A ROMAN OSTRIARIUM IN THE VENETIAN LAGOON

From 16 April to 2 November 2025
Venice, Museo di Storia Naturale Giancarlo Ligabue, ground floor

Curated by
Carlo Beltrame
Elisa Costa
Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici

In 2021, the team of Professor Carlo Beltrame (Università Ca’ Foscari – Department of Humanities) conducted underwater archaeological excavations at Lio Piccolo (Cavallino-Treporti), which discovered a brick tank and wooden planks containing oysters.

This singular structure, interpreted as a space to keep the bivalves alive before consumption, can be dated to the 1st century AD. The only comparable structure was found in the lagoon of Narbonne in France. Abutting the basin, excavations are revealing the piles of the sub-foundations of what could be a rich villa, as shown by the discovery of hundreds of fragments of fine fresco and numerous mosaic tiles.

In the summer of 2022, the discovery of this ostriarium caused a stir in the media. Hence it is important to present the public in Venice, and further afield, with the first results of this research project. It provides further information about the inhabitants of the lagoon in the Roman imperial age with an exhibition of some finds, images, videos of the underwater excavations and research work, as well as a 3-D model of the archaeological site in the lagoon.

The research project by Ca’ Foscari University – Department of Humanities is made possible thanks to funding from the University, the Municipality of Cavallino Treporti, the CHANGES PNRR project, and a PRIN PNRR project, in collaboration with the Department of Geosciences at the University of Padua (Prof. Paolo Mozzi) and the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Florence (Prof. Adele Bertini).

Admission to the exhibition from 16 April to 2 November 2025, with the Museum’s hours and ticket.