Corinth Basket Nezi Field, context 856

Collection:		Corinth
Type:		Basket
Name:		Nezi Field, context 856
Area:		Nezi Field
Title:		Pit Cut by N Scarp
Category:		Deposit
Notebook:		1106
Context:		856
Page:		0
Date:		2012/05/30
Lot:		Lot 2012-049
Stratum:		Pottery, bone, tile, few pebbles, few cobbles, glass, coin # 92, bronze, iron slag; 30% inclusions
Description:		The soil color is light greyish brown. The soil compaction is very soft. The soil is moderately sorted. It is silty clay.
Notes:		This is the excavation of a medium size pit, which we are, sadly, not naming the ''Rainbow Pit of Friendship'', cut by the N scarp of the 1960s (?) excavation. The soil is very distinctive: a soft, silty matrix with tiny to medium sized chunks of yellow clay. The clay predominates so that squeezing a handful of soil causes the whole mass to clump together. Flecks of carbon - wood, as far as we can tell - present as well. Panos cleaned the scarp here fairly thoroughly before we started digging, so although the pit has been cut by the scarp, we think it should be a fairly uncontaminated context. Nice yellow glaze base found. Coin # 92 (271.66 E, 1013.43 N, 86.04 H). Switched to sieving 100% after first wheel-barrow when coin found. From screen piece of bronze found (pin ?). The pit seems to undercut part of the triangle of soil last excavated as 836. Guy is not worried by this and has just explained to us the medieval propensity for digging pithos-like bothroi and covering them over with cantilevered tiles or flat stones like a miniature tholos. The N-S cut we noticed above it on the E edge of the triangle may be associated with the construction of this pit. A preliminary assessment in the field of the glazed pottery we have found so far puts the pit fill in the first half of the 13th c. Took photo # 562 - section of pit in N scarp- because color changes are so clear in section: yellow and white clay with a deep red surrounding it on all sides. It seems to cut what may be the N continuation of our as yet unconfirmed ''wall'' - large rounded boulders are present in the scarp right along the color change on the W side. Context left open at end of day. 31 May 2012: Cleaning up fill which fell over the scarp to N. Iron slag found. We have dug until noon today and reached the bottom of the pit. At the bottom we have discovered a fragment of bronze. The bottom of the pit is marked by a change to red earth. The sides of the pit are constructed out of tiles and unworked fieldstones, not unlike those used in the ''wall'' above. Similar stones can be seen in the S end of the bottom of the pit. We may therefore plausibly surmise that the bottom of this pit was lined using the same technique used for the construction of the pit's sides. Alternatively, the stones appearing at the bottom of the pit may be the remnants of an E-W wall which once joined with wall 866. The pit would then have been dug into the corner of a mostly buried building, and the remains of the walls would have been used to close over the opening of the pit cut into them. We have assigned cut #867 to the cut for this deposit.
Context Pottery:		Fineware. early champs levee fine, slipped style VI (1170-1200)2 bodysherds. (saved to lot) .; Fineware. plain glazed, unslipped (800-1100), dish. 2 rims. (saved to lot) .; Fineware. pre Frankish92 bodysherds. (saved to lot) .; Fineware. protomaiolica, slipped (1260-1325), plate. 1 bodysherd. (saved to lot) .early; Cooking ware. handmade beaker (saved to lot) .; Fineware. slip and glaze painted, bowl. 1 rim. 2 bodysherds. (saved to lot) .; Fineware. late sgraffito, slipped style VII (1250-1300), plate. 1 rim. (saved to lot) .; Cooking ware. vertical rim stewpot (1270-1320)3 rims. (saved to lot) .joining; Cooking ware. concave thickened rim stewpot (800-950)1 rim. (saved to lot) .; Fineware. glaze painted (no overglaze), bowl. 4 rims. 1 bodysherd. (saved to lot) .; Coarseware. plain, bowl. 2 complete profiles. (saved to lot) .; Fineware. protomaiolica, slipped (1260-1325), bowl. 1 bodysherd. (saved to lot) .early; Fineware. late sgraffito, slipped style VII (1250-1300), bowl. 3 rims. 1 bodysherd. (saved to lot) .; Fineware. sgraffito IV (1300-1400), bowl. 1 bodysherd. (saved to lot) .; Fineware. plain glazed, unslipped (800-1100), pitcher. 1 handle. 9 bodysherds. (saved to lot) .; Fineware. late sgraffito, slipped style VII (1250-1300), bowl. 1 rim. (saved to lot) .imitation zeuxippus; Fineware. glaze painted (no overglaze), plate. 2 rims. 7 bodysherds. (saved to lot) .; Fineware. glaze painted IV, slipped (1220-1260), plate. 3 rims. 2 bodysherds. (saved to lot) .; Coarseware. matt painted, bowl. (saved to lot) .; Cooking ware. triangular rim stew pot (1100-1270)8 rims. (saved to lot) .; Fineware. slip painted IV, bowl. 1 bodysherd. (saved to lot) .; Coarseware. matt painted, pitcher. 1 rim. (saved to lot) .; Coarseware. matt painted, stamnos. 3 rims. 5 handles. 44 bodysherds. (saved to lot) .; Fineware. glaze painted IV, slipped (1220-1260), bowl. 3 rims. 3 bodysherds. (saved to lot) .
Pottery Summary:		182 frag(s) 1.61 kg. (100% saved) fineware.
		1181 frag(s) 9.55 kg. (100% saved) coarseware.
		256 frag(s) 2.2 kg. (100% saved) cooking ware.
Context Artifacts:		glass, clear, colorless, bs, 1; marble, white, revetment, 1; marble, white tile, 1; schisty marble, revetment, 1; mable, dark grey streaks, 1; iron, bloom?, 1; glass, clear, colorless, blue, rim, 1; painted wall plaster, red; glass, clear, colorless, prunted beaker, as MF-7521, BS, 1; bronze, strip, similar to but certainly not Geometric fibula catchplate, possibly engraved, 1; glass, opaque, blue, open form slightly concave on interior with separate portion concave and rolled on interior added, looks like base but has finished edge around interior opening, bs, 1; wall plaster fragments, 5; marble, lapis lacedamonius, 1; glass, clear, colorless, yellow tinge, moldblown, raised ovoid spiral design, 2 joining fragments, bs, 1; glass, opaque, red, bs, 2; marble, white, 1
Period:		Frankish (1210-1458 AD)
Chronology:		1270 +/- 10
Grid:		272.4-270.91E, 1013.22-1014.48N
XMin:		270.91
XMax:		272.4
YMin:		1013.22
YMax:		1014.48
Site:		Corinth
City:		Ancient Corinth
Country:		Greece
Masl:		85.38-86.21m.
References:		Report: Nezi Field 2012 by Kyle Mahoney and Rachel McCleery (2012-05-28 to 2012-06-15) Coin: 2012 92