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"","Corinthia | Ancient Corinth | Central Area | Nezi Field","Nezi Field 2009 by spongberg hammond lima (2009-05-20 to 2009-05-21)","","","","","Corinth","","We, Sarah Lima (SL), Mark Hammond (MH) and Kiersten Spongberg (KS) excavated North of Nezi between April 27, 2009 and May 15, 2009 (session II), focusing on the rooms bounded by walls 5483, 5403, 6027/6285/6300, and 6267/5631/5671/6245 (271.10-277.70 E, 1027.70-1023.67N) (east room); and walls 5483, 5484, 5284, and 5519 (265.90-270.70E, 1028.00-1023.65N)(west room).  These rooms are both located north of Nezi Field, south of the courtyard in the center of the Byzantine House previously excavated by X. Lattimore (NB 229) and X. Berg (NB 229) in the 1960s.   Records from more recent excavation in these spaces are available from Dan Leon and Ben Sullivan in 2009, and Anne Feltovich, Emily Rush, and Catherine Person in 2008.  The goal in both of these rooms was to reach the 10th century levels and come to a better understanding of the architectural development of the house in its different phases of use; this was accomplished in the east room, and 12th century levels were reached in the west room.  The director was Guy Sanders; assistant field director Alicia Carter; and pickman Panos Kakouros.; ; The following summary documents the findings of session II in the 2009 excavation season in the two rooms in which we excavated.  Each room will be initially treated individually and the conclusion will attempt to relate these rooms to each other and the area of the North of Nezi excavations as a whole.; ; East Room; ; This room has previously been described as being bounded by wall 5553 to the east and wall 5552 to the north; DL and BS completed the excavation of these walls in session I.  Two particular features were our main focus: the floor/surface areas and the north and east walls.  ; ; Phasing of walls:; 1) wall 5403 bounds the southern side of the room (foundation trench fill 5818, mid-10th); 2) wall 5483 bounds the western side of the room and abuts wall 5403(foundation trench fill 5779 late 10th-11th); 3) wall 5519 caps the northern end of wall 5483 and bonds with it (ca. 10th-11th century). ; 4) wall 6300/6285/6027 (terminus ante quem 10th century) abuts and does not bond with wall 5403. ; 5) wall 5631/5671/6245 (ca. 10th-11th century on the basis of stratigraphy); ; Our first priority was to remove remaining later walls that had caused disturbance in earlier floor surfaces and walls.  After walls 5553 and 5552 (2nd half of the 13th century) had been excavated, there was one section remaining that had been incorporated as part of wall 5552 as well (6181 (2nd half of the 13th century)) and this was one of the earliest structures removed.  6181 had been bonded to a series of foundations and remaining wall segments, including 5965 (2nd half of the 13th), 6172, 6171, 6183, and 6187 (all the rest- ca. 12th century).  These wall and foundation segments were laid against wall 6027 (terminus ante quem late 11th-early 12th century) which was left as a martyr by DL and BS to preserve the cut for pier 6065, which truncates the northeast corner of the room.  These walls were found to cover even earlier disturbance within the room, in the form of robbing trenches 6227 (fill 6169) and 6226 (fill 6166) which robbed out portions of east-west running wall 6120 and north-south running wall 6027.  The robbing trenches also destroyed the relationship between paving stones 6190 and the wall series bounding the room on the eastern side (6027/6285/6300).  ; Another later feature that disrupted earlier phases was pier foundation 6249.  We have labeled this feature as a pier since it is similar to other features within the house that also seem to be piers (i.e. 6359 and 6318 excavated by Scott Gallimore and Will Bruce in the courtyard).  When these excavations had been completed, the paving stones (6190) were partially exposed, as well as east-west wall 6120.  We were also able to more clearly see a blocked threshold in wall series 6027/6285/6300 (blocking stone 6277 and fill 6278 with threshold 6285).   These sections of walls were found to be in contemporary use and formed the length of the eastern boundary of the room (pre- late 10th century on the basis of stratigraphy).  The relationship between this section of the wall and the floors uncovered that may be contemporary will be discussed below.  Only the un-numbered un-excavated surface revealed by the excavation of context 6292 was found to be contemporary with the use of threshold 6285.  The same surface goes beneath paving stones 6190, which project above and partially covered over the threshold platform, and which are slated for removal in the future.  ; ; Similarly, in the northern wall sections, there were later series of wall-phases and thresholds disturbing earlier features.  AF and CP, in their report, discuss the series of four thresholds being moved gradually westward over time.  The earliest thresholds were further to the east than the later thresholds.   There is the possibility of a fifth threshold beneath 5671 (the only threshold remaining in-situ; ca. 11th century) which is un-excavated and un-numbered.   We removed these thresholds in the following order: 5648 (late 11th- early 12th century), which, although representative of an earlier phase was removed first because it was loose because covering fills had been excavated around it; 5647 (late 11th- early 12th century), the latest phase and top most threshold; 5670 (late 10th/11th century) (with foundation fill 6238 and 6242).  The previous belief (by AF, ER, and CP) that 5670 putatively was constructed from robbed out stones from the west of 5648 needs reconsideration given the new information (dating) that we now have.  The removal of these thresholds was accompanied by the removal of the western-most wall segment of wall 5631 with foundation course 6233 (late 10th/11th century).  After excavation of these contexts, underlying wall 6245 was still in-situ and of similar construction and running on a clean line with wall 5631.  Therefore, it is our interpretation that walls 6245, 5671, and an eastern section of 5631 were in contemporary use as the original northernmost boundary of this room (late 10th-11th century).  While we were examining wall 5631 we noticed a section that seemed different in construction and clearly laid on the existing section of wall 5631; this section was given its own structure number, 6267 (fill for its foundation trench 6079 dates to late 11th century).  The same structure also abuts north-south wall section 6027 to the east, making it later than both walls.; ; A series of surfaces were excavated to the north and south of wall 5552 which was excavated in session 1 and exposed wall 6120 below it.   These surfaces were in contemporary use before being divided by wall 5552   In the interest of observing the contents of each stratum we sampled the contents of each surface for flotation.  