Photos showing some of the complex archaeological remains at #OstiaAntica, ancient port of Rome.
#Archaeology #AncientRome #RomanSiteSaturday
📷 my own.

There's another great one here from the old fire brigade's barracks at #OstiaAntica near Rome, where some careless stonemason's lack of planning for his third line of chiselwork has been his only mark on posterity

One of the surviving mosaics from the della Marciana baths complex at Ostia Antica, near Rome. 📸 My own. #MosaicMonday #OstiaAntica #Roman

Consort of Neptune, Amphitrite rides a seahorse - a Roman floor mosaic from the Baths of Neptune in #OstiaAntica. Hadrianic in date (AD 117-138) and made in the workshops at Ostia.

#MosaicMonday #Archaeology #AncientRome
📸 my own.

Antike Steinfigur ohne Kopf und Arme steht vor verwitterten Ruinen und Pinien, umgeben von hellem Himmel und mediterraner Landschaft.

Wind, Regen, Jahre — sie arbeiten geduldig.
Nichts bricht plötzlich,
alles verschwindet in kleinen,
kaum hörbaren Schritten…🙏

#Vergänglichkeit #Zeitspuren #Ruinen #Steinskulptur #Geschichte #Erinnerung #ZeitUndStille #MomenteDerStille #ostiaantica

One of two fish shops on the Decumanus at #OstiaAntica One shop has a floor mosaic depicting a dolphin eating a squid and an inscription.

The inscription translates:

Envious creature, I trample you

Dolphins were thought to have disrupted fishermen.
#MosaicMonday #Archaeology #AncientRome
📸 my own

A Roman marble relief showing a teacher giving a lecture. From the Area Sacra of Via Della Foce, #OstiaAntica, late 4th C AD.
#ReliefWednesday #AncientRome
📸 my own.

🎹 Giovanni Bellucci – Recital pianistico
📅 Venerdì 9 gennaio 2026
🕣 Ore 20:30
📍 Sala Riario, Ostia Antica (Roma)

Il 2026 si apre nel segno del grande pianoforte con Giovanni Bellucci.

🎟️ Posti limitati… http://dlvr.it/TPyJKV #MusicaClassica #OstiaAntica #OOOHEvents #biglietteriaselfservice

Roman marble urn that contained the ashes of Lucius Torquatus and was found in Tomb 19 of the Necropolis on the Isola Sacra, #OstiaAntica.
Tomb 19 is a large tomb that was built to commemorate the deceased members of a household.
Dated 2nd C AD.
#TombTuesday #EpigraphyTuesday #Archaeology
📸 my own.

This isn’t #Pompeii. These streets and buildings are part of #OstiaAntica, now an archaeological park. Ostia was the port of #AncientRome on the Tiber estuary. The town is enormous. Spent a day there in October. Need to go back again because I didn’t see it all.
📸 my own.
#Archaeology #RomanEmpire

Roman fresco from the Domus Fulminata, #OstiaAntica, AD 200-250. It depicts Odysseus in his ship.
The house was built c. 70-75 AD but altered c. 150 AD and c. 250 AD. Inside the west wall an iron sword was found, perhaps a building sacrifice.

#FrescoFriday #AncientRome #Archaeology
📸 my own.

A relief sculpture of a blacksmith at work in his workshop. He’s surrounded by the tools of his trade. It was found in Tomb 29 at the Necropolis of Portus on the Isola Sacra. AD 160-180.

‘What we do in life echoes in eternity.’ 😊

📸 my own, #OstiaAntica.
#ReliefWednesday #AncientRome #Archaeology

Funerary altar of A. Egrillus Magnus, from a tomb near #OstiaAntica, AD 50-100, carved in marble.

From a tomb like the one that fronts the main road leading into ancient Ostia, which was Rome’s main port near the mouth of the Tiber.

#AncientRome #RomanEmpire
#TombTuesday
📸 my own

Piazzale delle Corporazioni #OstiaAntica faces the river Tiber.
Floor mosaics were laid in rooms flanking the square. Motifs were linked to commercial activities. Inscriptions name corporations of traders, ship-owners & entrepreneurs from Ostia & other significant trading communities.
#MosaicMonday

SARCOPHAGUS OF TITUS FLAVIUS TROPHIMAS, C. 1OO-140 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This interesting sarcophagus shows that artisans could have bespoke sarcophagi, which were not exclusively for the rich. At centre is a tabula with an inscription in Greek explaining that this is the coffin of T. Flavius Trophimas, a Greek Roman citizen (perhaps an imperial freedman) from Ephesus, "panmousas" or a cultivator of every art. It was commissioned by his friends Lucius Atilius Artemas and Claudia Apphias, both also of clear Greek origin. To the right of the tabula is a scene with two musicians, the one at far right beating a tambourine, the other in only a loincloth, playing a double flute and holding another flute. Both musicians are dancing in time with each other. On the other side of the tabula, a man is winding a rope from hanging skeins of fibre, while at far left is the deceased, seated as he makes a shoe, with a cupboard topped with wooden shoe-forms suggests his workshop. The inclusion of music in this sarcophagus relief suggests that the deceased, and/or his friends, were devotees of Isis, as the instruments being played frequently form part of representations of Isaic ceremonies.

