The House of the Gorgons is located to the north of a very busy intersection: at a little square where the southern stretch of the Cardo and Semita dei Cippi meet. The Porta Laurentina is not far to the south. The building was erected in the resulting triangular space. It was excavated in 1940. I compiled a detailed catalogue in 1987.
Click to enlarge.
Plan of the building. Based on Heres 1982, fig. 73 and Becatti 1961, Tav. CCXX, with corrections.Location and exterior
The building is situated opposite the Porta Laurentina, at a distance of some 60 metres. It is at the junction of the Cardo Maximus and Semita dei Cippi, and as a result it has a trapezoidal shape. There was a small square in front (to the south) of the building (the square is the "bottom" of the triangle formed by the two roads flanking the building). The plan in Scavi di Ostia volume I shows the square as a clearly delimited area without basalt blocks. It may have been paved with bipedales or travertine slabs. According to the same plan basalt blocks were touching the east facade. There was therefore no sidewalk here, and in the main building phase (Constantinian) there were no doors in the east wall. Along the west wall is a low sidewalk, the edge of which is indicated by a row of basalt blocks. The sidewalk widens towards the north. It is not known what constituted its surface. In the facade, in the south-west corner of the building, is a large, protruding travertine block. According to Van der Meer it may have been a boundary marker, not only of the insula, but also of one of Ostia's ancient regiones, which are mentioned in an inscription (Van der Meer 2002, 578).
Building phases
The oldest visible remains have been dated to the Hadrianic period by Blake (Blake 1973, 177, referring to the outer north wall), but to the last quarter of the second century by Heres and Van Dalen (Van Dalen 1991, 251, 254). To this period belong the whole of the north wall (including a door and a partially blocked door changed into a window), most of the east wall (including a blocked door), a small part of the south wall, the lower part of the west wall (covered by a row of bricks, sesquipedales and bipedales at the average height 0.25), and some of the masonry above the row. The masonry is opus mixtum (north wall), opus reticulatum (north wall) and opus latericium. The mixtum and reticulatum of the north wall were presumably used because it was not a facade - latericium is often preferred for facades. The continuation of the west wall beyond the line of the north wall indicates that to the north the building was continued or planned to be continued. Already the building had assumed its characteristic shape: that of a topped triangle. This awkward shape was the inevitable consequence of the position of the building, north of the intersection of Cardo Maximus and Semita dei Cippi that meet at a sharp angle.
Doors in the outer north and east wall were blocked, according to Heres still in the second century. The blocking of the western door in the north wall (tufa stones in an irregular pattern) might be related to the construction of Caseggiato I,XIII,5 in the late-Severan period (c. 210-235 AD: SO I, 237).
The second main building period has been dated by Heres to the years around 250 AD (opus latericium). It is likely that the masonry from this period in the central part of the building belongs to a courtyard with porticus, as was the case in the fourth century. Some masonry in the west wall of the building, narrowing doorways, may belong to the same period. Some entrances of the supposed courtyard were closed off or narrowed not long after the middle of the third century.
The building as we see it today was for the most part constructed still later, according to Heres after Maxentius, during the reign of Constantine, c. 307-325 AD (opus vittatum). There are a few minor later additions. The edifice had now almost completely been rebuilt, ground floor and upper floor(s) alike. The building that had emerged was accessible from the south and west only.
Ground floor
Room 4 was a shop, not connected with the interior (Girri 1956, 17). In its entrance is a shop-threshold, with a groove for shutters, and to the south of that a depression with pivot-hole for a door opening inwards. In the southeast part of the building rooms 12 and 15 (interconnected) were also not connected with the interior. Room 12 only was accessible from the outside. In its entrance are a step and a threshold for two doors. Room 15 had a floor of bipedales.
