Excavated: 1913 (no excavation report published; Vaglieri) - 1914 (GdS 1914, 18 (January 9-24); NSc 1914, 98-99; lower level; Pasqui).
Mosaic: SO IV, 81-82 nr. 126-128, tav. 101 (top) and 182 (top).
Inscription: ---.
Date: 190-200 AD, ca. 150 AD (lower level) (SO IV); 200-210 AD, ca. 150 AD (lower level) (Clarke).
Meas. of tesserae: 0.015-0.02; tesserae of lower level: 0.01 (SO IV).
Mosaic
General descriptionThe statio was excavated in 1913. In 1914 the lower level of the back room was investigated. A mosaic of a ship on the upper level was then removed and attached to the back wall of statio 51 (meas. of fragment 1.70 x 0.70). Today it has been taken to the storage rooms. We are not told where exactly in the back room the mosaic was found, nor whether it was facing east or west. However, on the model in the Museo della Civiltà Romana it is shown in the passage between the front room and back room, to be looked at from the west (upside down). It also shows a small dolphin below the ship. Becatti also saw remains of a rectangle with a geometric design in the back part of this statio and 51. On NADIS inv. nr. 644 and on the model it is visible at the back end. It consists of small, alternating black and white triangles.
The western part of the floor of the front room has been preserved. Two black bands, five tesserae wide, are the continuation of bands in statio 51. The western one is lost after a short distance. The eastern one continues to the west at the south end of the passage to the back room. Below this band are the remains of a dolphin. There is no west-east band on the north side of the front room. On the south side it is bordered by a wide black band and by a band of white marble (slightly to the south of the axis of the central column), both on the area of statio 53. To the north-west of these bands, in statio 52, is a patch of black and white tesserae with a checkerboard pattern. To the north-east is a small, black patch.
In the back room, at the lower level, most of the eastern half of the floor has been preserved. The north and south edges are missing. In the centre, partly in the passage to the front room, is an elaborate frame (1.58 x 2.29) with a depiction. The frame is surrounded by white tesserae forming diagonal lines. The frame itself consists of two black bands on the outside, one black band on the inside, and a wickerwork-frame in between. Counting the tesserae from the outside: 3 (black), 4 (white), 3 (black), 3 (white), 9 (wickerwork), 3 (white), 2 (black).
TextNo text has been preserved.
DepictionsThe floor of the upper level is almost identical to the situation in statio 51. In the front room are the remains of a huge depiction of a dolphin, going to the right. Only the tail has been preserved. As in statio 51, the ship was in the passage between the front and back room, but here it is going to the left, towards the other ship. On the deck are two groups of amphorae. Some thin white lines on the body may represent stamps or painted texts. On the right part of the deck is a trapezoid with six white lines. It seems to be resting on black legs and on one of the rudders. In the centre is another trapezoid, with five white lines.
In the frame on the lower level, below some vegetation, are a bull and a man holding a spear, crowning himself with a crown of victory. Some coloured tesserae of glass paste were used: blue, light blue and green according to Pasqui ("turchino, verde, celeste"), yellow, blue and green according to Becatti ("gialle, azzurre, rosse"). The coloured glass tesserae were used for the belt of his clothes (tunica succincta; Finelli says "stretta alla cintola ha una fascia ornata da asticelle verticali formate da tasselli di pasta vitrea, di colore rosso, giallo, celeste, violaceo"). Shadows are indicated by slightly curved lines.
