the necropolis there were little shops. SQUARE OF VICTORY -“Statue of Minerva Victory”= a statue representing a Goddess with big wings. She represents sapience, poetry and medicine; It was used to decorate the entrance of the city together with an inscription dedicated to it by two of the most popular politicians named Clodius and Cicero; Next to the statue there was a large drinker for the animals who accompany visitors and roman citizens; In the square there was even a huge pool and a big fountain. SHOPS OF THE FISHMONGERS -“Fish Mosaics”= pictures made of small stones, glass pieces.. representing something in particular like for this monument, a picture of a dolphin maybe, holding his lunch in his mouth. There is a script on it, -INBIDE CALCO TE- that means “envious one, I tread on you”, this sentence expresses the way roman fishmongers thought about them, a negative one since dolphins were their enemies because it disturbed the fishing; There are shops, we can see two of them, they have a table right in the middle of the shop; It also has a sink, supported by some small columns. ERASMUS+ CLIL4DSN 1 Mobility in Italy - Rome – L.S. F. Enriques 18/3/2019 – 23/03/2019 CLIL4DSN Project N°: 2018-1-RO01-KA201-049519 BATHS OF NEPTUNE ‘Bath’= huge place where you could enjoy a hot bath, that is relaxing and helpful for circulation problems; it usually have mosaics on its bottom, in this case it has mosaics representing a seahorse, dolphins and other fishes, God Neptune and his wife. It appears after a few shops on the Decumanus. It was built by the Emperor Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, it has a lot of rooms and in each, columns where there are represented naked bodies of athlete maybe practitioners of wrestling. THE DECUMANUS MAXIMUS The Decumanus Maximus is the main street of Ostia and it is the continuation of the road that led from Rome to Ostia the via Ostiense. It is also the only wheel-ruts in Ostia. The Decumanus Maximus runs from east to west starting at the Porta Romana. At the west end there is the Bivio del Castrum where the road branches in two directions: One branch leads to the Porta Marina to the south-west and the other leads to the north-west to the Tiber- mouth . Along the north side of the eastern half there is a number of travertine inscriptions that was made between 150 and 80 BC. All texts are identical: C. CANINIVS C(ai) F(ilius) PR(aetor) VRB(anus) DE SEN(atus) SENT(entia) POPLIC(um) IOVDIC(avit) C. Caninius judged this area to be public property. To the south of the Grandi Horrea is the westernmost inscriptions and next to this one there was another cippus that was placed later to indicate that the western stretch of the public area had become privat property: (pri)VATVM (a)D TIBERIM VSQUE AD ERASMUS+ CLIL4DSN 2 Mobility in Italy - Rome – L.S. F. Enriques 18/3/2019 – 23/03/2019 CLIL4DSN Project N°: 2018-1-RO01-KA201-049519 BATHS OF THE CISIARII On the other side of the street there are baths named after a mosaic with cabs that were drawn by mules that transported passengers between Ostia and Rome. The names of some of this mules can be read, for example “Modest” or “ Silly”. On the other side of the modern road is a depression in the terrain. This is the so-called “Dead River”, the ancient course of the Tiber. Continuing along the Decumanus you see largely unexcavated buildings. SQUARE OF THE GUILDS ‘Temple’= a religious place used for trading, where Romans could sell and buy from every person that came by the Mediterranean Sea for example people from Tunisia. On the floor we have mosaics representing dolphins, ships and a lighthouse, with other drawings on the walls, made by not only Latins and Romans but Greeks too. FULLING MILL Fulling Mill is a place where clothes were cleaned. In the workshops there are four very large basins (sinks) where clothes were put to soak. There were 35 pressing-bowls where the material was further cleaned, by workers who “danced” or “jumped” on the pieces of fabric while they leaned on the small walls on either side. To remove the grease and to enhance the colours they used Detergents, such as the ‘creta fullonica’. For bleaching it was used urine, collected in public urinals; sulphur, that was burned under wooden frames over which the cloth was suspended. After the pressing, the material was taken to the basins again, where is was beaten so that it could be compact. Fulling Mills were also well known for their stench (bad smell), caused by the detergents. This could have affected also the health or the workers. ERASMUS+ CLIL4DSN 3 Mobility in Italy - Rome – L.S. F. Enriques 18/3/2019 – 23/03/2019 CLIL4DSN Project N°: 2018-1-RO01-KA201-049519 HOUSE OF THE MILLSTONES The House of the Millstones is a place where there were machines that were used for the kneading. The millstones were bowls made of porous volcanic stone in which the dough was kneaded by a combination of fixed and rotating blades. The floors suffered a lot, so it was therefore covered with basalt blocks, in which we can still see imprints of hooves. Several basins are present, because water was needed in very large quantities, for the kneading, as drinking water for the animals, for moistening the grain before milling and so on. CASTRUM The castrum was a huge building situated right in front of the House of the Millstones, used as a fortified military camp, It may have been 15 metres high with 60cm as the thickness of the walls. It has a concrete core and is made of bricks. HOUSE OF THE MILLSTONES AND CASTRUM To your left you will notice a wall of large tuff blocks. It belongs to the oldest settlement, dated to the early third century BC. The buildings on either side of the road may have been 15 meters high. The walls are 60 centimeters thick. They have a concrete core and a facing of bricks. Before taking this road you can visit the building a bit further on, to the left. This was a mill- bakery. Enormous halls contain the remains of many millstones. A millstone consisted of two parts: an immobile, conical base and on top of that a stone that was shaped like an hourglass. The grinding took place between the two parts that were at a very small, fixed distance. If the distance was too small, the grain would have been burnt, and if it was too large, too much bran would have remained. TEATRO ERASMUS+ CLIL4DSN 4 Mobility in Italy - Rome – L.S. F. Enriques 18/3/2019 – 23/03/2019 CLIL4DSN Project N°: 2018-1-RO01-KA201-049519 The theatre was built in the late first century BC by Agrippa. The lower level of the seating area (cavea) could be entered from the Decumanus through a central corridor, and through two lateral entrances. Four staircases led to the second and third level. The seating area could be shaded by an awning, suspended from poles inserted in travertine blocks. The area in front of the seating area had a marble floor. The high back wall of the stage has disappeared almost completely. In late antiquity the orchestra could be flooded for aquatic displays. The pool was not very deep, 1.40 metres at most. Naval battles were of course not re-enacted. HOUSE OF THE WINE-BAR The house of the Wine-Bar was a place like a bar nowadays, it probably had a second, a first, a ground floor and a warehouse. The bar was a bit small, in the inside it had a L-shaped counter, in which there were two sinks; it had on the walls some frescoes representing fruit, vegetables and drinks; In the outside of the bar there was a big courtyard with some benches, where the customers and the visitors could enjoy their drinks; there were frescoes some like human figures and sentences. BATHS To the side of the Decumanus, we can see the bath of Neptune and Coachmen. The baths are famous because of black-and-white mosaics of Neptune and his wife Amphitrite and marine creatures: dolphins, tritons, and Nereids on sea monsters. Taking a bath was not a simple chore. A visitor could use a cold bath (the frigidarium), a warm bath (the tepidarium) and a hot bath (the caldarium). A large complex would also contain an exercise area a swimming pool and a gymnasium. A visitor moves into the tepidarium would prepare him for the caldarium which was like a modern sauna. The idea, as with a sauna, was for the sweat to get rid of the body’s dirt.