The remaining rooms on the ground floor were accessible from the south only, through vestibule 6. In the entrance to room 6 are a step and a threshold for one door. In the north wall of the vestibule is a bench, in masonry that has been dated to the third quarter of the third century. However, the bench may have been hacked out later, because its back is showing the core of the wall. According to Becatti the vestibule received light through a window above the bench (Becatti 1949, 6). From room 6, rooms 1 and 2 to the west can be entered. They are set apart from the rest of the building. The entrances to both rooms had doors (one and two respectively, witness the pivot holes), room 1 had a floor of bipedales. There was once a door in the west wall of room 2, its north jamb latericium (undated), its south jamb partly latericium (undated), partly vittatum. The vertical joint indicating the position of the south jamb separates the vittatum to the north (the vittatum of the blocking) and south. This suggests that there was more than one building phase in the period c. 307-325 AD. The same is suggested by vertical joints in vittatum in the east walls of rooms 2 and 6, and in the southeast corner of room 11. Corridor 7-8 was accessible directly from the vestibule, corridor 14 via the tiny room 13 that has a simple white mosaic on its floor.
The organizing feature was courtyard 10 with its porticus. It has a simple black-and-white mosaic. The west part has a wide and widening black band, possibly intended as an optical correction for the irregular shape of the courtyard, as seen from the accentuated room 11. On the north part stands a small marble basin with hydraulic mortar on the inside. It is aligned with the south wall. A wide window (modern) seems to have provided light to corridor 8. The doors leading to rooms 7, 11 and 14north could all be closed off by two doors. A stepped passage to room 14south has in its threshold a shallow pivot-hole.
The western corridor, or porticus, was divided into two rooms, 7 and 8, by a wall, the south facing of which (latericium with some tufa stones) has been dated by Heres to the years around 250 AD, while she leaves the north facing (vittatum) undated (contrary to what her plan indicates there is a vertical joint in the north-east corner of room 7). A black-and-white mosaic with a geometrical pattern has been found in both rooms. The pattern does not take the dividing wall into account. Unfortunately it is not at present possible to study the relation between the wall and the mosaic, so that it remains uncertain whether the wall has been set on top of the mosaic.
Off corridor 8 opens room 3. In its entrance is a threshold for one door. Directly behind was a large gorgoneion of which only part of a wing was found. The rest of the floor is covered by a mass of black and white tesserae. Behind room 8 is understairs 9.
To the north of the courtyard is an accentuated room, 11, that may have been two stories high. A subsidiary door, leading to corridor 8, was hacked out in the west wall. Behind the threshold is a large gorgoneion. It is surrounded on three sides by a black-and-white geometrical mosaic, an arrangement that is usually interpreted as belonging to a triclinium. The pattern to the east of the gorgoneion is wider than that to the west.
The eastern corridor has the same floor-mosaic as its pendant, but no subdivision. Off it open rooms 16, 17 and 18. The entrances to these rooms could be closed off by, respectively, at least one, two, and perhaps one door.
On the floor of room 16 is a black-and-white mosaic with a geometrical pattern that is not found elsewhere in the building. The central rectangle is not aligned with any of the four walls of the room. Its southwest corner ends logically below the west wall, but unfortunately it can at present not be checked whether this wall has been set on top of the mosaic. The orientation of this mosaic too may have been intended as an optical correction. The room could be heated, witness a hypocaust below the mosaic.
Behind the threshold of room 17 is a large gorgoneion accompanied by the words Gorgoni bita, interpreted by Becatti as Gorgoni vita ("Avoid Gorgo!"). Normally one would expect an accusative with vitare (so Gorgonem vita), but a dative is possible. An example of the dative is found in Apuleius, Apologia 29 (I owe this information to dr. R.Th. van der Paardt). Henig has suggested "Life to Gorgo!", instead of "Avoid Gordo!" (M. Henig, Religion in Roman Britain, London 1984, 168). Behind the emblema is a rectangle with a geometrical pattern. Presumably a bed or table was placed on top. In the east part of the south wall are three vertical heating-channels. There is conflicting information about the heating-system in the old reports (SO I, 158 versus Becatti 1949, 6), but in 2008 a hypocaust was found below the mosaic, connected with the three vertical channels.