#SarcophagusSaturday returns us to the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome with this box from #OstiaAntica of the earlier C2 CE, made for a Greek shoemaker from #Ephesus. At left we see him at work, seated with a shoe in his hands, next to a ropemaker. At right, two musicians play. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Marble clad toilet seats in an ancient #Roman latrina in Ostia Antica - Toilets were shared spaces.

Nobody worried about sitting side by side and doing their business more publicly than we are comfortable with today.

#RomanSiteSaturday #AncientRome #Archaeology

📸 my own, #OstiaAntica.

OPUS SECTILE FLOOR, 385-388 CE. MUSEO DELLE CIVILTÀ This extraordinary opus sectile pavement only finds comparisons in the House of Cupid and Psyche in Ostia and in the Diocletianic opus sectile floor of the Curia Senatus, which has been heavily restored. Here we have a background of giallo antico and a complex pattern of polygonal shapes with three recurrent themes, the circle, the four-pointed star, and the strange pelta or C-shaped shield. At the centre of each four-pointed star is a circle of alternating porphyry and serpentino set inside a round frame, or a circle of those marbles inset with a square of giallo antico or brecciated white marble. Within the octagons created between the stars, on a background of pavonazzetto, are circles framed with porphyry, with four peltæ in serpentino. This is a sophisticated and expensive floor, and the room must have had a public or ceremonial function.

#MosaicMonday takes us back to the #MuseodelleCiviltà in #Rome, this time to look at the dazzling #opussectile floor of the #domus of #PortaMarina from #OstiaAntica, 385-388 CE. Its complex #geometric design makes it the most perfect floor of its kind in #LateAntiquity. #AncientBluesky 🏺

MARKET SCENE, C. 100 CE. MUSEO DI OSTIA ANTICA. This relief in Proconnesian marble is from via della Foce in Ostia Antica. It shows a busy market scene, with customers arguing with each other at left, while, below some butchered fowl, another man is buying fruit from one of the two women behind the counter, which has two heaping baskets of fruit on it. A large wicker container next to the fruit evidently contains snails, as an oversized one is trying to make a break for it. At right, two monkeys are sitting on the counter, waiting for something to happen. Are they for sale or are they the pets of the women? If they are for sale, are they meant to be killed and eaten? Is this the ancient equivalent of the wet market at Wuhan?

#ReliefWednesday gives us a #market scene from #OstiaAntica, a bustling stall where clients on the left argue, while two women are selling fruit from full baskets on their counter. A huge wicker container holds snails, a delicacy. But what are the two monkeys? Pets or meat? #AncientBluesky 🏺

This delightful cephalopod in giallo antico was found in a pile of similar loose pieces of cut stone on the floor of the opus sectile hall of the domus of Porta Marina. Evidently they had never been installed, as they had no trace of the adhesive material (bitumen) that held such pieces to the wall. Was this house abandoned before it was finished, or did the design plans change midway? It is certainly hard to place this octopus in the decorative program of the room. On the tentacles, the suckers are clearly indicated, and there are two eyes on the main body, with a rather irregularly inscribed line within the main body, outlining most of it but creating a concave curve between the eyes, giving this octopus a worried frown.

Floating up from the darkness of late antiquity is this #opussectile #octopus from the #domus of #PortaMarina in #OstiaAntica, now in the #MuseodelleCiviltà in #Rome. This sea creature in giallo antico comes from somewhere in the famous opus sectile room, dating from 385-388 CE. #MosaicMonday 🏺

Two partial faces in opus sectile, made in a very simple, almost childlike style, with round open eyes in white marble, open mouths without lips (missing or never made) and skin in giallo antico. They seem to be watching the approaching disaster, whether by sea or by earthquake, that shattered the structure possibly even before it was finished.

#MosaicMonday brings us to the #MuseodelleCiviltà in #Rome for these two faces in #opussectile from the #domus of #PortaMarina in #OstiaAntica, dating to 385-388 CE. This splendid house had a mysteriously short life, and these faces seem to be reacting to imminent destruction. #AncientBluesky 🏺

#fotografiabiancoenero #fotobiancoenero #biancoenero #fotobn #bn #mitra #ostiaantica #archeologia #scultura #sculturaromana #sculpture #romansculpture #archaeology #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography #bnw #bnwphotography #photography #bw #photo

Ostia Antica is the place to be if trade overseas is your thing. Having a blast working out where all the merchants, negotiators, and traders came from. Ostia was Rome’s major port.
#RomanEmpire #Archaeology #AncientBlueSky
📸 my own, #OstiaAntica, #Italy

OPUS SECTILE OF THE DOMUS OF PORTA MARINA, 385-388 CE. MUSEO DELLE CIVILTÀ This central alcove of the domus of Porta Marina is decorated in an extraordinary, indeed unique way. Instead of the figurative and geometric designs of the larger part of the hall, this area, which was found without a floor, has two registers. The lower one is composed of a small diagonal grid of mosaic that resembles a mosaic pavement without a discernable pattern. The upper, larger register imitates in opus sectile a brick structure with four arches at centre on the back wall flanked by two flat-topped sections. Behind, within, above, and below the giallo antico "brick" is a backdrop of marble "opus reticulatum", a style of construction that had ceased to be used long before this was made. This strange wall reminds me irresistibly of the opus mixtum tombs outside Porta Romana at the other end of Ostia's Decumanus Maximus. In the foreground is the magnificent pavement of the main hall.

