At Museo Ninfeo Visitors Walk Through Ruins of Luxury Roman Garden

Over time, many of these horti were acquired, through fair means or foul, by emperors. The horti Lamiani were possibly left to the emperor Tiberius when Lamia died, and evidence for the garden becoming imperial property can be seen on a lead water pipe, which is stamped with the name of the emperor Claudius (reigned AD 41-54). The lead pipe itself is part of an impressive irrigation system that enabled the cultivation of trees and plants and was fed by aqueducts bringing water from outside of the city.

During this period the park was further enhanced, first with the construction of a marble staircase to link its terraces and then with a small nymphaeum (a monument connected to water and dedicated to nymphs), decorated with blue and glass mosaics and encrusted with seashells. A fifteen-meter long wall was embellished with an elegant fresco painting, parts of which have now been reconstructed from the 90,000 fragments uncovered.

The complex reached its most monumental state in the third century AD, when a large square surrounded by walls but open to the sky was built. The structure was paved with marble slabs and the walls decorated with imported colored stones cut and arranged into intricate patterns, a technique known as opus sectile.

By the end of the fourth century AD, the garden was in decline and, in the subsequent centuries, much of the marble was removed to be used elsewhere. Smaller more rudimentary structures were constructed with the once elaborate square and the surrounding area was likely given back over to agriculture. All these different phases of development are visible when moving through the museum, which is built into and around the archaeology.

Over 100,000 items (or fragments of) were discovered in the excavation and around 3000 are on show. The displays of these objects narrate both the specific history of the site and provide insights into Roman culture and society more broadly. Cabinets of seeds, bones, and seashells attest to dietary habits among ancient inhabitants. A bear’s tooth and a bone from a lion’s paw also suggest that exotic animals were housed in the area.

An arrangement of amphorae—storage vessels for transporting foodstuffs such as wine and olive oil—shows how goods were imported to Rome from across the Mediterranean. Evidence found on site attests to products coming from Southern France, Spain, North Africa, Greece, and the Middle East over a 1300-year period, from the sixth century BC to seventh century AD. Elsewhere in the museum, in a very different context, amphorae were found broken in half and reused as planters for the vegetation of the garden.

Rome’s many museums showcase an extraordinary, perhaps unparalleled, assemblage of ancient material. Yet most of these collections focus on decorative objects, aiming to highlight the quality of ancient artistic achievements and to tell a grander narrative of Roman culture. Museo Ninfeo is one of the few museums to give equal weight to displaying more mundane items in order to tell the rich narrative of the development over time of a single part of the city.