Five available positions in the Ostia Forum Project

The Stiftung Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin finances five one-year scholarships (300€ / month). To be considered for the positions, you must be a bachelor or master student and be present at the university from April 2023 to March 2024 – the two following semesters.

You will attend the lecture Archäometrie in the sommer semester, which is being conducted by Prof. Dr. Axel Gering, and you are to attend the excavation in September-October 2023 in the Forum of Ostia. There will also be some ad hoc tasks along the way.

Thus, if you are interested in Ostia and are interested in getting to know that place more, then apply. The deadline is January 30, 2023

Finissage

The exhibition “A 200 year-long Quest for Traces in Ostia: The Discovery of a Sanctuary” is coming to an end. The last day of the exhibition is Friday September 30. In that regard, the Ostia Forum Project would like to invite everybody to a finissage Thursday September 29, 17:00 – 22:00.

As with the opening of the exhibition, the finissage will take place at the Tieranatomischen Theater in Berlin, Philippstrasse 13, 10115 Berlin.

We hope to see as many as possible. Drinks and snacks will be served.

Hazard and disaster risks: Ostia and Portus between hypothesis and reality

Today, the conference Hazard and disaster risks: Ostia and Portus between hypothesis and reality will start. It runs from today June 22 until Friday June 24. The Ostia Forum Project is represented by Prof. Dr. Axel Gering and ph.d. candidate Johannes Trockels and they will both present Friday June 24. You can find the programme below.

You can live-streame the conference via Youtube. There will be two links per day. The links for today (June 22) are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msqD3PzUS1U (first half of the day)

https://youtu.be/bpv5lWCM9kM​ (second half of the day)

June 23:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77zFaubtVeg (first half of the day)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9gwhCDxWrg (second half of the day

June 24:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkimckOosvo (first half of the day)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ4Za7eZ_QU (second half of the day)

All the links will remain on the Youtube-channel of the Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica

Presentations in May and June

May 2022

This Friday May 20, two presentations will be held in Odense, Denmark. They are part of the Ostia Graduiertenkolleg, Theme 4 and Theme 6.

The presentations will be held in Danish, but published in English in the future. You can find the programme below.

June 2022

June 22-24, project director, Prof. Dr. Axel Gering and a ph.d. candidate from the Ostia Graduiertenkolleg will present their ongoing research in the seminar Hazard and Disaster Risk: Ostia and Portus between Hypothesis and Reality. You can find the programme below:

Opening of the exhibition: A 200 year-long Quest for Traces in Ostia: The Discovery of a Sanctuary

On Thursday April 7, 2022, we had the opening of our exhibition at the Tieranatomsiches Teater in Berlin. We were positively surprised of the many visitors who showed up and showed a great interest in the exhibition and in our project. We would therefore like to thank everybody who attended. It went beyond our expectations.

Below, you can see some pictures from the evening.

In the exhibition, we have created two areas with virtual reality. In one, you can experience the story behind the excavation, the altar and experience a sacrifice in the 2nd century BCE in the centre of Rome’s ancient harbour city. In the other, you can have a detailed look at some of our finds, which are of utmost importance in regards to the reconstructions and the overall interpretation. However, the glasses used during virtual reality are only available on selected days, which is why our cooperation partners from the Technical University of Berlin, Jakob and Markus have made two videoes, where you can see the virtual reality world. You can find the video of the excavation and altar here and the video regarding the finds here.

In another room, some objects are exhibited along with the posters explaining the projects. They comprise 3D-prints of a find and the room TFR 2, where we have been excavating since 2016 and where we have found the remains of the altar. The find is a bowl with the inscription A P L O N I (a dedicatory inscription to Apollon). You can read more about the process behind the 3D-printing here.

For the reconstructions in both the videoes that runs in the exhibition as well as the reconstructions in the virtual reality world, we all have to thank Steven Götz. He worked closely with Prof. Dr. Axel Gering and the ph.d. candidates from the Ostia Graduiertenkolleg to create the exact shapes of houses, temples and altars, thus making it look as authentic as possible and most importantly, to make it come as close as possible to what the archaeological evidence revealed. Without his exhaustive work, the exhibition would not have had this important aspect of visualising our hypotheses in a 3D and 4D world – one of the main aims of the Ostia Forum Project.

Exhibition preparations

Wednesday March 30 and Thursday March 31, we were all at the Tieranatomisches Theater to prepare the opening of the exhibition A 200 year-long Quest for Traces in Ostia: The Discovery of a Sanctuary.

We are looking forward seeing you all to the official opening tomorrow Thursday April 7 at 18:00 – 21:00. You can get access to the exhibition already when the museum opens at 14:00.

Exhibition in Tieranatomisches Theater, Berlin

We a delighted to finally present our exhibition at the Tieranatomisches Theater in Berlin. The exhibition revolves around the individual projects of the Ostia Graduiertenkolleg. On the opening day, we invite people for a reception. The entrance is free of charge. Therefore, if you have the time, we strongly recommend you to attend the opening – we will all be present.
If you do not have the time, then do not worry. The exhibition is open until September 30, 2022. The entrance will remain free of charge.

Time: Thursday April 7, 2022 at 18:00 – 21:00

Place: Philippstraße 13 (Campus Nord, Haus 3, 10115 Berlin, Germany)