"Collection","Type","dc-publisher","Id","dc-title","UserLevel","Redirect","dc-creator","dc-date","dc-description","dc-subject","Icon","Chronology","Name"
"Corinth","Report","","Corinth:Report:Nezi Field 2009 by William Bruce, Scott Gallimore (2009-03-30 to 2009-04-16)","Courtyard of Byzantine house and rooms to north and northwest, Late Roman to Frankish levels","","","","","North of Nezi (Green) Report 2009: Scott Gallimore & Will Bruce; ; The following summarizes results of excavations during the first session of 2009 at Corinth in three areas north of Nezi Field in the area previously excavated in the 1960s under the direction of H.S. Robinson: the courtyard of the Byzantine house, the room immediately north of courtyard, and the room immediately northwest of courtyard.; The excavations in all three rooms were supervised by Guy Sanders (director) and Alicia Carter (field director). Our pickman was Athanasios Magourakis, our shovelman Kostas Arberoris, and our barrowman Panos Stamatis who replaced Sotiris Raftopoulos in the first week. The main priority for this session was the room north of the courtyard which is located between E265.30-E270.50, N1035.60-1039.20. This room was excavated in 2008 during the second session by Nathaniel Andrade and Jody Cundy, and had been previously investigated in 1961 by Steven Lattimore as part of Room 12 (NB 230, f.170). It became necessary for us to excavate parts of the courtyard, which is located between E265.20-E273.50, N1027.85-1035.70, in order to reach Byzantine levels within the room north of the courtyard, as deposits and other features in these two spaces are related stratigraphically.; The courtyard was excavated in all three sessions in 2008 and was originally uncovered during the 1961 season (Room 12 NB 230; NB 235; NB 229). After reaching earlier levels (possibly Roman) in the room north of the courtyard, we moved excavation to the room northwest of the courtyard, located between E260.90-E264.60, N1034.85-N1038.75, in order to reach contemporaneous levels. This room was excavated during the second and third sessions of 2008 by Sarah Lima, and also during 1961 by Charles Williams (NB 253, f.10). The goal of this year’s excavation is to expose the walls and features of the Byzantine house for future consolidation and presentation. Our report will be organized chronologically by room.; ; ROOM NORTH OF COURTYARD (March 30-April 8; April 13-14); ; Frankish: ; Most of the Frankish levels of this room had been previously removed and were only encountered at the very beginning of excavation. The first action of this session was an archaeological cleaning, which removed pottery and materials dating to the late 13th century (5911). The only other Frankish features encountered in this room, were three superimposed walls (5473, 5913, & 5914) which were removed according to a permit obtained this year. These three contexts were actually all components of the same wall from different phases: 5473 was the superstructure, with 5913 & 5914 as foundation levels. If any floor levels were associated with these walls, they must have been excavated during the 1960s, since the earliest floor from the 2008 season (5585) is late Byzantine.; ; Middle-Late Byzantine:; Late Byzantine levels were encountered throughout the entire room, the latest being from the 12th century. Twelth century levels extended in both the eastern and western halves of the room. In the western half, following the removal of the Frankish walls, the first 12th century context we encountered was leveling fill 5921. Also removed in this area was a small tile platform (5930), which had been revealed by the 2008 excavation. The majority of the 12th century contexts found in the western half of this room consisted of a series of small leveling fills (5921, 5927, 5931, 5933, 5936, & 5962). A floor surface which may have been associated with these leveling fills was excavated in 2008 as context 5585. ; The northern foundation trench (5960, cut 5961) for wall 5463 was also encountered during excavation; a portion of this feature was also identified in 2008 as context 5573. Beneath some of these leveling fills, context 5963, however, was part of an intact floor surface, which dated to the late 11th - early 12th century. We took samples for flotation from this floor as part of a new vigorous strategy of flotation analysis initiated this year at Corinth. Recovered from this sample was a large quantity of bone, some eggshell, and even fish scales (specialist report not yet compiled).; In the eastern half of the room, 12th century levels included a small pit (5926), several small leveling fills (5939, 5941, 5942, 5944, 5945, 5948, 5955, & 5958), and a threshold block (5865), which was removed. The floor surface with which this threshold could have been associated is context 5800, stretching from the doorway into the courtyard. ; The last 12th century context in this room was a leveling fill (5948) located in the northeast part of the room, the removal of which revealed an intact clay hearth (5975, 5976, cut 5977). The contents of this hearth were also water sieved, but nothing substantial was recovered. The only plausible floor surface, which could be associated with hearth 5975 would be context 5963. This floor was greatly truncated and did not come into contact with the hearth itself, but could conceivably agree stratigraphically.; The majority of the contexts encountered in this room dated to the late 10th –  11th centuries. This seems to indicate that this was a period of intense activity in this room. Many of these contexts were apparently leveling fills (5969, 5970, 5973, 5980, 5981, 6001, 6003, 6009, 6015, & 6026), the most remarkable of which was context 5981, a large assemblage of broken tiles, originally thought to have been evidence of a roof collapse, but later determined to be a substantial leveling fill, since the tile assemblage did not cover the entire floor surface and the tile fragments did not join; the small size of the tile fragments and the fact that none of them were intact led us to believe this did not represent a destruction event.; Two more partially intact floor surfaces (5989 & 6033) were recovered from this area. The first, 5989, covered the entire southern half of the room and consisted of compacted earth. The second, 6033, is believed to have been a construction floor (i.e. a compact floor surface created during a construction phase, on top of which an actual floor was laid), and covered the western half of the room. Numerous small finds, including many nails, were recovered from these two contexts. We also uncovered the western foundation trench (5993, 