Our pickman, Panos, realized in 2008 that the nature of the surfaces suggested that they were exterior surfaces, constructed by irregular compacting and patching as opposed to large-scale labor-intensive construction events.  AF, ER and CP excavated a series of floors that were contemporary with later threshold constructions (5670, 5648, and 5647).  The series of floors that we have excavated are in contemporary use with northern wall sections 5671, 5631 and 6245.  The excavation of fills 6140, 6160 and 6152 revealed surfaces 6168 and 6164 (late 11th- early 12th century), in contemporary use.  Following this, there was a series of other surfaces including 6211 and 6258 (both late 10th- 11th century) to the north; and 6270 (11th century), and the surface revealed by 6292 (un-numbered and un-excavated) just to the south of 6120.   6270 (overlaid by fill 6256 (11th century)) and 6258 (overlaid by fills 6222 and 6213) were visible in the scarp (visually marked by their whitish colored “Frankish” clay) created by the construction of wall foundation 5552(#???), and are the same surface.  Surface 6211 offered support for the idea that this room was part of an outdoor area since the accumulation of pebbles was located directly south of threshold 5671 and could have been indicative of removal of debris from an inside area.  The excavation of surface 6258 revealed a number of things about the phasing of the room: first, the foundation trench 6261 for the insertion of threshold 5671 was revealed indicating that the threshold was installed prior to the construction of that surface; second, 6258 was the last surface to be uncovered in association with the northern wall, while, to the south of east-west wall 6120, further surfaces were recovered at a lower elevation, which means that surface 6258 was the first surface associated with the room when it was bounded to the north by wall 5671/5631/6245 and the surfaces south of wall 6120 are in use in the room when it was bounded to the north by wall 6120. This changing and reorganizing of space marks a major phase change in the development of this part of the house.  Therefore, threshold 6285 is earlier than threshold 5671.    ; ; West Room; Previous excavation in this room was conducted in the 1960s, and also by AF, ER, and CP in 2008.  ; ; Phasing of walls (AF, ER, CP):; 1) Wall 5484 (ca. mid-tenth), same as wall 5403 to the east and 5216 to the west.; 2) Wall 5519 (pre-late 10th-11th century on the basis of stratigraphy).  Although 5484 and 5519 have not been related stratigraphically, it is believed that 5484 is the exterior wall and therefore before the interior wall 5519.; 3) Wall 5483 (late 10th- 11th century), built against walls 5584 and bonds with 5519.  Although no foundation trenches have yet been found in this room, foundation trench 5779 on the east side of wall 5483 is above the foundation trench for wall 5403=5484 (foundation trench 5818). ; 4) Wall 5490 (3rd quarter of the 12th century), superstructure of wall 5485. ; ; The first objective was to remove walls 5490 and 5485.  North-south running wall 5490 was the superstructure above foundation 5485.  These walls were not removed in 2008 because permission had not yet been granted.  This structure was truncated by one of two large storage pits in the southern half of the room (previously described as a “bothros” in NB 229 page 180ff, “Bothros I”). Structures 5490 and 5485 were the first contexts to be removed because they were the latest features in this area and were preventing the further removal of other fills and surfaces in the room.  Another objective was to find the foundation trench for western wall 5284 which was being blocked from excavation by these later walls, as well as by fill 6334 in between walls 5485 and 5284.  ; ; ; Fill accumulated inside the western storage pit was removed, some likely being1960s backfill (context#) as well as a context composed of large boulders that perhaps had tumbled from a nearby wall.    The pit continued down and fills 6352 and 6353 (1300 +/- 10) were removed before the base of the cut was found.  Field notes from NB 229, pg. 180ff. record that the pit was not fully excavated in the 1960s. The pit cut through a thick layer of reddish colluvium before cutting bedrock. The fact that pit was cut somewhat into the bedrock suggests that it was a storage pit as it was too far into bedrock for asimple rubbish pit, and not far enough through the bedrock to have been a well that reached water. ; ; Similarly, in adjacent storage pit 6380, we reached an unexcavated fill (6372 (2nd quarter of 13th century)) and continued our excavations down into bedrock, revealing a similarly flat-bottomed round storage pit.  Remains of wall 6157 and foundation trench 6379 still remain in the south profile of cut 6380 beneath wall 5484.  In the north profile of 6380, one can observe the remains of robbing trench 6381. It is clear that the construction of pit 6380 truncated robbing trench 6381 which was used to remove a section of north-south wall 6157 which rested in foundation trench 6379.  Neither wall 6157 nor robbing trench 6381 are currently visible on the surface, but we expect to reveal them through excavation this season.; ; When AF, ER, and CP excavated the surface levels, they left a martyr along walls 5485 and 5519 to preserve stratigraphy and prevent contamination from the material in the walls. We excavated the martyr first which revealed a series of surfaces and sub-surfaces.  Two ash pits (6406 and 6407) cutting floor 6411 were uncovered, one of which revealed a built hearth of tiles (structure 6413).  A layer of tile and redeposited destruction debris (6415 (12th century)) was also uncovered below floor 6408.  A posthole (6432) was uncovered cutting 6428, as well as a possible patching surface against 5519 (fill 6437).  Additionally, the foundation trench fill on the south side of wall 5284 was revealed and excavated (cut 6427); the foundation trench for this wall had already been revealed on the north side (foundation trench 5466) in a previous season by Jody Cundy and Nate Andrade.  Our foundation trench matched theirs in elevation and composition.; ; As we excavated these surfaces and sub-surfaces in the martyr we tried to equate our contexts with the contexts previously excavated by AF, ER, and CP on the eastern side of the room.  Leveling fill 6415 (12th century) was found to be equal to 5682 on the basis of elevation, composition and inclusions.  6428 (12th century) was equal to 5887, again, on the basis of elevation and composition inclusions.  We excavated the entire martyr revealing a continuous floor over the surface of the room, disturbed by the two storage pits and a foundation trench.; ; East Room Conclusions; ; In this room, we met our objective of reaching late 10th to early 11th century levels.  The excavation in this room seems to be complete, except for paving stones 6190 towards the eastern side, west of threshold 6285, which are yet to be removed.  