A Roman Vivarium for Oysters in the Northern Lagoon of Venice (Lio Piccolo, Cavallino-Treporti, Italy)

The underwater excavation carried out at Lio Piccolo, in the Canale Rigà (lagoon of Venice), permitted the investigation and documentation, by digital photogrammetry, of a Roman Period site discovered by the amateur archaeologist E. Canal in murky waters. This is a vivarium (a pool) for oysters, made of bricks and wood and equipped with two wooden sluice gates, which was quickly silted over, covering hundreds of molluscs. This unique finding, with only one comparison – a vivarium excavated close to Narbonne – has been dated by pottery and also studied by palynological, geological, radiocarbon dating, and dendrochronological analyses. The vivarium is connected to the foundations by wooden piles and bricks of an important building which, according to the numerous fragments of frescoes found, could be a rich maritime villa built, like the vivarium, in the 1st century AD.