5994) for wall 5990. Wall 5990 was previously labeled W38, as a part of the plan from the 1960s.; Two robbing trenches were identified near the entrance of the room, in the southeast corner. One (5998, 6000) may represent the removal of a threshold block in the 11th century. The second robbing trench (6011, 6014) is likely evidence of the removal of part of the superstructure of a late-Roman wall running N-S, which is now labeled 6016. Within this robbing trench was stone feature (6020), which contained a fragment of marble sculpture (S2009-1).; More of wall 6016 was revealed when context 6026 & 6093 were removed. The entire course of this wall was left unexcavated, since it predates the chronological focus of this excavation. However, the E-W jog of this wall appears to be a continuation of wall 10111 in the room northwest of the courtyard. The relationship of these two walls will be discussed further in the section below re: Room Northwest of Courtyard.; We expected to find the foundation trench for wall 5562 at the northern limit of this room. With the excavation of context 6093, what appeared to be the foundation was exposed, which indicates that this wall was built without a foundation trench, but was constructed as a terrace. ; ; Early Byzantine-Late Roman:; After reaching 10th century levels in the room north of the courtyard, contemporary with the construction period of the house, and the stated goal of the excavation, the decision was made by Guy Sanders to see whether 8th or 9th century levels existed beneath the 10th century occupational level. This decision was made to try and recover useful pottery assemblages from this period, which is poorly represented at Corinth. After excavating two contexts (6090 & 6093) we determined that the 8th & 9th centuries were absent, and we had reached a late-Roman level. Thus, excavation ceased in this room.; ; COURTYARD OF BYZANTINE HOUSE (April 9-13):; ; We moved excavation into the courtyard, and we excavated some two dozen contexts in this area when it became clear that the exposed surface of the courtyard overlaid one of the deposits (6077) in the room to the north of the courtyard. ; Our excavation of this area shed some light on the construction history in the courtyard. The latest features we encountered were two walls. We removed a small N-S wall (5442), its foundation 6069, and their two foundation trenches (6056 in the east, and 6060 in the south). These walls and their foundation trenches appear to have been constructed during the 13th century. We also removed two leveling fills (6064 & 6067) west of wall 5442, which were likely deposited in the 11th or 12th century. We removed the superstructure of E-W wall 5443, which abutted 5442 and is likely contemporary. Both of these walls were slated for removal in the aforementioned permit. We encountered the foundation (6072) of wall 5443, but we did not remove it because it appeared to be much earlier. The foundation trench for wall 5443 was excavated in 2008 as context 5905 (cut 5907).; We also revealed more of the southern foundation trench (6038, cut 6039) for wall 5463. Part of this context was excavated last season as context 5903. Another significant feature we encountered in the courtyard was a pit (6044) truncated by well 5684, which contained another fill 6050, dated to the 11th century by stratigraphy.; We excavated two leveling fills (6074 & 6077) which may be related to a pebbly surface excavated last year as context 5909. Context 5909 was one of several superimposed pebble surfaces, including contexts 5900 & 5902. This season’s context 6086 appears to be an earlier example of this phenomenon in the courtyard. This pebbly surface was truncated by pit; 6084/6085 cut to contain a small partially intact amphora, originally thought to have been a pitcher. This vessel was carefully excavated and its contents removed for sampling.; When we removed context 6086, which was truncated by wall 6072, wall 5463, and well 5684, we sampled its contents for water-sieving, and the remainder was dry sieved.; ; ROOM NORTHWEST OF THE COURTYARD (April 14-16); ; After completion of excavation in the room north of the courtyard, we shifted our focus to the west to the room northwest of the courtyard. Here we excavated leveling fills, a wall foundation, and fill inside a tile-built pithos, all dating from the Frankish period.; The latest feature in this room was a cobbled wall foundation (6100), the superstructure of which was removed last year as context 5604. Beneath this context was a firmly packed soil surface. ; We performed a cleaning inside a pit excavated last year as context 5644 to determine whether last year’s excavation had reached the bottom of this context. Within pit 5644 was a small fill (6097) and a robbing pit (6103, cut 6106) associated with wall 10111. We continued excavating pit 5644 as context 6115 (cut 6116), and it became clear that this was the fill of a subterranean tile-built pithos with a depth of ca. 1.10 meters. None of the actual structure of the pithos was discovered, but the fill and the cut made its identification certain. A comparandum lies in the room north of this one (context 5504), excavated in 2008. Within the fill of 6115 were found a well-preserved late-Roman Ionic capital, a stone mortar, and a large assemblage of Frankish pottery. As for reconstructing the use life of this pithos, our excavations up to this point can only inform us that the pithos was out of use by the Frankish period. ; Removal of the pithos fill (6115) also gave us insight into the construction history of two walls (10111 & its N-S jog 6130), which predate the construction of the pithos. These two walls extend to at least the full depth of the pithos (El. 84.63. 