Further consideration may need to be given to threshold 5671 because it seems to be of a later date (ca. 11th century on the basis of stratigraphy) than threshold 6285; we reached this conclusion because the threshold 5671 cut the floor- this is supported by the face that the last of the series of floors was contemporary with 6285 (laid against), while it was earlier than (below) 5671.  Additionally, it may be possible that there is yet another threshold underneath 5671; this possibility could be further explored in later seasons. ; It seems that this area was likely an outdoor space, on the basis of the hard packed surfaces, the pebbly surface near the threshold (5671), and the accumulation on the floor surfaces.  We are unsure of the nature of the surface that is only partially revealed and runs beneath paving stones 6190; but this will be revealed by the next team to excavate in this room.  ; ; ; ; West Room Conclusions; ; In this room, we managed to get the levels of the surfaces down to the same level (ca. 12th century) by removing a martyr.  This room has now been completely rid of 1960s backfill.  The surfaces covering the rest of the room, however, have been left in a good starting point for the next team.  The next team should begin their excavation in the southwest corner of the room, continuing to bring the martyr (not associated with the floor surface contexts; a separate martyr) around the storage pit down to the level of the other surfaces.  The cleaning of this context was the last thing we completed (cleaning 6436).   ; This room seems to have, at some point, been used for storage, on the basis of the two storage pits.  These storage pits are later than most of the other features of the room, and likely cut a higher surface than the ones preserved.  Guy Sanders mentioned that it may be possible that this room was a basement space in its earlier phases; although this conclusion cannot be tested until the room has been excavated further.","Yellow Session 2 Summary","Corinth:Report:Nezi Field 2009 by spongberg hammond lima (2009-05-20 to 2009-05-21)","Report",""
"","Corinthia | Ancient Corinth | Central Area | Nezi Field","Nezi Field 2009 by Sarah Lima (2009-05-25 to 2009-06-15)","","","","","Corinth","","Sarah Lima; Session 3 ; End of Season Report; 15 June, 2009; ; Between the dates of May 25, 2009 and June 15, 2009 (Session III), our excavation team  comprised of Sarah Lima (recorder), Panos Kakouros (pickman), Panos Stamatis (barrow man), and Agamemnon (siever) continued investigating several rooms south of the courtyard of the Byzantine house previously excavated by Lattimore (NB 229) and Berg (NB 229) in the 1960s. In 2008, Panos Kakouros excavated in the same area with Anne Feltovich, Emily Rush, and Catherine Person recording; in 2009 session I, Dan Leon and Ben Sullivan recorded there; and in 2009 session II, excavations were conducted by Mark Hammond, Kierston Spongberg, and Sarah Lima. The aim for Session III was to understand the phasing of the three rooms where our team had worked - how the space had been manipulated to serve the needs of the people inhabiting and using the area, and how people would have moved from room to room at different times.  In particular, we were interested in reaching 10th century levels in order to understand the earliest phases of the rooms south of the courtyard area, which once served as the hub of the house.   ; ; During Sessions II and III, we worked in three rooms: the “Central Room” (in Session II summary, the “East Room”) bounded by walls 5483, 5403, 6027/6284/6300, and 6267/5631/5671 with foundations 6245 (271.10-277.70 E, 1027.70-1023.67 N); the “West Room” bounded by walls 5483, 5484, 5284, and 5519 (265.90-270.70 E, 1028.00-1023.65N); and the “East Room” bounded by walls 10078/10085, 6624, 6027/6285/6300, and 5341 (1027.24-1022.98 N, 281.50-277.62 E).; ; East Room; ; We began our work in the East Room by excavating a surface exposed by DB and BS during Session I 2009. A majority of the room, primarily the central and western portion, was excavated during the 1960s. Several deep pits cut most of the southern half of the room, and on the northern edge of the room, two deep pier cuttings cut the remaining surfaces from higher elevations, leaving just a thin balk available for excavation. Joanna Potenza and Ryan Boehm had recorded the removal of a threshold of the Frankish period on the northern boundary of the room [5919], which may have been in use along with walls 10077 and 10076 to the east and with walls 5552 and its superstructure 5922 to the west. While JP and RB did uncover a floor surface in contemporary use with the threshold on the northern side of the room’s boundary (5290), only floor surfaces predating the installation of the threshold were uncovered by BL and DB to the south, the final of which was 6080; the room was then left for future excavation. ; ; The first surface that we excavated was surface 6445, which was contemporary with the use of wall segment 6426. Excavation of 6445 revealed what may be the foundation trench for that wall. The closeness of the wall to the numerous pier cuts made excavation impossible without toppling the entire balk, so the foundation trench was not further explored; we made every effort not to include fill from near the wall in our subsequent deposits. ; Several subsequent surfaces, 6468 and 6488, were excavated, prior to uncovering a large built storage pit (cut 6557, fills 6495, 6466, and 6452 built components 6594 and 6558), which would have occupied the room during its 12th century phase. We decided to cease excavation of the balk at this point because the east-west wall segment 6624 had become pedestalled, and permission has not yet been obtained for its removal. ; ; We turned our attention to the eastern boundary of the room, removing wall and threshold 10085 and its underlying foundations (6475 and 6476). At the time that we excavated these contexts, we believed that 10085 was a separate construction from wall 10078, based both on the appearance of the foundations and on the style of the wall itself. We envisioned wall 10085 as installed especially to accommodate a much later threshold construction, as a part of already-existent wall 10078. However, upon excavating the section and seeing how deeply subfoundations 6476 lay (at an equal depth to the foundations of wall 10078’s), we concluded the opposite: that 10078 and 10085 were probably of contemporary construction. Further support for this idea is the fact that there were two surfaces (6451 and 6445 ) running against foundations, suggesting that the foundations predated those deposits. However, this was unclear at the time, since those surfaces were at significantly lower elevations than the wall sections in situ.  