Recherche par auteur > Feist Sabine

With the recent resumption of investigations into the Constantinian basilica in south-east of Ostia, also new insights into the long-term development of Regio V have been provided. This part of the city underwent between the 1st century BC and the 7th century AD a very dynamic development, with multiple changes in the utilisation of public and private spaces. Originally located outside the city center, it was enclosed in the middle of the 1st century BC with the construction of the new city walls. However, large areas remained undeveloped. Surprisingly hesitant the area was gradually developed with roads and the first residential buildings in the early imperial period. The building boom of the 2nd century finally also reached this peripheral urban area, with older houses being replaced by large insulae. Nevertheless, some areas away from the main arteries remained vacant and were used as gardens or small agricultural areas. After the crisis of the 3rd c. the neighbourhood underwent the next major change with the erection of the bishop's church in the 4th century, during the construction of which an insulae and the adjacent gardens were built over. Subsequently, this new Christian sacral centre brought new impulses to the quarter, gradually shifting the urban development dynamic to the previous periphery of the city. This becomes particularly clear from the 5th/6th century onwards, when large buildings nearer to the centre gradually fell into disrepair while the area around the basilica remained an active settlement island and the streets towards the church continued to be in use. It was not until the Carolingian period that it was finally abandoned.