84.48). A portion of 6130 was uncovered during the removal of 6099 & 6107, but was not identified as a wall until 6115 was excavated. We hypothesized that wall 10111 is a continuation of the E-W wall (yet unnumbered) uncovered in the room north of the courtyard.; Apart from the excavation of pit 6115, the majority of the contexts excavated in this room was several fills from the Frankish period (6107, 6108, 6110) and several fills from the Late Byzantine period (6125, 6128, 6129, 6133, 6134, 6135, & 6137) in the western portion of the room. We did not encounter any floor surfaces, nor were any documented in last year’s excavation. If any such surface did exist at a higher elevation, perhaps it was excavated in the 1960s.; The fill context 6129 which was the final context excavated this session contained substantial amount of whiteware kettles which appear to continue into the deposit below. The date for this deposit based on these kettles (1100 ± 10) provides the best chronological marker for the construction history of the levels excavated in this room which must be Late Byzantine or later. ; ; CONCLUSION; ; All three of the areas excavated by Team Green during the first session are components of the Byzantine house under investigation in the area north of Nezi Field. They represent three independent, but interconnected spaces which appear to have undergone substantial modification during their use. Several late walls removed from each room demonstrate degrees of subdivision of these spaces which occurred in post-Byzantine times. Contemporary levels have not been reached in all three rooms making it difficult to offer any overarching conclusions about the relationships between these spaces, but the fact that several contexts stretch between rooms (eg. 6077 between the courtyard and the north room) suggests that during periods of construction they were not always necessarily treated as isolated areas.; With respect to the room immediately north of the courtyard, there is likely no need for further excavation as the level associated with the construction of the house has been identified and the current revealed surfaces most likely represent Late Roman contexts. The next step for this room should be the consolidation of the features in this space and backfilling it to a level of Byzantine occupation in anticipation of presenting this site to the public. As for the courtyard, this session’s excavations have helped to provide some clarification of the construction history in the north part of this room. The southern half of the courtyard requires more investigation before any excavation can continue in the northern half and this should begin with the removal of walls 10112, 5508, and 5784 in order to better define the boundaries of the courtyard and enable the excavation of the numerous fills and surfaces which are currently visible. In the room immediately to the northwest of the courtyard Late Byzantine levels have been reached and excavation in the next session should continue with the removal of the fills in the north and south parts of this room to attempt to reveal floors and to bring the level of this room down to its original construction. An additional goal of the next session should be to continue excavating in the room immediately west of the courtyard which would provide a clear picture of the history of the entire northwest corner of the Byzantine house.","Corinthia | Ancient Corinth | Central Area | Nezi Field","","","Nezi Field 2009 by William Bruce, Scott Gallimore (2009-03-30 to 2009-04-16)"
"Corinth","Report","","Corinth:Report:Nezi Field 2009 by William Bruce, Scott Gallimore (2009-04-27 to 2009-05-15)","Nezi Session 2, 2009","","","","","North of Nezi (Green) Report 2009 Session II: Scott Gallimore & Will Bruce; ; The following summarizes results of excavation during the second session of 2009 at Corinth in three areas north of Nezi Field in the area previously excavated in the 1960s under the direction of H.S. Robinson: the courtyard of the Byzantine house, the room immediately northwest of the courtyard, and the room immediately west of the courtyard. ; ; The excavations in all three areas were supervised by Guy Sanders (director) and Alicia Carter (field director). Our pickman was Athanasios Magourakis; our shovel-man was Panos Stamatis; our wheelbarrow-man was Sotiris Raftopoulos. For two days (April 29-30) Tasos Kakouros took over as our pickman, while Athanasios Magourakis was away. We began by resuming excavation in the room northwest of the courtyard, where we left off at the end of session one. This room is located between E260.90-E264.60; N1034.85-N1038.75. We excavated this room during the first session of 2009 (April 14-16), and it was previously excavated during the second and third sessions of 2008 by Sarah Lima, and in 1961 by Charles Williams (notebook 253). We then moved to the room immediately west of the courtyard, which is located between E261.10-E264.60; N1030.80-1034.90. This room was previously excavated during the second and third sessions of 2008 by Sarah Lima, and in 1961 by Charles Williams (notebook 253). Overlapping stratigraphy compelled us to move excavation into the southern area of the courtyard, which comprised E264.40-E270.50; N1027.90-N1033.40. This area was excavated in all three sessions in 2008, the first session by Josh Geiske and Laurie Kilker, in the second session by Jody Cundy and Nate Andrade, and in the third session by Jody Cundy and Megan Thomsen. This area was identified in 1961 as Room XII and was excavated by Steven Lattimore (notebook 230, 231), and by William Berg (notebook 229). The goal of this year’s excavation is to expose the walls and features of the Byzantine house for future consolidation and presentation. Our report will be organized chronologically by room.; ; ROOM NORTHWEST OF COURTYARD (April 27); Late Byzantine:; An important deposit containing a very unusual number of white-ware kettles was revealed resting on a earth floor in the room NW or the courtyard much like deposit 6129, which overlay it (excavated during Session I). The white-ware kettle deposit was concentrated between E263-264.50; N1037.5-1038.70 and comprised 75-76% of the pottery recovered from this deposit by weight. We determined, based on handles, that there must be a minimum count of 33 vessels. Almost none of these kettles showed any signs of use or burning. We tentatively hypothesized that this deposit represented a newly received shipment (in a box or cabinet?) temporarily stored in this location. The date for deposit 6145, based on the white-ware kettles, can be very accurately estimated at 1100 ±10, which serves as one of our best dating criteria in this area. ; ; The removal of this deposit brought us to the level upon which the white-ware kettles likely stood; however, we decided against excavating this context, as it would have required us to partially dismantle well 5876, a later feature which had been pedestalled. Levels contemporary with the white-ware deposit were also encountered in the southern area of the room. The level of the southern area of the room, based on the pottery recovered from cleaning 6150, made us confident that it was late 11th - early 12th century, and thus roughly contemporary with the northern half. In the south area, several fills of late-Byzantine date (6151, 6153, 6154) had been deposited for an upper floor level, likely excavated in the 1960s since no floor is noted in this area from the 2008 excavations. These fills covered a small semicircular cut (6156), the fill of which (6155) was serving to