Excavations carried out by the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (A. Pellegrino, A. Carbonara) between 1998 and 2002 in the area of the railway station of Ostia Antica have brought to light a series of funerary structures, dwellings and a circular trench, the sides of which were lined with a double wall of amphorae. The remains of a wooden waterwheel were found on the bottom of the trench. We may conjecture that the structure was part of a reclamation project with amphorae used to drain the groundwater, as has been docu­mented in other contexts around Ostia.

The study of the 335 amphorae and the other ceramics from the context suggest the trench was dug in the late Augustan period and used up until the second century A.D.

In a first phase, the study was carried out during a series of seminars within the activities of the Chair of Archaeologic Research Methodology (Prof. G. Olcese) at Sapienza - Università di Roma (Castello di Giulio II, Ostia Antica). The results of these activities have been presented at the Second Seminary of Studies on Ostia Antica (École Française de Rome - Castello di Giulio II in Ostia Antica, 15-16 April 2013), as well as during the conference "Il territorio ostiense: nuovi dati e studi inediti" (École Française de Rome, 16-17 November 2016).