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Regio I - Insula XVII - Caseggiato con Fornace (I,XVII,1)
(Building with an oven)

This is a Hadrianic group of shops. In the north-west part a large oven was installed. It has been suggested that roof-tiles were produced here, some of which were found nearby. However, it seems strange that clay was taken to the centre of Ostia to be baked as tiles.

The oven is very reminiscent of the ovens in the Ostian bakeries. It is larger than the largest bakers' oven, in the House of the Millstones (I,III,1). The inside diameter is 5.80 from side to side, and 5.40 from back to front (House of the Millstones: 4.60 x 4.90). In the tufa blocks are horizontal grooves, as in the oven in the bakery. These probably resulted from the use of a rotating grate, on top of which the bread was placed.

Millstones, kneading machines, water basins, and floors of basalt blocks were not found in the building, and there is no trace of a bakery nearby. The only relevant objects in the neighbourhood are a fairly small meta (the lower part of a millstone), interred in building III,I,14, in the fourth room from the east along Via della Foce, and a fragment of a catillus (the upper part of a millstone), standing on a wall in front of the House of Bacchus and Ariadne (III,XVII,5). It could be that some people made bread at home, which they then took to this oven. It must be said however that making bread in an apartment on an upper floor seems an unlikely activity (it is easier to imagine that bread of a high quality was made by the slaves of the wealthiest Ostians, such as those living in the suburban villas along the coast). Communal ovens are today still found in, for example, Morocco.



Plan of the building.
After SO I.

Photos



The oven seen from the west. Photo: Daniel González Acuña.


The interior of the oven, seen from the north-west. Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.


Detail of tufa blocks with grooves. Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.


The tiles found near the oven. From SO I, Tav. XIV, 4.


[jthb - 28-Apr-2022]