backfill a tile-built storage pithos. The pithos was truncated by wall 5725. Wall 5725  has not yet been approved for removal by  the Byzantine Ephoria, but an application should be made in the future, since this structure post-dates the contexts to its north. ; ; ROOM WEST OF COURTYARD (April 27-May 4); Frankish:; We moved into this room in hopes of clarifying the construction date of wall 5725 and determine its relationship to the contexts in the room immediately to the north. ; ;  A series of floors and sub-floor leveling fills were excavated in this space. The fills (6159 + cut 6161, 6162) appear to represent levelings for an unidentified floor, perhaps excavated in the 1960s, since no upper floor surface was noted during the 2008 excavations. Revealed by removal of these fills were two isolated patches of floor, one (6163) in the northeast corner, and the other (6165) in the northwest corner. These two patches perhaps represent the same floor surface, but were kept separate in the Harris matrix, since their elevations do not correspond. Associated with this floor were twelve leveling fills: (6167, 6174, 6176, 6179=6182=6185, 6189, 6192, 6203, 6178, 6207, 6214, 6218, & 6236). These floors and fills were laid up against wall 5725 because they overlay its unexcavated foundation trench. Context 6165 was cut by the foundation trench (5720) for wall 5762 in the west. Thus, this floor surface, if the same, postdates wall 5725, but predates wall 5762.The fills raised the level of the room approximately 30 cm., suggesting that, during the Frankish period, it was customary to construct a thick substructure before laying a floor. ; ; The removal of one of these fills (6203) revealed two distinct courses of wall 6228 (previously labeled 50kj in the 1960s records). The top courses (structure 6206) were much more crudely built and had no associated foundation trench. A mid-late 12th century sherd embedded in the soil matrix of upper courses made it clear that it was a later construction and thus we removed it on April 30th. During the 12th century the inhabitants may have added to the height of the wall on account of the rising floor level created by the addition of fills and floors.;  ; The floor level revealed by the removal of all of the aforementioned twelve fills was context 6237. We were able to excavate one fill below this floor (6239), but we ran into difficulty because robbing trench (6350) located immediately east of this room truncated the surface beneath fill 6239 (as yet unexcavated), and thus we had to shift our focus to the southern half of the courtyard. ; ; In a pit in this room, located in the southern part and truncated by the northeast corner of the Ottoman house, we discovered a small extension of the cut and unexcavated fill, which we excavated as context 6214 (cut 6215). This pit was excavated in the 1960s, but we have not yet identified which of the 1960s notebooks refers to it.; ; Magourakis believed he could discern the cut and fill of the the foundation trench of wall 5725 in the east scarp of Bothros 9 (NB 235, p.19), which disturbed most of it. Bothros 9 appears to be of Frankish date, based on Guy Sanders’ examination of the lot pottery (Lot 837). This foundation trench cut should be revealed approximately 0.10 m. below the current surface, so at an elevation around 84.45. ; ; COURTYARD (SOUTHERN PORTION) (May 4-May 15); Frankish:; We began by removing wall 5508, which dates between the late 13th and early 14th centuries and was pedestalled in 2008 as permission to remove it had not yet been received, making it by far the latest feature in this immediate area. The construction of this wall limited access between the courtyard and the space in front of the rooms immediately to the south. The only point of access after the construction of wall 5508 was in the southwest corner of the courtyard. Directly beneath wall 5508 was a tile fill (6243), which we related to the uppermost context in this part of the courtyard excavated in 2008 (5300). These equivalent contexts were likely leveling fills for a courtyard surface which had been excavated in the 1960s. We encountered another fill (6244) directly below the wall, for which we were not able to find an equivalent context from the 2008 excavation. Below these fills were the remains of two separate surfaces composed primarily of tile fragments. The first of these (6246) can be equated to the 2008 context 5324 in the courtyard and 5630 in the area south of wall 5508. The second (6250) was found directly below 6246 and likely equates to 2008 context 5685. A pattern emerged with respect to these numerous fills and surfaces whereby only shallow fills were laid down in between the numerous surfaces constructed in this part of the house. This is demonstrated by the next surfaces encountered, 6253 and 6259=6260=6262, for which the subsurface leveling fills (6265, 6266, 6268) only seemed to raise the surface level by approximately 6 cm. Another contemporary fill, 6280 which consisted primarily of cobbles and boulders corresponding directly to a 2008 context, 5674 was laid on surface 6289. ; ; The removal of the above fills and surfaces succeeded in also identifying the lowest levels of structure 10112 which was abutted on its eastern end by wall 5508. Structure 10112 was a Frankish addition and had the appearance of a large platform and may have served as a bench. Directly beneath structure 10112 was a fill (6281) which may have served to level the existing surface to accommodate the construction of this feature. Removal of fill 6281 revealed a cut (6283) along the southern and western boundaries of where 10112 had laid which had two overlying fills (6282 and 6287) and overall this could have represented some type of drainage feature. 6283 cut into two superimposed pebble courtyard surfaces (6355 and 6356).; ; Structure 10112 also overlay several more surfaces and fills to the south (surfaces 6271, 6293, 6289, 6290, 6295; fills 6304, 6316, 6294, 6298). These surfaces lay upon a series of foundation trenches. The first (6314, cut 6135) was the foundation trench on the northern side of wall 5285. Initially, this caused some confusion, since we believed this wall to be Byzantine. However, with the later excavation of pit 6409, abutting the north side of wall 5285, we found another foundation trench at a lower elevation from the wall’s construction, whereas 6314 proved to be evidence of a later addition. Next we excavated foundation 6322 (cut 6323), which was truncated in the south by foundation trench 6314. 