#MosaicMonday once again draws us back to the #MuseodelleCiviltà in the #EUR in the south of #Rome to marvel at the #domus of #PortaMarina from #OstiaAntica, where a central alcove imitates humble brick and #tufo, complete with shadows, in costly #opussectile. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Aren't the ancient mosaics at Ostia Antica (just outside Rome) amazing! A real joy to see on our visit last month!

I love seeing inspiring art from earlier times!

Thanks!

Sam aka LymphomaLass xx

#ostia #ostiaantica #OstiaAntica #rome #mosaics

OPUS SECTILE OF THE DOMUS OF PORTA MARINA, 385-388 CE. MUSEO DELLE CIVILTÀ This is the most magnificent interior from late-antique Ostia. The room is divided into two parts, with the smaller part, a large alcove, visible at far right. The main part of the hall has a surviving floor, which repeats the geometric themes of the wall, particularly an almost obsessive use of peltæ-like shapes, but these are fancier than ordinary peltæ, which originally represented the shields of the barbarian Amazons. The north wall is separated from the alcove by a huge acanthus-scrolled pilaster. The lowest register of the wall is made of large panels of giallo antico with complex frames separated by smaller panels in serpentino and giallo antico. Above this is a register which picks up the acanthus-scroll theme of the pilasters. The next register up, very fragmentary, shows large scenes of tigers attacking animals, in this case a stag, and a further register, almost nonexistent, has circles and geometric shapes.

#MosaicMonday takes us back to the #MuseodelleCiviltà in the #EUR, and to the breathtaking #opussectile hall of the #domus of #PortaMarina in #OstiaAntica, to get an overall view of the north wall. This is #LateAntiquity at its most refined, a real masterpiece of stonework. #AncientBluesky 🏺

An (old) brick wall.

Just a brick wall.
A 2,000-year-old brick wall, in Ostia Antica, Lazio.
#photography #bricks #wall #OstiaAntica #Lazio #antiquity #Roman

OPUS SECTILE OF THE DOMUS OF PORTA MARINA, 385-388 CE. MUSEO DELLE CIVILTÀ This astonishing opus sectile work, of which we see only a detail here, comes from a building outside Porta Marina, the Sea Gate of Ostia Antica, and closes off the space between the end of the Decumanus Maximus, the main east-west street of the city, and the ancient shore. With the front door open, it was probably possible to see the beach across a courtyard. This room north of the entrance opens onto the courtyard peristyle. It was discovered in 1942 but excavations only ended in 1962. Most of the dazzling marble decoration had to be pieced together as it was found on the floor. Here we see at centre an image of Christ, with a halo and brown beard (! Early for the beard) making a gesture of benediction. On panels to either side there are two peltæ-like curved forms, and the register above has a marvellous vegetal scroll in serpentino; the lowest register shows large framed panels in giallo antico.

#MosaicMonday for the next few weeks will be obsessing over the incredible #opussectile room of #PortaMarina, from the very edge of #OstiaAntica, though the room is now hidden away in the former Museo dell'Alto Medioevo in the #EUR. #Christ takes centre stage on the south wall. #AncientBluesky 🏺

SARCOPHAGUS WITH CLIPEUS AND EROTES, C. 250 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This sarcophagus, found in Ostia in 1894, has an autumnal quality, with two Erotes carrying game, the one at left with two marsh birds, the one at right holding a hare by the hind legs. Baskets of harvested fruit stand next to them. Two Erotes on either side of the central clipeus are looking at their colleagues with the game. Between their feet are comic masks. Under the clipeus are two more birds pecking at the ground. The curious thing here is that the portrait in the clipeus has been recarved, and now shows an older boy's face, but remnants of carved hair from the original portrait suggest that the child was a young initiate of Isis.

#SarcophagusSaturday brings us a medium-quality #sarcophagus from #OstiaAntica, now in the #BathsofDiocletian, made for a child initiate of #Isis and later recarved for an older boy. #AncientBluesky 🏺

The theater at #OstiaAntica
#RomanSiteSaturday 🏺

Wall painting from a tomb at Ostia Antica depicting a sacrifice to Hercules. Dating to the 2nd century AD, the painting is on display in the site museum. 📷 My own. #FrescoFriday #RomanArchaeology #OstiaAntica