Browsing by Subject "Ostia"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

Designing for use : marking social space in complicated urban architecture at imperial Ostia
(2016-12) Rap, Evan Michael; Taylor, Rabun M.; Rabinowitz, Adam; Riggsby, Andrew; White, L. M.; Davies, Penelope
This dissertation explores the issue of architectural design in the ancient Roman port city of Ostia Antica. Working within a poststructuralist framework drawn from geography, sociology, architecture and urbanism, I propose the concept of the design- marker—an aspect of the built environment that reflects a designer’s expectations for the way his building would be used. Ostia is particularly well-suited to this study because of its complexity. As the complexity of the surrounding architectural environment increases, there are more types of social space—more potential environments and user groups—which the designer must take into account in his plans. It therefore becomes increasingly likely that discernible patterns of design-markers will emerge. Ostia boasts acres of ancient architecture, and its blocks are both taller and more structurally complicated than those at Pompeii. I identify two design-markers at Ostia: staircases and windows. When the relationship of all the staircases within a block are considered as a group, patterns in their deployment emerge. Designers at Ostia manipulate stairs’ placement and their visual status (in view/out of view) according to the social value of the spaces they lead to. They also distinguish their entrances visually from other doorways. Although staircases have traditionally been classified as internal and external, my analysis proves that staircases exist along a much wider spectrum of possibilities. Windows have not received much attention in scholarship. Windows affect interior experience by making a room susceptible to light, smell, and sound penetration from the exterior. Sometimes, as in the case of the well-decorated rooms of the House of the Muses, a window might be deployed specifically to put the interior on display. As that example shows, windows also exerted some influence on the experience of the building exterior. Similarly, loophole windows sacrifice interior lighting for the sake of the fortress- like connotations such windows project to the world outside. Ostian bars also oriented their windows in the most likely direction of traffic in order to entice new customers with the sounds and scents that escaped the tavern’s interior.
Temples and traditions in Late Antique Ostia, c. 250-600 C.E.
(2009-05) Boin, Douglas Ryan; White, L. Michael
This dissertation investigates one subset of the many "signs and symbols" representative of traditional Roman religion at Ostia -- its temples and sanctuaries. It uses this body of evidence to foreground a discussion of social and cultural transformation from the 3rd through 6th c. C.E. This period witnessed the decline of traditional religious practices and the rise of a more prominent Judaism and Christianity. Earlier treatments of this topic, however, have often approached the material by assembling a catalogue of buildings, documenting limited incidences of new construction or repair evidenced throughout the Late Roman town. This project, by contrast, instead of beginning with material dated to the "twilight years" of Roman Ostia, starts with the first records of excavation at Ostia Antica. It is these archaeological reports, some comprehensive, others more impressionistic, which document the eclectic nature of objects, sculpture, and architecture that were frequently found preserved throughout the town. These reports represent a new starting point for reconstructing the appearance of the Late Antique city. Drawing upon this material, each of my four chapters takes one element of the traditional landscape (the Capitolium, the so-called Temple of Hercules, the Sanctuary of Magna Mater, or the cult of Vulcan) and then interweaves one or more facets of Christianity or Judaism in order to reveal, dialectically, the dynamism of urban change. Socially and economically, Ostia itself witnessed significant changes during this time. This dissertation provides new answers to when, why, and how those changes took place. It reveals how ambitious architectural projects of the Late Roman Empire continued to achieve stature by visually engaging with both the presence and prestige of earlier monuments. Uncovering new evidence with which to challenge the concept of a late 4th c. "pagan revival," my research, in particular, suggests that accommodation of the past, not urban conflict, was a dominant social model. Finally, I suggest that a broad view of traditional and Christian festivals, from the 4th c. through 6th, shows how new cults, like those of Aurea or Monica, mother of Augustine, simultaneously preserved and transformed the city's traditions into the Early Middle Ages.