6322 was the western foundation trench for wall 6313. Most of the wall appears to have been robbed out at a later period (robbing trench 5510). However, the discovery of foundation trench 6391 (cut 6392) on the south flank of the standing remains of wall 6313 proved that this wall is an older structure, and that foundation trench 6322, which was originally thought to be for this wall and the robbed portion, was in fact for an extension of the wall to the south. The robbing trench (5510) thus represents the removal of the later extension. ; ; Foundation trench 6322 truncated a small foundation trench (6331, cut 6332) for one of two piers placed at the southwest corner of the courtyard. The pier structure is context 6319. North of this pier is a second pier block (6337) with a contemporary foundation trench (6335, cut 6336). These piers appear to have been made for an entrance into the courtyard, a hypothesis confirmed by the fact that a threshold (6347) was uncovered beneath tile fill 6346, which was associated with an earlier wall and entrance. These features were initially believed to be connected with wall 6375, but this relationship is doubtful because the piers run NW-SE, whereas wall 6375 is exactly N-S.; ; Cut by the foundation trenches of the two piers was a surface (6339) and its leveling fill (6342). A small round posthole (6340, cut 6341) below 6342 was cut into surface 6344 directly north of pier 6319, which may represent the earliest Frankish attempt at a door partition into the courtyard from the southwest. These deposits may represent our earliest Frankish phases, but our pottery does not allow us to firmly determine whether they are early Frankish or Late Byzantine.; ; Late Byzantine:; The surface (6344) cut by the round posthole and a tile fill directly beneath it (6346) may be the latest Byzantine features in this area. They were laid upon the aforementioned threshold (6347), which indicates that the southwest entrance from the Frankish period had a predecessor in the Late Byzantine period. ; ; Also beneath fill 6346, was a series of fill contained within cut 6362: (6349, 6354, 6366, 6367, 6389, 6390). Several of these fills first appeared to be part of robbing trench 6350 for NS wall 6375.  Wall 6375 was revealed by the removal of these fills and, at one point, defined the boundary between the courtyard and the room immediately to the west. The north and south ends of wall 6375 were marked by thresholds 6347 in the south, and 6320 in the north, which was revealed in 2008 by the removal of context 5855. However, it was determined that cut 6362 truncated cut 6350 and that the associated fills were in fact part of the later cut (i.e. 6362). Cut 6362 also truncated two other features in this area. The first was a large bothros located in the western half of the courtyard, south of wall 6072 (fills 6372 & 6376, cut 6377). We have not yet ascertained the function of the bothros, but it seems likely that it is contemporary with the construction of wall 6375. The second, defined by cut 6385, was the foundation trench (6384) for wall 6072 in the western part of the courtyard. This foundation trench can be dated to the first half of the 12th century by stratigraphic relationships. On the north side of wall 6072 there was also a foundation trench identified in 2008 (5905, cut 5907), but it was determined that this was the foundation trench for the upper courses of this wall labeled structure 5443, and dated to the 13th century by stratigraphic relationships. ; ; Investigations of stratigraphic relationships of the contexts in the area directly south of wall 6072 also led us excavate a deep pier foundation, context 6359 (similar to those in rooms to the east and southeast), Excavation of components of this pier had occurred in session one as foundation deposit 6069 for wall 5442. At the bottom of this feature was a cobble fill, which was first believed to be a continuation of one of the fills within cut 6362, but the cobbles were confined to the area of the cut (6061=6055) first defined for foundation 6069. This second foundation (6359) was very deep and terminated at the bottom at what appears to be a Roman wall. Thus, we determined that this feature was a pier foundation, and that the area west of this was roofed at this time, and not part of the open-air courtyard. This hypothesis is supported by 6359’s alignment with wall 6318 to the south, which possibly is another small pier foundation. Its foundation trench (6328, cut 6329) was very deep and could not be fully excavated. It was cut by fill 6399 which was below the fills contained within cut 6362. The stratigraphy, however, suggests that 6359 is later than 6318 and would have been constructed at a time when the occupants of the house wanted to roof part of the courtyard.; ; Abutting wall 6313 and revealed by the fills contained with cut 6362 was another series of fills (6399, 6401, 6395) covering the area south of wall 5508. These fills were relatively deep (ca. 15-25 cm.) and appear to either represent episodes of dumping or leveling fills for surfaces at a higher elevation. Beneath these fills was a large semicircular bothros (6409, cut 6410) abutting the north side of wall 5285. A possible parallel for this bothros can be found on the north side of the courtyard abutting wall 5741, and is a semicircular bothros designated as context 5704 (cut 5702). It was also determined that bothros 6409 truncated a smaller bothros (6418, cut 6419) in almost exactly the same location. This smaller bothros truncated the foundation trench for wall 5285, which demonstrates that the wall was in place at the time these bothroi were dug, and that they likely do not extend into the room in the south, as was originally hypothesized.  ; ; Bothros 6409 also cut into a large reddish fill (6276=6423) which covered much of the area south of wall 5508. Two foundation trenches, however, cut this reddish fill. The first (6275, cut 6272) was located along the southern face of staircase 6296, which itself abuts the southern face of wall 5783. This staircase lay directly upon fill 6276=6423 and thus dates to the late 11th or early 12th century. This feature was pedestalled in order to be able to continue excavation, and will likely not be removed in the future, since it would have to be rebuilt when the house was consolidated for presentation to the public. The second (6301, cut 6302) is the western foundation trench for wall 5783, which appears to be contemporary with the northern foundation (5795, cut 5796) trench for this wall excavated in 2008. Beneath fill 6276=6423 was another fill context, 6429, which was cut into a pebble surface. ; ; CONCLUSION:; All three of the areas excavated by Team Green during the second session are components of the