Ostie. Fenêtres sur cour. Le Caseggiato delle Taberne Finestrate : reconstruire cinq siècles de vie ostienne
Résumé
This book is the result of a PhD thesis, recently defended at the Université catholique de Louvain, in Belgium. The aim of this research is to conduct a thorough study on the Caseggiato delle Taberne Finestrate at Ostia, a commercial building built at the beginning of the 2nd c. AD in the western district of the ancient city, as well as its predecessors.
One of the major peculiarities of this complex is the fact it has been built on top of the remains of a domus with atrium and peristyle, dated to ca. 60 BC and frequently restored until its demolition, when the caseggiato was built at the beginning of the 2nd century AD. During a series of surveys carried out by the Soprintendenza di Ostia during the 1940s and 1970s, a large amount of wall paintings and mosaics were found, among which a remarkable emblema in opus vermiculatum. Despite the quality of these floor and wall decorations, the excavations were never published and the materials were left in the deposits without being studied. One of the purposes of this Research has been to interpret the remains of the Republican domus through the examination of the archival record and the study of the archaeological materials – especially the wall paintings and mosaics – in order to enlighten one of the less known periods of the history of Ostia, the one preceding the large renovation works of the Emperor Hadrian.
The second aim of this work is to achieve a full comprehension of all the preserved structures, in order to reconstruct the building and life phases characterizing this parcel of land over the centuries, from the domus to the Caseggiato delle Taberne Finestrate. Thanks to a rigorous methodology, inspired by building archaeology, the walls have revealed all the complexity and the richness of the life in this part of the city. More than seven building phases were identified, and each of them could be relatively well dated, thanks to the analysis of the vertical stratigraphy, and the archival record. The analysis of the remaining structures has also allowed to reconstruct different aspects of the building during its life, among which its original aspect and its functioning: number of floors, roofing, water and closing system, wall and floor decoration, relation to the other buildings, effect of light and dark…
In this study, we have tried to show the importance of studying the microcontext of the house in order to understand the macrocontext of this quarter of Ostia. In fact, the study of a single parcel of land and its surroundings has provided a series of elements and dates that help reconstruct a broader reality, in this case the urban development of western district of Ostia from the 1st c. BC to the end of the 5th c. AD.
Cet ouvrage s'intéresse aux vicissitudes du Caseggiato delle Taberne Finestrate, un édifice commercial construit au début du IIe siècle ap. J.-C. dans les quartiers occidentaux de la ville antique d'Ostie. L'objectif est d'en reconstruire la vie au cours de toute son histoire, des premières traces d'occupation connues à son emplacement jusqu'à nos jours. Mais pourquoi ce bâtiment en particulier? Au premier abord, il s'agit d'une ruine anonyme et muette, que les visiteurs apprécient pour l'ombre du pin solitaire qui en marque l'entrée sans prendre la peine de s'interroger sur la nature des vestiges. L'objectif de cet ouvrage est de montrer que, comme dans une enquête policière, les apparences sont trompeuses.
En effet, le caseggiato présente une particularité: ses fondations reposent sur les restes d'une structure plus ancienne, construite autour des années 60 av. J.-C. et transformée au début du Ier siècle ap. J.-C., dotée d'une cour centrale avec bassin et d'une partie postérieure à vocation résidentielle, richement décorée de peintures murales, mosaïques et sols en mortier. De plus, les murs de l'édifice plus récent, conservés sur une hauteur de plus de cinq mètres, nous parlent des réaménagements que ce dernier a subis pendant ses nombreuses décennies d'occupation, de son aspect original (nombre d'étages, toiture, décor) et de son fonctionnement (alimentation en eau, système de fermeture des portes et des fenêtres, illumination?).
Cette étude permet de montrer que ce n'est que par l'étude approfondie du micro-contexte, qui se concentre sur la multiplicité de changements mineurs d'un édifice intégrés dans le cadre des macro-transformations urbaines, que l'on peut apporter plus de nuances et de précision pour reconstruire la vie des habitants d'une ville cosmopolite et bruyante comme le port de Rome, en l'occurrence sur près de cinq siècles, du Ier siècle av. J.-C. au IVe siècle ap. J.-C.