Mitreo della domus dei capitelli

TNMM 757

During further excavations in 2022 part of a stucco relief of Mithras was found in the building. The early reports say: "The interpretation of this stucco relief as a representation of the god Mithras in the act of sacrificing the bull was supported by the continuation of the excavation which, in addition to producing numerous other stucco fragments, led to the identification of the room in which it was found as a mithraeum".

Archaeologists and restorers, while securing the archaeological site of the Domus del Capitello, in Ostia Antica, unearthed a mithraeum.

Among the findings, fragments of painted stucco which were part of a representation of the god Mithras Tauroctonos. The legs bent and contracted in the muscular grip of the bull, some fragments of the pedestal and parts of the god’s body, were fundamental in identifying the place of worship. A sculptural representation that must have been more than a metre high, made of a versatile material such as stucco. The fragments were consolidated and then taken to the Park’s restoration laboratories for analysis, study and restoration.

"We came across a find of extraordinary importance. A painted stucco representation of the god Mithras [...]" explains the Park’s director, Alessandro D’Alessio. "The discovery of the 20th mithraeum consolidates and confirms the spread of the cult in Ostia, which lasted at least until the end of the fourth century. In particular, it is a domestic mithraeum and represents a rare example of a tauroctone Mithras in painted stucco".

[...] D’Alessio points out, "pagan temples close to the first Christian structures, the Jewish synagogue and the Mithraic cult".

The discovery of the Mithraeum was made during the restoration of the Domus dei Capitelli di stucco, a sumptuous residence that accompanied Ostia throughout its history, from the Republican phase to the imperial splendour, up to the decadence of the 6th century".