Byzantine house under investigation in the area north of Nezi Field. They represent three independent, but interconnected spaces which appear to have undergone substantial modification during their use. Our excavations this session have clarified many aspects of the construction history in this area of the house. It appears now that the rooms immediately northwest and west of the courtyard were divided during the Byzantine period by wall 5725, and may have originally been one large space. The relationship between the courtyard and the room immediately to the west has also been clarified by the excavation of robbing trench 6350 for wall 6375. When wall 6375 was removed during the Late Byzantine Period (early-mid 12th century) this opened the courtyard to the west and made obsolete threshold 6320. The removal of this wall seems contemporary with the pier foundations 6359 and 6318, which represent a roofing of part of the courtyard, thus diminishing the open-air area of the courtyard. Access to the courtyard was reduced during the late 13th or early 14th century with the construction of wall 5508, which left only an entrance at the southwest as a point of access. ; ; We made substantial progress in linking the southern part of the courtyard with the rest of the courtyard space to the north with the removal of wall 5508. Further excavation will be needed to bring these two areas down to contemporary levels. Excavation will also be needed in the rooms immediately to the west and northwest in order to make contemporary these three areas of the house, in particular the west room, which is still at Frankish levels. It is also important to clarify the relationship of wall 5725 to the construction history of these two rooms and determine whether it should be removed.","Corinthia | Ancient Corinth | Central Area | Nezi Field","","","Nezi Field 2009 by William Bruce, Scott Gallimore (2009-04-27 to 2009-05-15)"
"Corinth","Report","","Corinth:Report:Nezi Field 2010 by Scott Gallimore (2010-04-07 to 2010-04-23)","2010 Session I Final Report: The Room West of the Courtyard of the Byzantine House","","","","","North of Nezi 2010: Green First Session Report (Scott Gallimore); ; The following summarizes the results of excavations in two areas north of Nezi field during the first session of the 2010 excavation season at Corinth. These areas were the room directly west of the courtyard of the Byzantine house and the room directly north of the courtyard. Excavations took place from 7 April, 2010 until 23 April, 2010. Supervising these excavations were Guy Sanders (director) and Martin Wells (field director). The excavation team included Scott Gallimore (recorder), Athanasios Sakellariou (pickman), Panos Stamatis (shovelman), and Pavlos… (barrowman).; ; The main focus of excavations during this session was the room directly west of the courtyard of the Byzantine house (E. 261.10 – 264.70; N. 1030.80 – 1034.90). We dug in this room each day of the session (7 April – 23 April) with an aim to identifying the earliest phases of Byzantine occupation along with tracing possibly Middle Roman and Late Roman usage, abandonment, and post-abandonment of the space. This room had been previously excavated in the 1960s (NB 235), in the second and third sessions of 2008 by Sarah Lima, and in all three sessions of 2009 by Will Bruce, Scott Gallimore, Karl Goetz, and Dan Leon. We excavated a single context in the room directly north of the courtyard of the Byzantine house (E. 265.30 – 270.50; N. 1035.60 – 1039.20) on 9 April during a period when the stratigraphy in the room west of the courtyard was causing some confusion and we needed some time to consider the best method of approach. This room had been previously excavated in 1961 by Steven Lattimore (NB 230), in the second session of 2008 by Nathanael Andrade and Jody Cundy, and during all three sessions of 2009 by Will Bruce, Scott Gallimore, Karl Goetz, and Dan Leon.; ; ; ROOM WEST OF THE COURTYARD; ; Frankish:; ; At two different points during the Frankish period, two deep pits were dug into the room west of courtyard. The earliest of these pits (fills 5754, 5766, 5943, 6481; cut 6326=5767), dating to the first half of the thirteenth century, is located in the southern part of the room and was subsequently truncated to the southwest by the corner of the Ottoman house. Where this pit is not truncated, it is circular in profile and is relatively deep (top elevation of 85.01; bottom elevation of 82.88). It is possible that this pit represents an attempt to dig a well that was abandoned before reaching the water table. Near the bottom of this pit, the diggers came upon the foundations for the northern curb (structure 6738) of the Roman decumanus. While they continued to dig until reaching the bottom of these foundations, they stopped when they hit they hit sterile bedrock perhaps indicating they did not feel this location was suitable for a well. The latest of the two pits was dug against the southern face of wall 5725 and was semi-circular in shape (fill 6583, cut 6655). This pit, which dates sometime between the late thirteenth and late fourteenth century, contained several different lens of fill, the latest of which was excavated during the 1960s (NB 235, Bothros 9).  Unfortunately, it is difficult to assign any specific function to this feature. It is deep enough to perhaps be considered another failed attempt to dig a well (top elevation of at least 84.99; bottom elevation of 83.35), but it is unlikely that a well would be dug against the face of a wall. ; ; Middle and Late Byzantine: ; ; No evidence of Late Byzantine activity was encountered in this room during this excavation session. This indicates that these levels must have been removed during previous excavation sessions. Asides from the necessity to continue investigating the Frankish pits mentioned above, the latest activity discernable in this space was Middle Byzantine in date, specifically the eleventh century A.C.; ; During the eleventh century, a floor of packed earth was laid down in this room which likely would have covered the entire space (6668=6670=6672). In several areas this floor was disturbed due to later activity in the room and was only preserved in a few isolated patches. This floor was laid down on a series of leveling fills which would have altered the floor level of the room by a noticeable amount (fills 6679, 6482, 6489, 6490, 6528). The earliest of these fills (6528) has a bottom elevation of 83.96 while the latest (6679) has a top elevation of 84.36 indicating a change in floor level of approximately 0.40m. 6528, the earliest of these fills, was laid down on part of another