No floor-mosaic was found in room 18. There was apparently a window in the blocked doorway in its north wall (Becatti 1949, 6). This room is the logical place to look for the furnace used for the heating of rooms 17 and 16. This furnace may have been used as a kitchen-furnace as well, in relation to triclinium 11 (for examples of furnaces in Pompeian houses used for two or three purposes: A. & M. De Vos, "Pompei, Ercolano, Stabia", Guide archeologiche Laterza, Roma-Bari 1982, 56, 93, 163, 213). An irregular hole passing through the wall is found both in the south and east wall of room 18. The latter hole is sloping downwards towards Semita del Cippi. Below the floor, a west-east running drainage channel with an inspection well were found in 2008.
Upper floors
The building has one internal and one external staircase. The former, at the south end of room 14, can be dated to the early-fourth century. If it ended at a landing one metre deep, it would have reached the first floor at a height of c. 3.25, which would take the height of the ground floor to c. 2.95. The installation of the latter, in room 5, cannot be dated. It was not accessible from the interior. The back wall of the understairs, below the second and third tread, is in vittatum, probably Constantinian, but not dated explicitly by Heres. The south wall of the staircase, above the treads, is undated latericium. The floor of room 5 is a little over one metre above the present ground level of the sidewalk. Should we imagine that it was reached by disappeared treads set against the outer west wall, blocking the sidewalk? Perhaps the high level was caused by the need to reach the first floor at an angle that was not too steep. But if that was the case, then why is the first tread at some distance from, and not directly behind the threshold? It is also possible that the level is related to a raising of the street, as happened so often in Ostia in later antiquity. Several thresholds of staircases at a high level can be seen in the surrounding area, for example in Caseggiato I,XIII,5, Botteghe V,I,1, and the Caseggiato dell'Ercole (IV,II,4). If the staircase ended at a landing c. one metre deep at the east end of room 9, it would have reached the first floor at a height of c. 3.07, which would take the height of the ground floor to c. 2.77 (the calculations for staircase 5 still have to be confirmed by absolute measurements of height). In the entrance to the staircase is a threshold for two doors. The lower, preserved part of the jambs consists of thick travertine blocks. Holes and grooves in the jambs were used for bolting the doors. The outside of the left jamb is curved inwards, so that the joint between this block and the bricks against which it was set is also curved. This suggests that the travertine is reused material, as do some grooves in the threshold.
Decoration
The remains of a thick layer of plaster looking like opus signinum on the south wall of room 10 may indicate that this wall had marble revetment. Remains and traces of plaster can be found throughout the building, both on the in- and outside. There are some scanty remains of paint (bands). During the excavation, paintings imitating marble revetment could be seen in rooms 16 and 17. The paintings are dated by Van Essen to the period Constantine-Theodosius I, by Borda to the period of Constantine (Van Essen 1954 (1), 53-54; Borda 1958, 139). The mosaics are dated by Becatti to the end of the third or the first half of the fourth century (contemporaneous with the vittatum), by Van Essen to the period of Constantine or later (Becatti 1961, 24-25; Van Essen 1954 (2), 111).
Function
The function of the building is discussed in the topic about the area around the Porta Laurentina, where it is argued that this was the office of the Ostian undertakers.
Photos
The building seen from the west, from staircase 5. Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.
The building seen from the north, from staircase 5. Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.
The mosaic in room 17. Becatti 1961, Tav. LXXII.
ICCD photos:
Room 3, seen from the east. Neg. N015535.
Corridor 7, seen from the north. Neg. N015536.
Corridor 14, seen from the north. Neg. N015537.
Room 16, mosaic floor. Neg. N015533.
[jthb - 13-Dec-2020. For the work on this building I would like to thank Thea Heres, R.Th. van der Paardt, L. Bouke van der Meer, Hanna Stoeger, Jorgen Christian Meyer, Boudewijn Sirks, and Éric Rebillard.]
