Excavated: 1912 (GdS 1912, 292 (October 14-15); GdS 1913, 302 (September 1-6); NSc 1912, 436; Vaglieri).
Mosaic: SO IV, 71-72 nr. 100, tav. 176 (top).
Inscription: CIL XIV S, 4549 nr. 19.
Date: 190-200 AD (SO IV).
Meas. of tesserae: 0.01-0.015; tesserae of restorations: 0.015-0.02 (SO IV).

Photos and drawings:

Front room and back room (gh)

Front room and back room (gh2)

Statio 20 + statio 19 (centre + right) (gh2)

Front room (ss)

Front room (dga)

Text and depiction (top) (SO IV)

Text and depiction (kh; 2010)

Text and depiction (kh; 2012)

Text and depiction (kh; 2014)

Text and depiction (kh; 2016)

Depiction (kh; 2014)

Depiction (kh; 2016)

Depiction (kh; 2016)

Text (kh; 2014)

Mosaic

The floor of the south-west part of the back room has been preserved, with a black band running along the south wall. There is also part of a north-south running black band, possibly the continuation of the other band, about halfway.

Most of the floor of the front room has been preserved. The west end is missing and the south part is damaged. The south side is bordered by a double black band. Only a tiny part of the outer band has been preserved, the east and west end of the inner one (four tesserae wide) are missing.

In the north part of the middle of the front room is a large white panel (2.30 x 1.65). It is surrounded by large, solid black areas with irregular borders, in turn surrounded by white tesserae. Becatti thinks that the black tesserae belong to the original design and calls the result bizarre. In the north part of the panel is a single line of text. Below that is a ship.

In the east part of the white panel is a single line of text in a tabula ansata with solid black ansae (h. of letters 0.24). We read:

NAVICTVRRITANI

Before and after TVRRITANI is a small object or L. In De Graauw's catalogue several harbours containing the name Turris can be found. Vaglieri has suggested that we should be thinking of Turris Libisonis or Turris Libysonis, modern Porto Torres, situated on the north-west part of Sardinia. This is quite acceptable, because the skippers of Cagliari had an office nearby (nr. 21). The small L at the end of the text might be intended as the beginning of Libisonis.

Suggested reading:

NAVIC(ulari) TVRRITANI (perhaps: L(ibisones))

Depictions

At the south-east corner of the black restoration part of a north-south oriented grain measure seems visible, resting on three feet, above which are two white lines. The bottom is on the south side. Next to it is part of an oval, with a white inner line. On the south side of the black area, narrow and wide white bands or intrusions create black rectangles.

The ship touches the tabula of the text. It is not below the centre of the text, but moved to the left. It is sailing to the left (the north; to the south according to Vaglieri). Curved, diagonal lines below the ship indicate the sea, instead of the usual horizontal lines.

Becatti
Ship. Siccome questa irregolarità strana della divisione delle zone nere e bianche non è dovuta a restauri o a rappezzi posteriori ma è originale, rimane singolare e bizzarra né se ne comprende la causa, che può essere la mancanza di tessere o un cambiamento a metà del lavoro. Nella parte a fondo nero è un rettangolo nero irregolare a fondo bianco di m. 2,30 x 1,65, nel quale è raffigurata una nave con prua obliqua, prora ricurva con due timoni poppieri. I fianchi della nave sono sottolineati da due linee bianche. L'albero maestro fissato con le sartie e con lo straglio a poppa, ha l'acato molto irregolarmente disegnato nel reticolo dei ferzi, delle bende e degli imbrogli, ma la parte terminale dell'albero e della vela è tagliata dalla tabella iscritta soprastante A prua è l'albero obliquo di bompresso con il dolone appeso al pennoncino, fissato dalle briglie.

Masonry

The back room has a rear wall of opus latericium. A wide door with a marble threshold in this wall is shared with statio 20. The door belongs for the most part to the latter statio. The back room has a south wall of opus vittatum mixtum B, but no north wall. According to Vaglieri's plan the western two-thirds of the south wall had a double width. Vaglieri's plan also shows a wall between the front room and back room, set slightly towards the east, leaving an opening at the north end. Excavation of the drainage channels in the area showed that a channel must be running below statio 19, from west to east.

Interpretation

Extensive ties between Ostia and Turris Libisonis were analysed by A. Mastino.[1] In the third and fourth century we find in the city Rutilius Ostesis (for: Ostiensis), Calpurnia Ostia, and Cerdo, slave of L. Veratius Hermeros, ab Ostia. An important citizen of Ostia, A. Egrilius Plarianus, was active in the city.

Usually there is no strong relation between a frame and the depiction inside, but that is not the case here. The ship, the only object that is depicted, is moved to the upper left, so that frame and ship interact with each other. The reality might be that of a window through which the ship is seen, The thick black band suggests a thick window frame, i.e. a thick wall. Because we are on the quays and because the lighthouse is depicted so often on the square, we could be inside the lighthouse. Suetonius and Pliny the Elder use the word turris when describing the lighthouses of Alexandria and Portus, so the depiction may be a visual word game with Turris Libisonis.[2]

It would be nice if the "bizarre" south part of the frame would confirm this hypothesis. Seen from the north it could be a representation of a wall with battlements, or a skyline, not a very convincing explanation however. This part may also be the work of the men who laid the floor in the neighbouring statio 20, which I have called the "statio of the mosaic graffiti". This is suggested especially by the grain measure, the upper side of which is "glued" to the solid black area. We cannot even exclude that it is a joke of modern restorers: looking from the north we can also see a steam locomotive, pulling the carts in which excavated earth was removed.[3]

(1) Mastino 1984.
(2) For an explanation of the Roman name of the city see Sanna 2009, 1517-1518: "Del nome romano, Turris Libysonis, si nota come Turris (antica radice mediterranea giunta quasi immutata fino a noi) indichi chiaramente la costruzione fortificata, con Libysonis appare chiaro un riferimento alla Libya, antico nome designante l'Africa settentrionale: il nome della colonia romana sembra alludere a una fortificazione nuragica (o fenicio-punica?) abitata da genti provenienti (o reduci?) dalla "Libia" classica".
(3) Cf. this photo on Roma Sparita of the "ferrovia decauville" to the south of Rome in 1929. If it was a joke, then it concerned this profile only, because Finelli says that "fu scoperto quasi tutto il pavimento a mosaico bianco e nero".