Excavation

Excavation of area 1 at PortusThe 2007 Season

The first season of excavation at Portus took place over five weeks during September and early October, and built upon two earlier seasons of topographic work (March 2007) and resistance tomography (June 2007). The work uncovered a large open area at the eastern edge of the Palazzo Imperiale, revealing a large rectangular basin or canal which was probably of Claudian date, defined by a series of moles on the south side of the main Claudian basin of the port: the corresponding mole to the south was not located and will be a priority for 2008. This was filled with sand in the course of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, into which was constructed what appears to have been a large circular building in the Severan period. The whole area was extensively re-planned in the later 5th and 6th centuries AD. After the completion of the excavation at the end of the first week of October, there was a formal visit to the site by HRH Princess Alexandra on the 13th October, led by Professor Keay and accompanied by the British Ambassador, the Sub-Minister for the Ministero di Beni Culturali, the Mayor of Fiumicino, the Secretary to the Direttore of the Regione di Lazio, Director of the BSR and the Inspettrice di Porto and Soprintendente Regente of the Soprintendenza di Beni Archeologici di Ostia e Porto. This was followed by a visit to that part of Portus that lies within the property of the Duke Ascanio Sforza Cesarini.

The 2008 season

The main focus of excavations remained the area at the eastern edge of the Palazzo Imperiale initiated in 2007, with a view to clarifying the full occupation sequence. Considerable emphasis was directed towards the southern side of the canal, or basin, excavated in 2007. While the expected southern mole has remained elusive, the excavations uncovered the northern wall and a range of rooms which belong to a very large building that delimits the southern side of the channel and which must have respected, or been built on top of, the elusive southern mole. The building, which seems to have been a single structure, possibly a warehouse, runs for 250m in an east-west direction, and was c. 80m wide. This northern wall had a highly complex structural sequence extending between the 1st through to the later 5th centuries AD. More was learned about the circular building uncovered in 2007. It was in fact ovoid in shape (c. 42m x 35m) and may have acted as a centre for the registration of incoming cargoes. Emphasis was also directed towards the excavation of a suite of cisterns that abutted its northern side and overlooked the Claudian basin. It now seems certain that these were built during the Trajanic and Hadrianic periods, undergoing an important series of modifications down into the late antique period, as well as providing evidence for limited occupation during the 11th-13th centuries AD. It is possible that these were the easternmost of a line of cisterns along the northern façade of the Palazzo Imperiale, that were fed by an aqueduct running along the south side of the canal uncovered in 2007, and which may have been used to provide freshwater for ships leaving Portus on their return journeys.

The excavation has benefited from the collaboration of a number of individuals, including G. Avern, R. Cascino, E. de Gaetano, A. de Santis, H. Roued, H. Pagi, G. Richardson and G. Richardson, in addition to students from the participating institutions. It was complemented by extensive preliminary work on the finds (P. Copeland), ceramics (S. Zampini, Parsifal Cooperativa, Rome, P. Franco, University of Southampton), decorative stone (M. Bruno), environmental evidence (R. Ballantyne [University of Cambridge] & E. Margiritis [British School at Athens]).