Identification: Navale Inferius The inscription NAVALEMFER is tentatively reconstructed as NAVALE INFERIUS (PM 1960, p. 60). According to the Renaissance drawing, the inscription is complete; it should be noted, however, that the edges of fragments are not always correctly rendered in the 16th-century drawings (compare for example the lower edge of fr. 4b to the corresponding Renaissance drawing as reproduced in PM 1960, pl. 7). It is thus possible that the inscription is incomplete. If the reconstruction of the label is correct, it seemingly referred to a military ship yard whose nomenclature as inferius either positioned it along the "lower" course of the Tiber or distinguished it from a "greater" yard. Based on fr. 2a and the Renaissance drawing, the approximate height of the slab to which these fragments belonged can be calculated to be approximately 37 cm (i.e. similar to slab XI-6 whose height is preserved); it is thus generally placed in the top row of slabs, in the upper right corner of the map, as number XI-10 (PM 1960, p. 60). There are a number of problems associated with this identification and location, however: the only navalia known from literary sources is the great Republican yard, which was located along the Tiber in the Campus Martius (PM 1960, p. 60; LTUR III, p. 339). Although this yard may have gone out of use completely by the Severan period, when the map was carved, there is no evidence that a lesser (inferius) port was established along the Tiber beyond the Monte Testaccio, which is what the inscription and the location of the fragments suggest. Also problematic is the fact that this "lesser" or "lower" navalia seems to be situated somewhat far from the Tiber; plus, the buildings depicted here do not resemble a military port (Richardson 1992, p. 267). The authors of PM 1960 conclude that there is no reason to doubt the existence of a newer ship yard, called "inferius" to distinguish it from the earlier, larger port in the Campus Martius (PM 1960, p. 60). F. Coarelli disagrees (but does not offer any other explanation: LTUR III, p. 340).

Significance Together with fr. 2a, this missing fragment provides the only evidence for an unknown structure called the navale inferius that seems to have been located near the left bank of the Tiber, beyond the warehouses at the foot of the Aventine Hill. If the identification of the inscription and the location of the fragment are correct, the piece is key to our knowledge of the urban landscape in this section of Rome.

Text by Tina Najbjerg