floor surface consisting primarily of rounded to subrounded, spherical, medium-sized pebbles (6656). Floor 6656 has an associated cut, 6708, although its original shape has been disturbed by the two Frankish pits in the room (defined by cuts 6326=5767 and 6655). This floor surface may have originally been rectangular in shape and covered most of the central part of the room. It does not appear that 6656 was intended to be a floor covering the entirety of the room, however, and instead occupied a central position with surfaces of compact earth surrounding it.; ; Floor 6656 was cut into a series of fills of unknown character spreading across the room (6710, 6713, 6714, 6717). These fills tended to have high percentages of poorly sorted inclusions and could represent some type of dumping action. This could perhaps coincide with the fact that the earliest of these fills, 6717, was laid over a robbing trench (fills 6722, 6734; cut 6720). The robbing trench appears to be associated with the foundation for the northern curb of the Roman decumanus which had first been identified in the northern scarp of the Frankish pit defined by cut 6326=5767. Stones laying atop this foundation were likely the target of the robbing trench and there may have been an attempt following the robbing out of these stones to level off this space with a series of fills. ; ; The act of dumping material into this space appears to have also preceded the digging of the robbing trench since this feature truncated another large fill (6752) containing a large percentage of poorly sorted inclusions which would have covered most, if not all of this space. This fill appears to date to the ninth or tenth century C.E. and may be part of a period of post-abandonment in the space. Overlying fill 6752 at its eastern end was a shallow lens of soil with few inclusions possibly representing an accumulated fill which built up against the eastern face of wall 5724.; ; There was also other activity which occurred in this room at some point during the ninth or tenth century A.C. The robbing trench defined by cut 6720 was not the first to be dug in association with structure 6738. Fill 6752 overlay an earlier, smaller robbing trench which only affected the easternmost revealed section of structure 6738 (fill 6754, cut 6756). In this part of structure 6738 a different construction technique was employed. Most of the revealed blocks associated with this feature are substantial in size with a height of approximately 0.55m. At the eastern end, however, it appears that two blocks were stacked on top of each other to achieve this same height. The robbing trench defined by cut 6756 was dug to remove the upper block of these two. This robbing trench also truncated a deposit of what appears to be dumped fill in the northeast corner of this room (6758). Fill 6758 contained a high percentage of poorly sorted inclusions and sloped steeply to the south giving it the appearance of a ramp. However, parts of this context continued beneath wall 5725 to the north and wall 6375 to the east making it difficult to interpret since we cannot reconstruct its original shape.; ; Fill 6758 was dumped in over part of another robbing trench (fills 6761, 6808; cut 6762), this one apparently for a north-south wall that ran along the eastern edge of this space. This robbing trench was fairly deep (approximately 1.2m) and came down on sterile bedrock at its lowest elevation. Part of the wall robbed out by this trench (structure 6817) is visible beneath the easternmost revealed block of structure 6738. There is also another block which abuts the southwestern edge of the robbing trench.  This wall appears to be quite early, at least predating the construction of structure 6738. It appears that the robbing trench defined by cut 6762 was the first action to occur in this space following a period of abandonment which lasted for several centuries. This trench was dug at some point in the ninth or tenth century, but there is no preceding activity in this space until the sixth or seventh century. ; ; Early Byzantine:; ; No evidence for any activity has been revealed which can be associated with this period. It appears, thus, that this space was abandoned sometime during the Late Roman period with usage of the space not occurring again until the ninth or tenth century. This abandonment may coincide with the construction of the Late Roman Wall at Corinth possibly in the mid-sixth century. The construction of this wall east of the Forum placed Nezi field outside of the city proper and the lack of evidence for activity in the room west of the courtyard would suggest this area was abandoned shortly afterwards.; ; Late Roman:; The latest discernable Late Roman activity in this space occurred in the form of a tall, rectangular patch of slumped mud-brick (6768) located in the eastern part of the room. This mud-brick could date to the sixth or seventh century A.C. In the Middle Byzantine period this mud-brick was truncated by the robbing trench defined by cut 6762 and covered by fill 6758. The slumped nature of this mud-brick indicates it collapsed from the north-south wall which was later robbed out by the trench defined by cut 6762 in the Middle Byzantine period. This collapse may have occurred after the abandonment of this space leading into several centuries of post-abandonment. 6768 covered a small part of a larger surface that may also represent slumped mud-brick (6773). This mud-brick may have again slumped off from the north-south wall at the eastern end of the room, but the lack of any noticeable slope towards this wall could also suggest it is some type of dumped fill that included mud-brick within its soil component; ; If fill 6773 were dumped into this space, this occurred over another fill that was likely dumped in (6776). This earlier fill is characterized by comprising of mixed soil, numerous pieces of charcoal, and evidence of burning. The evidence of burning is not so substantial to suggest any kind of destruction occurring in this space, but does indicate that the fill was originally obtained from a location that may have suffered from some type of fire. Both fill 6776 and 6773 were dumped into this space over a large fill of slumped mud-brick (6784) that does appear to be associated with the north-south wall robbed out in the Middle Byzantine period. The soil was mixed and contained large amounts of white marl and red mud-brick and had a noticeable slope away from the area of the wall. At the eastern edge of 6784 where this context was truncated by the Middle Byzantine robbing trench for this north-south wall there were several cobbles and boulders which