Le pitture del Mitreo dei marmi colorati di Ostia. Nuove acquisizioni

The research carried out by the Ostia Marina Project, the archaeological mission of the Department of History, Culture and Civilization of the University of Bologna, led to the discovery of a new building located in the maritime suburb of Ostia. the so-called Caupona del dio Pan (IV, IX, 5). The building, dated at the middle of the III cent. AD, was decorated with frescoes, which was almost completely renovated in the IV century AD, when it became the seat of a mithraic sect (the so-called Mithraeum of the coloured marbles). The painted decoration is still preserved in situ on the surviving walls, so it is one of the most extraordinary examples of the Late Antiquity paintings of Ostia known so far. The dig has allowed to recover a large amount of plaster fragments belonging to this building. This paper presents the study of these fragments, in particular those found in the spelaeum of the Mithraeum of the coloured marbles (room 1) to add important considerations on the decorative apparatus of the walls and ceilings.