The pottery from foundations 6676 dated to the late 12th or early 13th century. ; ; The upper blocks used in the construction of remaining wall section 10078 are very substantial in size and appear to be reused Roman road blocks of the Late Roman period; one interesting feature of these eastern sections of wall is that one block that remains in situ appears to have been cut to corner westward about 4 m from the southern terrace wall 5341, dividing the room nearly in half (we assigned this wall the number 6522). We began excavating strata that were positioned around the place where the wall projected from the section, and the excavation of fill 6521 revealed the line of a long east-west robbing or foundation trench cut running nearly the lengh of the room (cut 6523). The reason that the foundation versus robbing cut identification remains ambiguous is that pit cuts have truncated that part of the room badly, so all that we can understand is that the wall existed, and that based on the foundations that were uncovered, it was a substantial, load-bearing wall.  I propose that wall 6522 functioned as a terrace wall and was the earlier Roman terrace wall that existed before wall 5341 was constructed immediately to the south in the medieval period for the same purpose. The evidence for this is that  it is set into reddish-colored colluvium above bedrock and rests at a lower level than the foundation trench 6509 for wall section 6027, which bounds the room to the west (foundation trench fills 6530 and 6506, covered by fill 6504). Further, the first medieval floor in the room immediately to the west is constructed right atop the red colluvium (this is a course pebble  floor that is only partially visible under paving stones 6190 and would have been in use with threshold 6285); there was no earlier phase of use of this space. This changes our impression of the construction of threshold 6285, excavated during Session II; we had envisioned the entire wall section comprised of 6300/6285/6027 to be earlier than the features of the East Room, but if the east-west wall 6522 once existed at an early period, holding back red colluvium on its south-facing side, there is no way that threshold 6285, given its physical position, could have been in use during that period for purposes of communicating with the East Room. However, after the east-west wall was robbed out (at whatever elevation and time that that event occurred), the East room would have received a new terrace wall to the south (i.e., the wall 5341, now in situ), and the space would have been expanded to the south(and therefore open for communication with the east room via threshold 6285). The best guess for when this event may have occurred is Late Byzantine, based on the scant amount of ceramic material available from foundation trench fill from 6530 and 6506 and overlying 6504; additionally, if the cut indicating the course of early east-west terrace wall 6522 is a robbing event, then the date of that event can be further narrowed to the 10th/11th century. Therefore the earliest medieval phase of this part of the house began with a massive reorganization of space and great effort spent at expanding the usable space by moving the Roman terrace wall 4 m to the south. ; ; Future Considerations ; ; The balk cannot be explored further until wall 6624 is documented and removed, since the wall is pedestalled as it currently lies. The relationship between the wall sections 6300, 6285, and 6027 is not yet fully understood, as foundation trenches have not yet been revealed for 6300 and 6285; recovery of foundation events for those sections could confirm or refute our speculations about how the East and Central Room construction sequences work. Another question worthy of further attention is whether wall 10078 truly represented the easternmost extent of the East Room or not; while the blocks that comprise the wall as it stands are extremely large, there does appear to be another wall running behind it; are there multiple eastern wall phases for this room? Finally, the section of 10078 immediately to the north of the cut for excavated foundations 6476 and 6475 for wall/threshold 10085 should be considered together with those construction events if and when it is removed. ; Western Room; ; The Western Room was excavated in 1960s excavations by Lattimore and Berg (NB 229, p. 180). As was the case in the East Room, this room featured several deep Frankish-period storage pits (labeled as “bothroi” in the 1960s notebooks) that truncated many of the earlier features within the room. In the case of the Western Room, those two storage pits (cuts 6380 and 6363 which terminated on bedrock) were confined in the southern half of the room. The space was further restricted by two large Frankish north-south wall sections, 5485 and 5490, which lay against north-south wall 5284. In 2008, AF and ER excavated within the Western Room, reaching levels that ran beneath wall 5490. Because permission had not been obtained from the Byzantine Ephoria to remove the two later wall sections, they were pedistalled so that excavation could continue east of them. Our efforts during Session II were focused on cleaning and investigating the previously-excavated storage pits, and on excavating contexts preserved in the balk under the walls once they were removed. We wanted to reveal and excavate the floor revealed by 6428 (=5887), which represented the same stopping point that AF and ER reached in 2008. Additionally, a Frankish period cooking pot was excavated from one of the surfaces that we excavated (surface: 6393, cook pot: 6397).; Our excavations of the surfaces to the north had, in turn, left a balk of higher elevation on the southern side of the room, since it was difficult to reach and excavate the thin deposits surrounding the two storage pits and running up against walls 5284, 5484, and 5483. In Session III, we began our excavations of the southern strata with fill 6439, uncovering the remaining fill of foundation trench 6427 (fill 6552) for wall 5284. 6439 was assigned a date of the 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 12th century on the basis of its ceramics, while the surface that was cut was 2nd quarter of the 12th century, dating the construction of wall 5284 to that period. This does not match the date of the foundation trench found on the other side of the wall by JC and NA in 2008; their foundation trench was dated to the 13th century by stratigraphic relationships. This situation  is worthy of further consideration in light of the potential shifting of dates posed by lower fills from this room (explained in more detail below). ; ; One goal in excavating the Western Room was to understand the nature of the robbing event that took place on wall 5519. The east-west wall 5519, which bounds the northern side of the Western Room, features a significant gap of approximately 1.5 m on its eastern side, near its junction with north-south wall 5519, bounding the eastern side of the room. It was our intention to compare the surfaces that we uncovered within the western room with the surfaces recorded to the north of 5519 by Scott Gallimore and Will Bruce during Session II of 2009. The last