Course: Archaeology of Portus: Exploring the Lost Harbour of Ancient Rome

You have studied the material from this part of the site at lots of earlier stages in this course. Here below we have provided an additional video of Simon captured …

For this final activity we would like you to reflect on the information we have provided during the course about the Imperial Palace. You will write a short piece of …

On the last version of the course we produced additional materials responding to comments and queries raised throughout the course, and concentrating on a particular week each day. We hope …

The so-called Castellum Aquae, is actually a three storey cistern block (Building 1) that also formed the eastern end of the northern range of the Palazzo Imperiale. It was built …

In the background behind Fabrizio there is view into the basement level of the Palazzo Imperiale, the c. 3 Hectare and three storey administrative and residential complex at the heart …

Next week you will come and visit the site with us as it was during recent fieldwork. We will be sharing more content that we filmed and photographed on site. …

Throughout the course we have referred to the Palazzo Imperiale as a single complex. However, because it covers such a large ground area, around three hectares, we often tend to …

Sometime in the later second to early third century, an oval-shaped building (c. 42m by 38m) was constructed in the open space that is defined by the eastern facade and …

The burials and the cross, and other objects likes rings together give much more of a sense of the people at the port. As Simon said, since we’ve been working …

As you have heard previously, although people were central to the life of any port, there is very little archaeological evidence for the inhabitants of Portus. This is true for …

As you learned earlier in the course we use photographic methods that allow us to see beyond the human visible spectrum. In week three you saw this in terms of …

For our second “find of the week” Simon has chosen fineware ceramics. Penny mentioned fineware in the video earlier this week about processing finds. The two main types Simon discussed …

Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) is a mechanism for manipulating multiple images under different lighting conditions to capture very subtle surface information. At a basic level, it operates under the principle …

Having carefully recorded the finds as part of the initial stage of processing they are assessed for conservation. The vast majority of materials from Portus does not require active conservation …