likely represent some type of collapse off of the wall when this mud-brick slumped down. Based on pottery evidence this collapse may have occurred at some point in the late third or early fourth century A.C., although it is not infeasible that it may have occurred even later than this.; ; Middle Roman:; ; The third century A.C. is when we first see evidence of active usage of this space. It is during this century when the large foundations for the northern curb of the Roman decumanus (structure 6738) were laid down. Specifically, the foundation trench for this structure was dug at some point during this century (fill 6795, cut 6796). This foundation trench was unique in that it was dug deeper than the lowest elevation of the blocks of structure 6738 (bottom elevation of 6795 is 82.75; bottom elevation of 6738 is 82.93). This appears to have been a purposeful decision and it became clear that each individual block which is part of this structure lies on a different type of soil. What this suggests is that the foundation trench was dug and then small patches of soil were laid down in an effort to level each block independently. At the eastern-most revealed end of structure 6738 this foundation lies on a large block from an earlier wall which may have been an important marker for leveling the other blocks. This foundation trench was covered by a small number of fills (6785, 6792). The soil of these fills tends to be mixed in character and contains numerous inclusions including large amounts of charcoal. Directly above the foundation trench defined by cut 6796 was a shallow surface of compact earth (6793) which appears to have been purposefully laid down, perhaps coinciding with the establishment of structure 6738. Surface 6793 was of homogenous thickness throughout and contained very few inclusions of any type. The soil was also fairly homogenous distinguishing it from the mixed fills described above. Along with overlying the foundation trench for 6738, surface 6793 also overlay a small, circular pit of unknown function at the western end of the room (fill 6798, cut 6799).; ; Both the foundation trench (cut 6796) and the small circular pit (cut 6799) truncated a shallow surface of compact earth (6800) similar in character to surface 6793. This may be another surface purposefully laid down in this space and may be associated with some earlier version of the decumanus since it is unlikely that foundations associated with this road were laid down for the first time only in the third century A.C. In fact, surface 6800 was one of several of these surfaces of compact earth (6802, 6804) superimposed on one another across the space of this room. Each is relatively shallow, of homogenous soil type, and contains relatively few inclusions. The earliest of these surfaces, 6804, overlies a deep dumped fill of mixed soil and mud-brick (6806) which appears to date to the late second or early third century. The nature of this fill could suggest it was some type of leveling fill for the surfaces above. Fill 6806 overlay an uneven surface of white marl mud-brick (6823) that covered only a few patches of the northern part of the room. The uneven nature of this mud-brick argues against it slumping off a wall and it is likely that it was dumped into this space. Below fill 6823 is a deep dumped fill of mixed soil which appears to overlay a floor surface associated with wall 6817. However, we only excavated a small portion of this context and it is difficult at this point to provide any indication of function. ; ; ; ROOM NORTH OF COURTYARD; ; Middle Byzantine:; ; The only context encountered in this room appears to be Middle Byzantine in date. At some point during the ninth or tenth century A.D. a fill was built up into a ramp abutting the southwest junction of walls 6526 and 6016, perhaps to facilitate dumping of material on either side of these walls. This ramp (6491) was then covered by a deep dumped fill of dirt, tile, and stone (6516) which abutted the southern face of wall 6526 and the western face of wall 6016. Fill 6516 was one of a series of contemporary dumped fills in this area (6532, 6550, 6554) which could represent a period of post-abandonment for this space prior to its reorganization as part of the Byzantine house.; ; ; CONCLUSIONS; ; The room west of the courtyard represents one of the components under investigation in the Byzantine house situated north of Nezi field. While the primary goal of these excavations has been the identification of the construction phase for the house, the decision was made during session 1 to explore earlier levels in this space to attempt to trace periods of usage and abandonment prior to the construction of the house. While our excavations did require us to finish digging two Frankish pits, the majority of the contexts we encountered provided us with indications of the earliest Byzantine usage of the space as well as the latest Roman usage. ; ; The earliest evidence for use we have encountered occurs during the late second and third centuries C.E. when a series of surfaces were laid down along with the foundations for the northern curb of the Roman decumanus. Several more surfaces were laid down subsequent to this. By the Late Roman period there are indications that this space may have been neglected or abandoned. There is evidence of slumped mud-brick and collapse from a north-south wall and several fills were dumped in. The latest evidence of activity is a patch of collapsed mud-brick which would have abutted the western face of this north-south wall. When usage of the space resumed in the Middle Byzantine period (during the ninth or tenth century) it came in the form of a series of robbing trenches and fills. The north-south wall (perhaps associated with structure 6817) was robbed out as were components of the curb. Following this a series of leveling fills were dumped in and the earliest floor surface, a pebble floor only covering part of the room was laid down. On top of this were laid more leveling fills and until the first floor surface to cover the entire room (6668=6670=6672) would have been laid down sometime in the eleventh century.","Corinthia | Ancient Corinth | Central Area | Nezi Field","","","Nezi Field 2010 by Scott Gallimore (2010-04-07 to 2010-04-23)"
"Corinth","Report","","Corinth:Report:Nezi Field 2009 by Sarah Lima (2009-05-25 to 2009-06-15)","Final Report 2009 - rooms south of the courtyard of the Byzantine House, first  phase of the Byz House","","","","","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.","Corinthia | Ancient Corinth | Central Area | Nezi Field","","","Nezi Field 2009 by Sarah Lima (2009-05-25 to 2009-06-15)"