Our two weeks in Ostia have now finished and the team has returned home. The last day on site saw the trenches in the Bivium, the Paleastra, the Foro delle Statua Eroica and the Piazza della Vittora being closed and backfilled, meaning we could leave the site as we had found it. One of this year’s quirkier finds was from the Bivium, where a pawprint on one of the terracotta tiles was uncovered next to a drain. As this trench has been cleaned, the total station has been used to record the geographical points of significant features and findspots to allow an accurate map to be created at a later date. Such records ensure that the information we have revealed during this year’s dig will be available for others to use in the future if needed.
Eddie Luby using the total station by the Piazza della Vittoria
- Kent is not the only university conducting an archaeological dig at Ostia Antica; amongst others are the team from Bologna, who are working on the outskirts of the site. They have provided good company whilst we were working in the depot, and on Saturday Luke conducted a guided tour for them of our site. They very kindly offered to do the same for us before we go. Work in the depot has also been completed with all plaster and marble finds being succesfully catalogued and photographed. Illustrator Will Foster has been drawing some of the better preserved examples, including a fragments of decorated pottery, an inscribed slate and some gaming dice.
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Fragment of decorated terracotta, perhaps from roof of small temple
The drawing of finds means that details on the surface of objects that may be difficult to discern in photography or with the naked eye can be recorded and easily referenced. Will has done a great job with our artefacts. Further information on his work can be found at his website: www.willfosterillustration.com
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Die used for gaming