surface that they excavated to the north of 5519 revealed the edge of a cut that appeared to be part of the robbing event of the wall, and they expected that we would find a similar cut on our side beneath floor surface 6540 (84.54 MASL). We did not find a cut on our side of the wall, but other pieces of evidence suggest how the robbing event may have taken place, and how the use of the space may have changed after the removal of the wall section. Our investigations revealed that not only were our surface deposits below 6540 (i.e., surfaces 6572, and 6589) different in composition from those revealed to the north of the wall (beaten earth in the western room, pebbled and tiled surfaces in the courtyard), but their elevations were different as well, by approximately 0.50 m (surface deposit 6572, 84.49 MASL, and surface deposit 6589, 84.41 MASL). One possible explanation for this difference is that perhaps it was a threshold that was robbed from wall 5519, mediating between the space in the courtyard and the space within the Western Room. In that scenario, differences in elevations and in composition could be accounted for because the spaces were bounded by a wall, with communication between the two rooms offered by a door and possibly a step downward into the Western Room. After the section of 5519 (putatively a threshold) had been robbed, the space where the door had been would have still remained, allowing access into and out of the room, but the floor levels would have had to be brought to the same level to allow movement in and out. Fill 6628, underlying 6540, demonstrates how this would have been done; its location near the missing section of wall suggests that the threshold blocks were removed, and that the resulting hole was filled with tile and debris as a means of raising the floor level to accommodate the resulting height differences between the surfaces to the north and to the south. 6540, then, would represent the first surface in the Western Room after the putative threshold was removed. The pottery of 6540 dates to the 12th century, and its overlying fill deposits 5887 and 6428 are from the first half of the 12th century. ; ; The foundation trenches for walls 5483 and 5519/foundations 6575 were uncovered at lower elevations, below the level of both surface deposit 6572 and surface deposit 6589; these surfaces may be considered to have been in use with 5483 and 5519 wall sections after they were founded. Ceramics from all three surfaces date to the 12th century. As far as the sequencing of the walls of the room go, wall 5483 is stratigraphically the earliest, although the elevation of its foundation trench is almost identical to the lowest foundation trench of wall 5519 [cut 6677 at elevation 83.98 versus cut 6646 at 84.00 MASL]; since the upper courses of the walls appear to bond, it would make sense for their foundation events to have occurred at the same time. Wall 5519 does show evidence for at least two foundation events, indicating that it had an earlier phase on its eastern side (cut 6677, fill 6646) and a second phase to the west of that, cutting the earlier foundation (cut 6616, fill 6611, revealed by late Byzantine fill 6578). Finally, the foundation trench 6427 cut the foundation fill 6616 for wall 5519, indicating that that 12th century foundation event is a terminus ante quem for the other two sections. ; ; The earliest surface excavated was 6624, revealing a hard, light pinkish brown surface that appeared to be composed of the colluvium that has been observed to rest above bedrock levels throughout the North of Nezi area. This unnumbered and as yet unexcavated surface appears to have been cut by numerous features, including the earliest foundation trench for wall 5519 (trench cut 6647, fill 6646) and the foundation trench for wall 5483 (trench cut 6677, fill 6675), which came down onto bedrock. Additionally, the unnumbered pinkish brown surface was cut by a large ashy pit that was revealed in the northeastern corner of the room (pit cut 6645, fill 6639, overlying fill 6639), truncating both early foundation trenches in addition to cutting a much larger robbing trench cut 6665 (putative), to the south. Overlying surface 6624 has pottery from the 11th century, which would potentially provide a terminus ante quem for these earliest foundation events- but there is an inconsistency with the pottery from fills from the truncated east-west robbing trench 6665. Two fills from robbing trench 6665 (6649 and 6663) yielded joining coarse incised sherds of the mid-13th century, potentially shifting the dates of all of the previously discussed contexts (and other contexts from the room) two centuries later. This warrants a more detailed discussion of how the putative robbing trench was discovered, how we approached its excavation, and the potential scenarios by which these inconsistencies may be interpreted. ; ; The cut of the putative robbing trench 6665 was first noticed in the section of storage pit cuts 6380 and 6353 as a straight line appearing to run the length of the room from east to west. We noticed the cut before it was exposed in plan on either its northern or southern sides, and speculated variously about its length, suggesting at times that it ran all the way across the southern side of the room, and at other times that it was thinner in width, perhaps in connection with robbing cuts 6381 (for north-south wall 6157 visible below wall 5411) and with robbing cut 6674 (east-west cut, visible below wall 5284). In context 6587, the difference in strata to the north versus south of the cut line became more visible (but the cut was not revealed in plan), and immediately after, surface 6589 was excavated with knowledge that the strata south of the line of excavation were different from the surface that was excavated. In these contexts, the line of the cut may have been visible, but its full extent was not yet defined in plan, so it was left unexcavated. It was only visible as a straight line in the south-facing section of the two storage pit cuts, making it impossible to use the sections to try to determine its extent and shape; however, since virgin red colluvium had been cut for the construction of the two storage pits and had preserved their round shapes on all sides, it is certain that the cut could not have stretched completely across the southern half of the room at the levels we were excavating. What’s more, we were steered away from thinking that the cut related to cuts 6381 and 6674 by the fact that the cut continued further east past the point where it would have cornered to rob wall 6157. ; ; The cut became clearly exposed in plan after the excavation of surface 6624, cutting into the hard pinkish brown surface truncated by numerous earlier pits. The excavation of 6619 was an effort to find the southern line of the cut, but was unsuccessful, as was the excavation of fill 6631, which revealed the southern edge of pit 6645, making it stratigraphically later than the robbing trench cut 6665.  