Deities below the courtyard

In Ostia only three underground rooms can be found, apart from the service areas of baths. At least two of these had a religious function. The absence of cellars is probably due to the level of the ground water. Periodic floodings of the Tiber will not have been helpful either.

In the courtyard of the House of the Wine Bar a staircase in a stairwell leads down to a small underground room. The room receives some light through a window in the stairwell: it has an oblique bottom in order to allow more light to reach the room. Remains of plaster are found on all inner walls and on the ceiling of the stairwell: dark-red bands follow the corners between the walls and the ceiling, green and red vegetative motifs can be seen, and the excavators could recognize a red bird. In the back wall of the stairwell is a hole for a lead pipe that took water to a basin (G on the plan), above ground.

The courtyard of the House of the Wine Bar, with to the left the stairwell.
Photo: Klaus Heese.

Plan of the courtyard and the staircase.
A: courtyard; B: staircase; C: landing; D: window.
E: light-hole; F-G: basins, above ground.
Plan: Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica.

The interior of the covered stairwell. The first few steps are not covered.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

Remains of paintings on the ceiling of the stairwell.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

The underground room is entered by turning to the left through a door with two further steps. The present floor of the room (there is no recognizable antique floor) is at 2.05 below the floor of the courtyard. The room measures only 1.17 x 1.64 and is 1.79 high. The ceiling of the room is a cross-vault. According to the excavators it was originally finished with small terracotta discs. In the ceiling is a round hole, lined with bricks, providing more light (diameter 0.58, diameter above ground 0.83). In the west wall of the underground room is a wall-niche, not in the centre of the wall, but a little to the north, so that it is opposite the entrance. The bottom consists of two layers of brick, protruding in front of the wall and resting on two travertine consoles. On the walls and ceiling of the room and on the back of the niche are traces of thin plaster with traces of red paint. On the back of the niche are remains of a thick superimposed layer.

The niche in the underground room.
Photo: Daniel González Acuña.

Earlier on we saw a marble statuette of a Genius, found in the House of the Porch (in room 14, the south-east corner of the building). In the same house an entire underground complex was installed, below the courtyard with porticus. It was reached with a staircase in the porticus.

The courtyard of the House of the Porch. The staircase leading to the underground complex is towards the left.
The well with niches is below the metal grating towards the right. Photo: Klaus Heese.

A flight of six steps (A) leads from the portico of the courtyard to an open-air vestibule with a floor-niche (B). The vestibule gave access to a vaulted room (C; 0.89 x 2.54, height 1.33). This room presents a floor-niche at one end and a bench at the other, in the rear part. The bench is covered by a white marble slab and creates a wall-niche. The vestibule also gave access to a vaulted passage (D), leading towards a room with a well (F). The well was originally reached from the courtyard by a flight of six steps, blocked later (E). The well is surrounded by three small niches, the lateral ones rectangular, the central one semicircular. The walls were throughout plastered and decorated with a linear decoration or painted red. The bottoms were covered by large tiles. The vaulted room was obviously a cult room.

Plan of the central part of the House of the Porch with the underground rooms.
A: staircase; B: vestibule with niche; C: vaulted room with niche and bench. D: corridor: E: blocked staircase; F: well surrounded by niches.
Plan: Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica. Bottom left: 3D view of the staircase and vaulted room (Jan Theo Bakker).

The floor-niche at the foot of the staircase.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

The floor-niche in the vaulted room, near the entrance.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

The bench or wall-niche in the vaulted room.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

The corridor, looking from the vaulted room towards the well.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

The corridor, looking from the well towards the vaulted room.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

The well surrounded by niches.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

The blocked staircase opposite the well.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

An enigmatic situation is encountered in the House of the Well, an apartment that was later slightly enlarged and decorated in such a way that it has been called a domus, a wealthy house. A shop next to the apartment became part of the domus, and a staircase set against the back wall was then demolished. Against the same walls stands a masonry podium, the upper part of which is somewhat smaller and lined with marble. It has been suggested that there may have been a miniature temple, an aedicula, on top. Two small marble busts found in or near the house could then be related: one is of the child Commodus or Caracalla, the other of a deceased relative, or of the deified Antoninus Pius or Marcus Aurelius.

A staircase next to the podium leads to a large cellar that gave the building its name. It may have been a cistern for collecting rain-water. There are two terracotta pipes a little above the springing of the barrel vault leading up, and the walls are covered with waterproof mortar, opus signinum. At the far end of the room are two masonry piers, one meter high, that may have supported a shelf. In view of this shelf and because cellars are so rare in Ostia, it could be that the room had a religious function as well, with statuettes of deites placed on the shelf.

Plan of the underground room, the staircase and the podium.
Plan: Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica.

Traces of a removed staircase above the entrance of the cellar.
Photo: Hermansen 1982, fig. 4.