I pavimenti dei piani alti a Ostia antica

The pavements of the upper stories of Roman buildings are, in most cases, much less known than those on the ground floor. Except for a few fortuitous cases of conservation, in fact, these floors are lost or reduced to fragments. As part of the excavations of the Ostia Marina Project, some fragments belonging to the upper floors of Ostian buildings were found. These fragments come from the buildings of two staircases, a huge residential and commercial building and from the Caupona of the god Pan, a single storey building with a terrace. The analysis of the fragments made it possible to outline the construction techniques used and, in some cases, also to reconstruct the decorative motifs. Furthermore, these findings were an opportunity to conduct a broader research on the upper floors in the Roman world, starting from those preserved in Pompeii, Herculaneum and Rome.