LIFE IN OSTIA.

LIFE IN OSTIA. Ostia and Pompeii preserved more evidence of daily life than did Rome. The Tourist Guidebook for Ostia highlights what the ruins tell us about how the Ostians lived. Many of the shops and workplaces had mosaics showing the activities that took place there. One of the 20 public baths has a mosaic showing cabs drawn by mules with names for some of the mules. From this, it is thought that this was a bath frequented by muleteers. There are a number of millstones at the House of the Millstones, and the guidebook has the most helpful explanation I’ve seen for how a millstone worked. I had not known that the Romans had machines for kneading dough. They are found in the House of the Millstones. Animals or slaves turned a vertical blade in a large bowl which had horizontal blades across it. I had known that urine was collected for cleaning clothes, but the section of the guidebook on the fulling mill informed me that there were workers who jumped on the clothes to help in cleaning them.