In the middle ages Ostia regained something of its importance, owing to the silting up of the right arm of the Tiber. In 1483–1486 Giuliano della Rovere (nephew of Pope Sixtus IV., and afterwards himself Pope Julius II.) caused the castle to be erected by Baccio Pontelli, a little to the east of the ancient city. It is built of brick and is one of the finest specimens of Renaissance fortification, and exemplifies especially the transition from the old girdle walls to the system of bastions; it still has round corner towers, not polygonal bastions (Burckhardt). Under the shelter of the castle lies the modern village. The small cathedral of St Aurea, also an early Renaissance structure, with Gothic windows, is by some ascribed to Meo del Caprina (1430–1501). Hitherto Ostia does not seem to have been very unhealthy. In 1557, however, a great flood caused the Tiber to change its course, so that it no longer flowed under the walls of the castle, but some half a mile farther west; and its old bed (Fiume Morto) has ever since then served as a breeding ground for the malarial mosquito (Anopheles claviger). An agricultural colony, founded at Ostia after 1875, and consisting mainly of cultivators from the neighbourhood of Ravenna, has produced a great change for the better in the condition of the place. The modern village is a part of the commune of Rome. The marshes have been drained, and a pumping station erected near Castel Fusano. An electric tramway has been constructed from Rome to Ostia and thence to the seashore, now some 2 m. distant, where sea-bathing is carried on.
Excavations on the site of Ostia were only begun towards the close of the 18th century, and no systematic work was done until 1854, when under Pius IX. a considerable amount was done (the objects are now in the Lateran museum). The Italian government, to whom the greater part of it now belongs, laid bare many of the more important buildings in 1880–1889; but much was left undone. Owing to the fact that the site is largely covered with sand and to the absence of any later alterations, the preservation of the buildings excavated is very good, and Ostia is, with the exception of Pompeii, the best example in Italy of a town of the Roman period. On the east the site is approached by an ancient road, flanked by tombs. On the right (N.) are some small well-preserved thermae, and the barracks of the firemen (vigiles), a special cohort of whom was stationed here. On one side of the central courtyard of the latter building is a chapel with inscribed pedestals for imperial statues (2nd and 3rd century A.D.) and a well-preserved black and white mosaic representing a sacrifice (see J. Carcopino in Mélanges de l’École Française, 1907).
To the south-west is the Forum, an area 265 ft. square surrounded by colonnades, in which were placed the offices of the various collegia or guilds of boatmen, raftmen and others, which had a special importance at Ostia; the names of the guilds may still be read in inscriptions in the mosaic pavements of the chambers. In the centre of the area are the substructions of a temple, and on the south-east side are the remains of the theatre, built in the early imperial period, restored by Septimius Severus in 196–197 and again in the 4th or 5th century. To the south-west of the Forum are the remains of three small temples, one dedicated to Venus, and a well-preserved Mithraeum, with mosaics representing the seven planets, &c. To the south-west again is the conspicuous brick cella of a lofty temple, on arched substructures, generally supposed to be that of Vulcan, with a threshold block of africano (Euboean) marble over 15 ft. long: from it a street over 20 ft. wide leads north-west to the river. It is flanked on each side by well-preserved warehouses, another group of which, surrounding a large court, lies to the south-west. The brick and opus reticulatum facing of the walls is especially fine. Hence an ancient road, leading between warehouses (into which the Tiber is encroaching), in one room of which a number of well-preserved large jars may be seen embedded in the floor, runs close to the river to a large private house with thermae, in which five mosaics were found: it (groundlessly) bears the name of “imperial palace.” Farther to the south-west are remains of other warehouses, and (possibly) of the docks—long narrow chambers, which may have served to contain ships. Here are remains of (earlier) structures in opus quadratum whereas the great bulk of the ruins are in brickwork and belong to the imperial period. The medieval Torre Boacciana marks approximately the mouth of the river in Roman times.
