The new archaeological project of the Villa del Casale in Piazza Armerina (EN) has as one of its aims a review of the lamp finds uncovered during the excavations in years 1950-1955 led by Gino Vinicio Gentili and published in 1999. A new revised catalogue of these lamp finds was published by Daniela Patti in 2013. This paper provides an updated review of lamp finds from the baths of the Villa and their contexts. Most of the lamps are similar to previous finds from Late Roman and Early Byzantine contexts in Sicily; North African, Tripolitan, and local products dominate the scene. Moreover, the lamp finds give evidence about trade contacts to the Eastern Mediterranean, namely to Athens, in the 4th to 5th centuries A.D., which is also attested among the lamp finds of the catacombs in Syracuse.

Den 17 juli deltog Arja Karivieri och Anders Rydell i en diskussion kring det erotiska mosaikfyndet från Pompeji.

Professor i antikens kultur och samhällsliv, Arja Karivieri, tillsammans med författaren Anders Rydell, deltog torsdagen den 17 juli i P1 Morgon i diskussionen om den nyfunna pompejanska erotiska mosaiken, som återlämnats till de italienska arkeologiska myndigheterna. Mosaiken som representerar ett kärlekspar stals år 1944 av en tysk militär, som sedan gav den till en annan person i Tyskland. Arvtagarna till mannen kontaktade myndigheterna i Tyskland och med hjälp av det italienska konsulatet i Stuttgart är den värdefulla golvmosaiken tillbaka i Pompeji. 

This paper will review how civic identity, ethnicity, and religious identity were debated and revalued during the Hadrianic era. The Panhellenic identity, promoted by Hadrian, was linked to a Hellenic identity and Greek history, but also to the mythic history of Rome. Emperor Hadrian promoted the development of multifaceted identities, being himself a representative of virtus and Romanitas, and a promoter of Greek paideia. The multiple identities of Hadrian, Empress Sabina, the emperor’s beloved Antinoos, and their contemporaries reflect this development in culture, society, and religion: identity, gender, and memory got multifaceted interpretations, becoming fluid and flexible. This development continued in Late Antiquity, when memories of the Greek and Roman past were revived and reused in new contexts.

In questo articolo presentiamo una serie di statuette, vasi plastici e lucerne trovate ad Ostia antica, e studiati nell’ambito del progetto “Segregated or Integrated? Living and Dying in the Harbour City of Ostia, 300 BCE-700 CE”, che ha esaminato le forme culturali della coesistenza degli abitanti romani e non-romani della città portuale. Il contributo si focalizza sulle rappresentazioni degli stranieri nelle arti minori in forma grottesca legate alla sfera sessuale e analizza gli usi di tali immagini come apotropaia. La discussione comincia da una serie di erme priapiche, continua con lucerne plastiche in forma fallica e con una statuetta c.d. pseudo-Baubo egiziana. La parte finale è dedicata alla discussione approfondita di una particolare lucerna erotica ostiense, importata dalla fabbrica ateniese di Preimos, e probabilmente trovata in contesto funerario.

The present paper offers a series of case studies on statuettes, plastic vases and lamps from Ostia antica, studied in the framework of the project “Segregated or Integrated? Living and Dying in the Harbour City of Ostia, 300 BCE-700 CE”, that has examined the cultural forms of coexistence of Roman and non-Roman inhabitants of the harbour city. This article focuses on the grotesque and sexualized representations of foreigners in minor arts, and analyses their uses and meanings as apotropaia. The discussion starts with a series of Priapus’ herms, continues with phallic lamps in human form and a statuette of so-called pseudo-Baubo of Egyptian origin. In the second part, a particular erotic lamp, imported to Ostia from the Athenian workshop of Preimos, and probably found in a funerary context, is analysed more in detail.

This chapter will take a new approach to the study of migration and mobility to the harbour cities of Ostia and Portus in Late Antiquity. The trade networks of the Mediterranean created a system of seasonal mobility. Thus, temporary populations of the cities, the harbours, and the countryside of Ostia and Portus changed the image of the cities during the year, from the peaceful period of the winter months to the busy period of the summer months with traders, seamen, labour force of the harbours, and visitors arriving from the Roman provinces all over the Mediterranean. The connection and the mutual dependence of the two harbour cities to the metropolitan area of Rome, the Mediterranean area and the provinces of the Roman Empire are discussed and compared to the previous studies of migration in Antiquity and Laurence Tacoma’s definitions of migration to Rome. As Tacoma did not include the analysis of migration to Ostia and Portus in his study, this paper aims to raise the specific character of the harbour cities of Rome to the centre of attention, with an emphasis on the development in Late Antiquity, with the help of archaeological evidence, literary sources and inscriptions, also through a comparison to the latest geological studies of the coastal area of Latium and the Tiber river, and the latest results of ancient DNA studies.