Isola Sacra (the Holy Isle) is situated in the

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

region of

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

south of

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, near the

Tyrrhenian Sea The Tyrrhenian Sea (, ; or ) , , , , is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenians, Tyrrhenian people identified with the Etruscans of Italy. Geography The sea is bounded by the islands of C ...

. It is part of the town of

Fiumicino Fiumicino () is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 80,500 (2019). It is known for being the site of Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport, the busiest airport in Italy and the ninth-b ...

Overview

The area between

Portus Portus was a large artificial harbour of Ancient Rome located at the mouth of the Tiber on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It was established by Claudius and enlarged by Trajan to supplement the nearby port of Ostia. The archaeological remains of Portus a ...

and

Ostia Antica Ostia Antica () is an ancient Roman city and the port of Rome located at the mouth of the Tiber. It is near modern Ostia, southwest of Rome. Due to silting and the invasion of sand, the site now lies from the sea. The name ''Ostia'' (the pl ...

was transformed into an artificial island by Emperor

Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; ; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54), or Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusus and Ant ...

, creating a canal that linked the

Tiber The Tiber ( ; ; ) is the List of rivers of Italy, third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the R ...

(Fossa Traiana, now Fiumicino Canal). Merchant ships arriving from

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

were able to reach Ostia using this canal. The island was originally much smaller but it has been constantly growing due to the alluvial activity of the Tiber. Its area has almost quintupled since antiquity. The inhabitants of Portus were middle-class administrators, traders, merchants, and sea workers often descended from slaves. In the 1st century AD., a road linked the two ports, crossing through the island and becoming the main road axis. The

Isola Sacra Necropolis The Isola Sacra Necropolis or Necropolis of Portus in the Isola Sacra was the first large-scale pagan cemetery of Roman Imperial times to be excavated. The excavator-in-chief of most of Isola Sacra was Guido Calza. The necropolis was found on the ...

grew up alongside the road, which was discovered between the 1920s and the 1940s, while the land was being reclaimed. Some of the necropolis buildings have two storeys, elaborately decorated with paintings, stucco work and mosaics. The left side of the ''Fossa Traiana'' was a residential area of

. Near the Fiumicino Canal, by the bridge that crossed over to Portus, the so-called Terme di Matidia can be seen. The core of the complex built in the middle of the 2nd century and used until the 6th century. The Basilica of St. Hippolitus was built between the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th century. The building was divided into three naves by two rows of columns. The study of human skeletal remains from the site continues to provide important information about diet and morbidity in ancient Rome.

Sources

D'Ambra, E. 1981
"A work 'ethic' at Ostia: the Isola Sacra reliefs." Thesis (M.A.)--University of California, Los Angeles—Art History. * Keay, S., Millett, M., Strutt, K., Germoni, P. 2020. "The Isola Sacra Survey, Ostia, Portus and the port system of Imperial Rome", McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge, UK, (226 p). * Prowse T., Schwarcz H., Saunders S., Bondioli L., and Macchiarelli R. 2005. "Isotopic evidence for age-related variation in diet from Isola Sacra, Italy." ''American Journal of Physical Anthropology''. 128(1):2-13.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Archaeological sites in Lazio Fiumicino Roman sites in Lazio Islands of the Tiber