Pit 6645 cut into fill 6649 to the south, which was one of the aforementioned contexts in which one of two joining 13th century coarse incised sherds was collected. Three more fills south of the cut line, 6657, 6660, and 6663 (the other context from which a joining coarse incised ware was collected) were then excavated before the southern extent of the robbing event 6665 appeared clearly in plan, along with the foundation trench for wall 5483 (foundation cut 6677, fill 6675, overlying fill 6663). The excavation of lowest fill 6676 within cut 6665 revealed a hard, brownish yellow surface, likely the floor associated with an earlier architectural phase of which wall 6157 is part prior to the foundation of wall 5483, while the excavation of lowest fill 6675 within foundation trench 6677 revealed bedrock. ; There are at least three possible conclusions to draw from the stratigraphy as we have defined it and the ceramics that have come from these contexts, in light of the discrepancies we have discovered:; ; Scenario 1) The stratigraphy was excavated correctly and the dates of the ceramics from stratigraphically later contexts need to have their dates bumped up to account for their stratigraphic relationships. In support of this are findings from Jody Cundy and Nate Andrade’s 2008 records of the room directly west of the Western Room. While many of their upper strata were found to be 12th century, a Frankish strap handle was found at the bottom of a pit cutting lower strata in the room, thus altering the date of all overlying contexts. There is further support for this idea in the pottery from fill 6676, the bottommost fill of cut 6665; it dates to the 12th/13th century.  Finally, the fact that the 13th century levels were found in lowest stratified levels of the room, and were all excavated on the same day in a limited amount of time makes the possibility of contamination (e.g., through tumble or long-term exposure) less likely.; ; Scenario 2) We missed the line of the robbing trench cut 6665 at a higher elevation and needed to treat the fills within it as fills lying on each other within a cut, rather than relating them variously to surfaces to the north, potentially across the putative cut line. This would also mean that the final cut line that we identified after excavation of 6663 relates to another cutting event, and not to the line of the robbing event. Further supporting this scenario is the fact that a boundary was defined for the northern side of the cut as early as context 5343/5345 during session II; however, it remains that the entirety of the cut was not exposed until the excavation of context 6663. ; ; Scenario 3) The area was significantly disturbed by 1960s excavation events, in ways that we did not fully perceive while excavating during both Session II and Session III. In this scenario, the stratigraphy could have been cut in order to accommodate the excavation of pits 6353 and 6380. The cutting events involved could have been anything from half-sectioning, to creating steps out from the storage pit cuts during excavation to facilitate getting in and out of them, and to prevent the walls from collapsing. In this scenario, the fills we dug south of cut 6665 were actually backfill from the 1960s. In support of this scenario are two facts: A) 1960s records (NB 229, p. 180) mention that the southern portions of north-south walls 5490 and 5485 were removed in order to accommodate the excavation of the storage pit cut 6353; additional disturbance could have occurred at the same time. B) Contexts 6343 and 6345, excavated during Session II, uncovered a cut in the same place that the cut 6665 begins to the west, and at the time that we were recording it, it was speculated that the cut might have been for a half-section created to facilitate 1960s excavations within the Western Room; if that small cut represents the beginning of cut 6665, we would be able to place it significantly later in our stratigraphic understanding of the room. ; ; Future Considerations ; ; Pit 6645, cut 6665, and foundation trench cut 6677 which were the last contexts recorded cut the unnamed pink surface revealed by 6624 to the north, but 6665 and 6677 also cut a smaller level of fill revealed by 6660 in the southeastern corner of the room. Provided that these fills are not found to belong to very early levels truncated by an erroneously defined cut, the fill in the southeastern corner should be prioritized for removal in 2010. Likewise, the fill of robbing event 6381, heretofore only visible in the northern and southern facing sections of pit 6380, but revealed by the excavation of fill 6676 and cut 6665, should be exposed in plan and removed. After those contexts are excavated, it will be possible to consider exploring beneath the pink surface. ; ; Conclusions; ; The way that the discrepancy between the Frankish lower fills and the Byzantine upper fills is interpreted has implications for the way that the courtyard area is phased, since one of the questions that this excavation addresses is how the area changes through time, and when those changes take place. One scenario is that construction activities occurred in two phases: the 10th/11th century, and the 13th century, with less activity in the 12th century. A second possibility is that development was steady and gradual, occurring from the early Byantine through the Frankish period. ; Until the lower Frankish fills were uncovered in the West Room, that space showed strong evidence for some early activity (evidenced by the robbing events 6381 and 6674 visible below walls 5411 and 5284, as well as the early surface uncovered below pit cut 6665, predating wall 5483), a great deal of construction  activity in the 12th century, and subsequent Frankish building activity as well.   ; ; The levels in the East Room are early and definitely reflect “phase one” constructions of the 10th and 11th centuries, prior to a subsequent restructuring of the room that involved relocating the southern terrace wall to open the East Room for communication with the Central Room via threshold 6285. There is little evidence for 12th century activity in the East Room as it currently survives, but the eastern wall section that we removed, 10085, featured foundations (6575, 6576) that contained 12th/13th century pottery, supporting the idea of Frankish period reuse of the space. ; ; The Central Room, like the West Room, features up to three phases of development. The earliest floor surfaces there are directly on top of the red colluvium soil, meaning that they are quite early and probably date to the 10th century, and the east-west wall 6120 would have divided the room. The walls 5483 and 5631/6425 date to the 10th/11th century as well, and would have represented part of the room’s expansion, since 5631 lies further north. Then, the Central Room opened up to the East Room via the construction of 11th century threshold 6285, expanding movement still further; subsequently, the threshold was blocked off by fills 6278 and 6277, and Frankish constructions such as walls 5552 and 5553 would have constricted the Central Room again.","Final Report 2009 - rooms south of the courtyard of the Byzantine House, first  phase of the Byz House","Corinth:Report:Nezi Field 2009 by Sarah Lima (2009-05-25 to 2009-06-15)","Report",""
