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Classical and historical archaeology

Archaeology of Portus course – second run

The Archaeology of Portus Massive Open Online Course has just started again. There is still time for you to join the many thousands of people on this free course focused on our work at Portus. The port of Imperial Rome. Sign up via the FutureLearn Archaeology of Portus page. We have had an even greater number of learners enrolling than last year and have made modifications throughout the course. Continue reading →

Insula dell’Ara Coeli

The 2nd c. AD Insula dell’Ara Coeli, which stands five floors high at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, is the only surviving extant example of a Roman apartment building in Rome, although such structures must have once dominated the cityscape. Yet the insula has never been studied in full: a small-scale excavation and some basic consolidation work were carried out in the 1960s, but much of the building remains uninvestigated. Continue reading →

New city wall discovered at Ostia

Newly discovered features at Ostia (Satellite imagery courtesy of Digital Globe Inc) Researchers from the universities of Southampton and Cambridge have discovered a new section of the boundary wall of the ancient Roman port of Ostia, proving the city was much larger than previously estimated. The team, led by Professor Simon Keay (Southampton) and Professor Martin Millet (Cambridge), has been conducting a survey of an area of land lying between Ostia and Portus. Continue reading →

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles at Portus

Parrot AR Drone at Portus Since the start of excavations by the Portus Project in 2007, aerial photography has played an important role in the recording, analysis and presentation of the research. The ability for the archaeologist to have a bird’s-eye view of an excavation gives the opportunity to see the plan of structures, their relationships with each and alignments which are not visible at ground level. Continue reading →