The Raisings of the Eastern Decumanus at Ostia: a New Reading of Archival Evidence (1908-1924)

The eastern section of the decumanus, the intramural extension of the via Ostiensis, was excavated between 1908 and 1923. During this work, archaeologists discovered a street in a very poor state of conservation: the section of the road between the theatre and the bivio del castrum was completely destroyed. In order to facilitate the passage of visitors, the pavement was completely rebuilt. Any study of this road axis must therefore use the documentation of the ancient excavations to analyse it. This is precisely the method adopted in this article, which, seeks to reconstruct the different levels of traffic in this street, and the raising of the levels made between the end of the 4th century BC and the beginning of the 3rd century. The conclusion of this preliminary article is twofold: the decumanus was raised several times and no significant raising took place at the end of the 1st century AD, during the reign of Domitian.