Traces of a Roman past
Collection: The evolution of Rome's maritime facade: archaeology and geomorphology at Castelporziano
This exhibit takes us to the mighty Empire of Rome. Highlighting the breadth of the ADS archive. In this collection, excavations have been carried out in Italy. The images show some findings from the fieldwork, such as bricks, coins and mosaics. This archive is a large and detailed record of the excavations which you could get lost in for hours.
Castelporziano or Castel Porziano is the 29th district of the City of Rome. It is situated about 7km south of Ostia, historic city and old harbour of Rome. This area is a nature reserve and hosts the Presidential Estate of Castelporziano and the old remains of the city of Laurentum. This area is really famous, initially, thanks to a letter written in the year 100 AD by Pliny the Younger, the notorious Latin writer, in which he talks about his Roman villa on the Laurentine shore. Throughout the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries scholars excavated and explored the area hoping to find Pliny's villa. In 1983, a project was initiated by the archaeological superintendency of Ostia. The project aimed to investigate the evolution of the Laurentine Shore, particularly focussing on the relationship between the built and natural environments. A phase of analysis and mapping of the area, preceded a second and third phase that included excavation of the Laurentine villas and Rome’s Maritime Facade. This collection contains all the digtal records created by this project.
This collection contains not only new topographical, geophysical, geomorphological and environmental data created during fieldwork in 2006-9, but also contains digitised material from all earlier archaeological site records (graphic, photographic and written) from 1984 to 2005.
"I particularly like this collection because of the structured nature of the archive and the breadth of data that it contains. You are grabbed by the photographs of enigmatic and beautiful objects like those presented in this exhibit, but once you enter the archive you find yourself intrigued by topographical surveys and environmental data that you were not expecting." Katie Green, ADS Communications and Access Manager.