Terracottas from Roman Ostia

Roman Ostia, port of Rome, was a chief collection point of goods with a multi-ethnic population. This book investigates the meaning of overlooked terracottas which, with their low economic value but strong symbolic significance, reveal key evidence about daily life in this multicultural milieu. 

502 portable clay objects were examined: namely figurines (humans, deities, animals), ornamental and death masks, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic vessels (e.g. depicting the old drunken woman or Mother Goddess), highly decorated beehive and circular money boxes, and hemispherical moulds characterised by two interlocking halves impressed with scenes from the theatre, the circus and the amphitheatre. 

A novel method for analysing artefacts was employed combining the Italian iconographical tradition for the study of the piece with North European theoretical and contextual approaches towards finds distribution, social identity and the life cycle. Pilot experiments carried out on moulds have generated original views about their possible use for plaster casting in polyvalent workshops. 

Acknowledgments 

Abstract

Riassunto

CHAPTER I

Terracottas in the Ostian context: aims and methods of the research

CHAPTER II

Clay figurines, figurine lamps and busts

CHAPTER III

Wheel–made clay pigs with round bodies decorated by glass beads

CHAPTER IV

Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic vessels

CHAPTER V

Highly-decorated beehive-shaped and circular money boxes

CHAPTER VI

Masks for decorative purposes and for rituals (death masks)

CHAPTER VII

Wax, cake or plaster moulds?

CHAPTER VIII

Manufacture and the origin of the Ostian terracottas: local-regional productions and imported items.

CHAPTER IX

Ostia: distribution and dating

CONCLUSION

MAP 1

MAP 2

Introduction to the catalogue

CATALOGUE

TABLE A

TABLE B

TABLE C

BIBLIOGRAPHY