Becatti
Hunting scene. Un cacciatore di prospetto stante, con corta tunica manicata, stretta e cinta alla vita con un parco rimbocco, le cui linee ondulate sono rese a tessere policrome di pasta vitrea gialle, azzurre e rosse, con due clavi verticali paralleli, porta brache aderenti, rese con linee orizzontali parallele come se fossero a strisce (è questo il costume tipico dei venatores e dei bestiarî del circo [1]) e sandali allacciati al collo del piede. Tiene con la mano sinistra una lancia con punta a foglia cuoriforme e con la mano destra si pone in testa una corona, volgendo il viso leggermente verso destra. Dietro di lui, ai suoi piedi, è un toro atterrato, rappresentato un po' a volo d'uccello, con il muso chino fra le zampe anteriori divaricate, stesa la sinistra, piegata la destra. La posa del vincitore è elastica con la gamba sinistra un po' scartata; la testa girata e l'asta obliqua contribuiscono a sottolineare lo slancio e la mossa della figura. Ombre curvilinee si disegnano sul terreno. La parte superiore del campo è decorata da un cespo di acanto stilizzato, da cui si dipartono lateralmente due girali con volute e viticci. Il campo intorno al rettangolo figurato è tessuto a file diagonali.
Geometric design. La metà Ovest del lungo ambiente doppio postico era decorata a mosaico geometrico a embricazione con file di ventagli mezzi bianchi e mezzi neri, quasi tutto scomparso.
Ship. In questa seconda [nave] non si può sapere se era raffigurato il timoniere; chiara è invece la cabina di poppa, uguale è il carico delle anforone panciute.
Masonry
The back wall of the back room is of opus reticulatum. There is a very low north wall of uncertain masonry. This is not indicated on the plans of Vaglieri and Gismondi. Most likely it is modern, added to bridge the difference in height between stationes 51 and 52. There is a south wall of uncertain masonry, the west end seemingly of opus vittatum simplex. It is important to note that it starts at the lower level and is higher than the upper level. The east part of the wall is preserved to a low height. The higher part shows the core of the wall at the east end. There may have been a door here. The central columns do not have a brick plinth at the upper level (fake brick plinths surround most central columns, at ca. 30 centimetres above travertine plinths). The wall can also be seen on the model.
Interpretation
The wickerwork frame is very common in the black-and-white mosaics of Ostia. It is very similar to that in stationes 26-28.
Amphorae are shown on the deck of the ship, as in statio 51. The statio clearly forms an entity with statio 51: they share areas framed by black bands and a mosaic with a geometric design in the back rooms, the two huge dolphins mirror each other, and the ships are very similar. The mosaics do not indicate an entrance of the back rooms.
Figures in the work of Casson show other examples of amphorae on deck: a relief showing a coastal vessel in the harbour of Portus, a relief of a small cargo ship, a mosaic of a merchant galley loaded with amphorae.[2] However, their presence on the deck of a seagoing ship seems unlikely: they would be an obstacle for the work of the sailors, and make the ship top-heavy. I prefer to think that rivergoing vessels may have had amphorae on deck, but that all amphorae in seagoing ships were in reality in the hull. In stationes 51 and 52 some are on deck, because the mosaicist wanted to show (the type of) cargo clearly.
The amphorae are so-called Dressel type 20 amphorae, that were used for the transport of olive oil. They were made in Spain.[3] Archaeologists are very familiar with this type of amphora, and we may safely assume that in antiquity the people working on and coming to the square immediately linked the mosaics to olive oil and Spain as well. Taken together with the absence of a mosaic text (there may have been a marble inscription over the entrance) and the proximity of a statio used by a province (statio 48), I suggest that the pair 51-52 was assigned to two provinces, to skippers from Hispania Tarraconensis and Hispania Baetica (Spain).
A question that must be raised but is beyond the scope of this study is, what organizational structure lay behind the presence of Spain. On the side of the guilds we may think of, for example, the corpus of the diffusores olearii (ad annonam Urbis), documented in Hispalis (Sevilla) (see the section "Masters, superintendents, skippers, traders, merchants").
(1) Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire, s.v. venatio, fig. 7372, s.v. venator, p. 710.
(2) Casson 1971, 177, figs. 140, 148, 155.
(3) A summary of Dressel 20 amphorae is provided by the Archaeology Data Service of the University of York. See also Broekaert 2011.