The south-eastern portion of the city has been excavated only very partially. To the south-west of the conspicuous temple alluded to are the remains of a temple of Cybele, with a portico. This lay close to the commencement of the Via Severiana (see Severiana, Via), and the line of tombs which flanked it soon begins. Farther south-east, a line of sand dunes, covering the ruins of ancient villas, marks the coastline of the Roman period. Some 2 m. to the south-east is the pine forest of Castel Fusano, taking its name from a castle erected by the marchese Sacchetti in the 16th century. It is now the property of the Chigi and is leased to the king (see Laurentina, Via). Here Drs Lowe and Sambon made the decisive experiments which proved that the propagation of malaria was due to the mosquito Anopheles claviger.
See Notizie degli scavi, passim: H. Dessau in Corp. inscript. Latin. xiv. (Berlin, 1887), pp. 1 sqq., and the works of M. Jerome Carcopino. (T. As.)
OSTIAKS, or Ostyaks, a tribe who inhabit the basin of the Ob in western Siberia belonging to the Finno-Ugric group and related to the Voguls. The so-called Ostyaks of the Yenisei speak an entirely different language. The best investigators (Castren, Lerberg, A. Schrenck) consider the trans-Uralian Ostiaks and Samoyedes as identical with the Yugra of the Russian annals. During the Russian conquest their abodes extended much farther south than now, forty-one of their fortified places having been destroyed by the Cossacks in 1501,
in the region of Obdorsk alone. Remains of these “towns” are
still to be seen at the Kunovat river, on the Ob 20 m. below
Obdorsk and elsewhere. The total number of the Ostiaks may
be estimated at 27,000. Those on the Irtysh are mostly settled,
and have adopted the manner of life of Russians and Tatars.
Those on the Ob are mostly nomads; along with 8000 Samoyedes
in the districts of Berezov and Surgut, they own large herds of
reindeer. The Ob Ostiaks are russified to a great extent. They
live almost exclusively by fishing, buying from Russian merchants
corn for bread, the use of which has become widely diffused.
The Ostiaks call themselves As-yakh (people of the Ob), and it is supposed that their present designation is a corruption of this name. By language they belong (Castrén, Reiseberichte, Reisebriefe; Ahlqvist, Ofvers. af Finska Vet.-Soc. Förh. xxi.) to the Ugrian branch of the eastern Finnish stem. All the Ostiaks speak the same language, mixed to some extent with foreign elements; but three or four leading dialects can be distinguished.
The Ostiaks are middle-sized, or of low stature, mostly meagre, and not ill made, however clumsy their appearance in winter in their thick fur-clothes. The extremities are fine, and the feet are usually small. The skull is brachycephalic, mostly of moderate size and height. The hair is dark and soft for the most part, fair and reddish individuals being rare; the eyes are dark, generally narrow; the nose is flat and broad; the mouth is large and with thick lips; the beard is scanty. The Mongolian type is more strongly pronounced in the women than in the men. On the whole, the Ostiaks are not a pure race; the purest type is found among the fishers on the Ob, the reindeer-breeders of the tundra being largely intermixed with Samoyedes. Investigators describe them as kind, gentle and honest; rioting is almost unknown among them, as also theft, this last occurring only in the vicinity of Russian settlements, and the only penalty enforced being the restitution twofold of the property stolen.
They are very skilful in the arts they practice, especially in carving wood and bone, tanning (with egg-yolk and brains), preparation of implements from birch-bark, &c. Some of their carved or decorated bark implements (like those figured in Middendorff’s Sibirische Reise, iv. 2) show considerable artistic skill.
Their folk-lore, like that of other Finnish stems, is imbued with a feeling of natural poetry, and reflects also the sadness, or even the despair, which has been noticed among them. Christianity has made some progress among them and St Nicholas is a popular saint, but their ancient pagan observances are still retained.
For the language see Ahlqvist, Über die Sprache der Nord-Ostyaken (1880) and for customs, religion, &c., the Journal de la Société Finno-Ougrienne, particularly papers by Sirelius and Karjalainen, and the papers by Munkácsi, Gennep, Fuchs and others in the Revue orientate pour les études Ouralo-Altaïques. Patkanov, Die Iriysch-Ostiaken und ihre Volkspoesie (Petersburg, 1900); Patkanov, Irtirsch-Osljaken und ihre Volkspoesie (1897–1900); Papay, Sammlung ostjakischer Volksdichtungen (1906).