"","Corinthia | Ancient Corinth | Central Area | Nezi Field","Nezi Field 2010 by Cameron Pearson and Lincoln Nemetz Carlson (2010-05-27 to 2010-05-28)","","","","","Corinth","","Corinth Excavations 2010 Session II; North of Nezi Room A; We, Cameron Pearson and Lincoln Nemetz Carlson, continued the excavation in the area north of Nezi opened by Rob Nichols and Martin Wells in the first excavation session of 2010. During the first week of the second session of the 2010 Corinth excavation season, May 4 – May 7 we excavated primarily in the northwest room of the Byzantine house—the ‘well room’ (6288)—bounded by walls 54, 5631, 6426, 10086, 10081, 10087, 55 and 6333 (E. 273.95-283.00; N. 1026.9-1034.78). Generally, current excavation in this area continues the work carried out during the 1960s by Henry Robinson (director) and William Berg III (supervisor).  Our objectives were to continue the work of the previous session and expose the drain structure 6727 in order to see if there was any evidence of a Roman north-south road in the area.; The following is a summary and interpretation of the first part of the second session of excavations. The director was Guy Sanders, the field director was Marty Wells, the pickmen were Thanasis Notis and Panos Stamatis, the shovelman and barrowman Sotiris Raftopoulos, and the dry sieve was operated by Iannis Senis ; Late Roman/Early Byzantine (300-801 CE); These layers are concentrated primarily in the center of the room in and around drain (structure 6827). In the Late Roman period, a sewer drain (structure 6827) was in existence, which has been dated to the late 4rd- 5th c. B.C.E. on pottery (6931, 6939, 6943) found between it and the cut for the drain (6737). It is oriented NW-SE, under the phases of the later Byzantine room and continued under wall 10086 to the east. It is unclear if it continued to the west. It is possible that it connected to the north-south drain associated with the Roman road east of room. The drain consisted of a combination of building materials: worked fieldstones, marble pavers and a collection of weathered and/or badly carved architectural members: two geison blocks, three half-columns cut lengthwise, and two unfluted (so far as is visible) cylindrical blocks, one with an offset empolium.  At some point the drain went out of use, and an extensive fill of re-deposited 8th c. material (6788) was deposited over it, followed by subsequent Middle Byzantine activity 6686 and 6682 in later periods.; Excavation west of the built part of the sewer revealed that there were no more covering slabs despite the walls of the drain curving southwest. The cylindrical rough-hewn block (not a column) with the offset empolium to the south was fully uncovered along with a badly carved half column and some worked fieldstones to the north.  They all lined the drain. It is unclear whether this part of the drain was ever covered or if it was robbed out at some point. One of the half columns was revealed lying near the bottom of the drain (cf.6867).; Based on the contexts (6931, 6939, 6943), between the drain (6827) and the cut (6737) the date of the drain’s construction is 4th-5th c. AD. It is unclear which roads or other drains it was connected to but it is likely linked with the unexcavated sewer next to the Roman road just above it to the east. It then goes out of use in the middle 6th -7th c. The top layer (6856) of the small mound that formed the western end of where the covering slabs had lain over the drain dates to the 7th c. but it could have fallen in from above as the slabs were not sealed by any means (the drain continued to the west but with no covering slabs). The rest of the fill  (6854, 6860, 6861), which was clearly from the wash inside the covered portion of dates to the middle of the 6th c.; One explanation for the different layers and types of soil inside the area where the drain was covered is that it was plugged up some time in the 7th c. The small mound toward the west of the covered area would have been created by the blocking. The half column found during the removal of the bottom fill (6867) for the drain (6827) could have served this purpose. The covering slabs to the west and any evidence of the dark silt (6854, 6861) not found outside of where the drain was covered (6832) would have been removed during this stopping up operation. The problem with this explanation is that there is no clear evidence that the soil (6867) at the bottom of the covered eastern section of the drain is earlier than the fill that hypothetically would have been used to fill up the western part (6832). Furthermore, in order for the stopping up theory to be validated, there would have be a good explanation as to why a century or two after its construction such trouble would be taken to plug it up.; A second idea is that the drain simply went out of use. However, this explanation has to account for why the soil in the covered portion of the drain contained layers of dark silt and wetter soil (6854, 6860, 6861), which were not found outside to the west (6832).  If it clogged up on its own there should be traces of this silt to the west as well. It is possible that the silt was removed while the covering slabs to the west were robbed out, perhaps in connection with the building of wall 6421 or its repair.; A third solution would have the drain simply never containing covering slabs to the west. James Herbst has suggested that there would have been a need for such drains to funnel out water before it flooded the forum to the south but it is doubtful that the drain would have been able to function without covering slabs. ; Of important note is that during a cleanup defining the edge of one of the Frankish piers (6841), a piece of Roman sculpture, most likely from a relief, was found. It consists of the right side of the face (S 2010).  ;  Conclusion; We have dated the drains (6827) construction (4th-5th c.) and the end of its use (7th c.) Notably, we did not find evidence for a Roman north-south road in or around the drain. It remains to be explained why the drain was built at such a late date. It if is associated with the road’s construction to the east it should be early (ca. 1st c.). For a clearer picture of why and for what purpose the drain was built at this time, comparanda from other Roman drains in Corinth will need to be studied. ; ; ; ; Corinth Excavations 2010 Room B; North of Nezi; We, Cameron Pearson and Lincoln Nemetz Carlson, continued the excavation in the area north of Nezi opened by Sarah Lima, Mark Hammond, and Kiersten Spongberg in session II 2009.  ; During the second week of the second session of the 2010 Corinth excavation season, May 10 – May 19 we excavated primarily in what we are calling Room B (the second room we dug this session which was called the East Room by the previous excavators) south of the courtyard in the Byzantine house— Bounded by walls 5403  to the south, 6300, 6027,  (threshold) 6285 to the east, 5483 to the west, and to the north 6267,  (threshold) 5671, and (foundation) 6245. Our objectives were to continue the work of the previous session and to search for any trace of a North-South Roman road. ; The following is a summary and interpretation of the second part of the second session of excavations. The director was Guy Sanders, the field director was Marty Wells, the pickmen were Thanasis Notis and Panos Stamatis, the shovelman and barrowman Sotiris Raftopoulos, and the dry sieve was operated by Iannis Senis.; Hellenistic 3rd Century; A series of ash pits were found in the southwest (6901, 6906, 6917) and one in the north (6924). All of these dated to the Hellenistic period with one late Roman contaminant in 6906 and three in 6926. Despite the contaminants, which probably entered these ash contexts because we mistakenly dug them before later contexts or due to overdigging, it seems most likely that in the Hellenistic period the whole area covered by Room B was an ash dump for some sort of industry. ; Late Roman 3rd C.; A large cut, as of yet undated, appears to run east-west through the center of the room. It could have been for a Roman wall along the south side of the east-west road. There is evidence for this cut in the rooms to the east and west of Room B. A small wall bit, most likely a foundation, (6968) might be what is left of the robbing out of this Roman east-west wall. The pottery on top of this wall bit (6968) dates to the 3rd c. AD (6966). Another possible small foundation for a wall (6937) runs north-south under wall 5403. The relationship between these two hypothetical wall foundations is unclear as they have not been excavated. We are also unsure if the tile dump 6916 is a structure at all (whether a furnace or another wall foundation?).  However, we can postulate that sometime from the 6th-8th c., the Roman wall was robbed out and filled with deposits 6967, and possibly 6982 and 6888 as well. Another problem left for future excavation is the relationship if any of wall 6933 to wall 6120. We had originally thought that wall 6120 was associated with paving stones 6190, which reached the wall. But since the Hellenistic ash is visible just below wall 6120 it is possible that this wall is earlier than the paving stones which are associated with threshold 5285 to the east, which the previous excavators had concluded was earlier than threshold 6261 on the north side of the room but has no precise date.   ; Conclusions; In Room B we hypothesize that a Hellenistic ash layer was probably cut for a wall of an east-west Roman road.  We exposed the cut which should be explored by the next team.  They should begin at the north west of the cut and try to decide what the relationship is between the cut and walls 6968 and 6933. We could not see evidence for the cut continuing on the area just east of wall 6933. There was a clear greenish layer passing form the western to the northern scarp of 6967, implying that the cut does not continue between walls 6933 and 6968. However, the paving stones at the bottom of fill 6967 appear to end at the northern edge of the cut, indicating that it does indeed continue along the lines of wall 6968 to the west. Other questions to answer are what is 6915. Is it a structure of a dump? Also it could be that wall foundations 6937 and 6968 formed a corner where the north south road met. What is their relationship?  ; Room C ; ; In the third week of Session II, we turned out attention to the room directly to the South of Room B, referred to here as “Room C.”  Room C was last investigated by Anne Feltovich, Catherine Persona and Emily Rush during the 2008 season. Room C, referred to as Room E by Feltovich, Person and Rush during the 2008 excavation, is bounded by walls 5403 to the north (formerly W 32), Wall 5435 to the west (formerly W 22), Wall 5435 to the South (formerly W 23) and 5346 to the east.  ; We were interested in looking into the relationship between the Room B and Room C, which appeared to be terraced above Room B, and for looking of signs of the N-S Roman road that may have ran through both rooms.  ; During the 2008 session, the previous excavators established that the wall dividing the room, Wall 5446, was the first wall in the room and the other walls in the room were built in this order.; ; a) Wall 5446 ; b) Wall 5403; c) Wall 5435; d) Wall 5434; e) Wall 5346.; Early on in the excavation, we discovered a wall (Wall 7001) running parallel with 5446 to the west of 5446.  Wall 7001 also seems to have been cut by the foundation trench for wall 5403 and thus is one of the earliest features of the room.  At this time, however, it is hard to say whether wall 7001 predates, postdates or is contemporary with wall 5446.  Two overlying early Roman Contexts (6997 and 7003) deposited between Walls 7001 and 6997 would seem to indicate that both walls predate the 2nd century AD.  Walls 7001 and 5446 also seem to be aligned with Structure 6916 (the furnace or tile dump) and Wall 6937 in Room B, but this might be coincidental.  Further investigation of Structure 6916 is recommended in order to establish its relationship, if any, to Wall 7001.; ; It seems that during the late 1st/early 2nd century AD, the area between Walls 7001 and 5446 and the area to the east of Wall 5446 (between 5446 and wall 5346) were filled with leveling deposits (6997/7031 and 7010/7021) which brought the surface of the room to the current extant height of the two walls (7001 and 5446).  At the present time, however, we do not have enough information to understand the intentions behind this action.; ; In the late 3rd/early 4th century AD, a pit (Cut 7020) was cut into the 1st/early 2nd century deposit (7010/7021) up against and to the east of Wall 5446 and a large amount of charcoal and ash was deposited (Deposit 7019).  The top of this pit of charcoal was cut by the construction of another pit above it during the 6th century AD (Cut 5380).  Fill to the west of wall 5435 (7003)  dates to the same period (3rd/early 4th century AD) as the charcoal and ash deposit, though it is unclear if the two deposits are related.  ; ; Excavations and cleaning also revealed a partial Greek inscription on the southern face of a block in Wall 5446.  Although we were able to make out and transcribe a couple of letters (as documented on Structure 5446 Context Sheet), the fragmentary nature of the inscription inhibits any further conclusions as to the nature of the writing.","2010 Session II Blue Final Report: Well Room (A), Room south of Courtyard (B), and Room South of the Byzantine House ( C )","Corinth:Report:Nezi Field 2010 by Cameron Pearson and Lincoln Nemetz Carlson (2010-05-27 to 2010-05-28)","Report",""