| Collection: | Corinth | |
| Type: | Basket | |
| Name: | Temple E, Southeast, context 242 | |
| Area: | Temple E, Southeast | |
| Title: | Fill of grave, second lens from the top | |
| Category: | Deposit | |
| Notebook: | 1108 | |
| Context: | 242 | |
| Date: | 2014/05/09 | |
| Stratum: | Iron (scarce), ceramic (scarce to mod), tile (scarce to mod), human bone (v. freq), med to coarse rounded to subrounded pebbles (scarce), painted plaster (scarce) | |
| Description: | Top slope of the context is moderate down to the N. The soil color is dark reddish brown. The soil compaction is soft. The soil is very poorly sorted. It is clayey silt. | |
| Notes: | Fill 242 underlies grave fill 204 in Grave 2014-04, and is therefore the 2nd lens of fill from the top of the grave cut (188). This grave is bounded to the west by the threshold to the church narthex, and cut by grave 1990-41C to the south. Grave 2014-04 appears to cut an as-yet-unexcavated grave to its north. The west half of this grave, containing skeleton 122, was excavated last session. Although when the west side of this grave was excavated last session, the context was not considered to have changed directly overlying the primary inhumation and bone piles, it seemed to me that the dirt representing these burial episodes could be differentiated from that in the overlying grave fill. This lower fill has a higher clay content and has dense patches of reddish, rather than grey-green, clay inclusions. It is also more compact and contains less inclusions such as ceramics or painted plaster. Within this matrix, the human bones are laid so thickly as to be in contact with each other, as though they were originally piled one on top of each other in a kind of heap rather than deposited into the grave cut on top of the inhumation(s) with the dirt to fill the grave. This context is therefore dug separately as it appears to represent a different stage or sequence in burial behavior. 9/5 : I have exposed the top layer of human bones, the highest elevation of which is located on an iliac crest (see elevations below and on plan). I then photographed this top layer of the human bone pile and removed them so as to expose the human bones below and extending deeper into the grave fill. These bones were numbered in pencil as they were removed as per a printed and labeled photo to enhance spatial relationship information during osteological analyses. The pile was assigned a new bone lot number in the museum (BL 2014-13), to maintain its association with this lower grave fill episode. When the skull (skeleton 2014-281, BL 2014-10) was removed, 1 nail was observed adhering to the dirt inside the skull (in the soft palate). Its elevation is reconstructable as the bottom elevation of the skull. Some of these bones, including the skull, are lying up against and on top of a few large limestone blocks. These blocks and their relationship to each other will be further explored tomorrow. Elevations/placements of bone pile/specific bones: 1 : bone 2 - sacrum : 1070.38 N / 123.94 E / 85.10 H 2 : corner of limestone block by skull 2014-281 : 1070.64 N / 123.99 N / 85.11 H 3 : high point : bone 19 - iliac crest : 1070.79 N / 124.03 E / 85.16 H 4 : bronze strip (not inventoried) : 1071.17 N / 123.99 E / 85.06 H 5 : femur head (bone not removed at this time) : 1071.41 N / 123.87 E / 85.07 H 6 : bone 10 - neonate skull : 1071.60 N / 123.79 E / 84.99 H 7 : skull 2014-281 : 1070.61 N / 123.92 E / 85.10 H 8 : lowest point of bone removal : 1071.10 N / 123.69 E / 84.88 H Panaiotis and Angela helped me to screen today. Much human bone, some ceramic and tile, a few fragments of glass, and very little painted plaster fragments. 12/5 : After removing the top layer of human bones in the bone pile, the soil which had been packed around them and underneath them was collected for a water sieving sample. The next layer of human bone, which is not as thickly packed as the layer removed last Friday, was then exposed. When I moved to the northernmost portion of the grave, I found two fully articulated feet, which I believe probably belong to the unexcavated grave to the north. Some of the small tarsals and metatarsals recovered in the overlying fill might therefore belong to the individual buried in the grave to the north, as I appear to have overdug the 242 context a bit. It is also probable that the grave cut for grave 2014-04 truncated this grave to the north, so that some of the fill became mixed and a few bones ended up as disarticulated elements in grave 2014-04 during the process of filling in the grave itself. Careful scraping has distinguished between the fill surrounding the feet to the north as a bit darker, and the dimensions were marked prior to covering them back up with the dirt removed from over their tops. When continuing to remove this grave fill in the remainder of the grave cut, there appears to be some elements extending from the elevation of the bone pile removed yesterday into the next, lower context. This boundary is distinct, with much plaster concreted into the interface, and a mottled matrix below it. This could possibly be the floor for grave cut 188, which was possibly 'white-washed' with plaster or plaster dust prior to placing the new inhumations in the grave. However, as human bone appears to extend from 242 into this new fill, and as more human bone of a different state of preservation (much more crumbly and difficult to separate from the surrounding matrix) is present in this lower fill, it looks as though the limestone blocks on the east side of the grave may represent the walls of an earlier cist grave partially disturbed by the 188 grave cut. Possibly, three more skulls, two of a juvenile individual (one of which was partially exposed in the previous session), may also extend into this lower fill. Tomorrow I will photograph and remove the remaining human bone that is securely located in fill 242, and remove the fill dirt underlying these bones, in an attempt to determine the boundaries of this underlying fill more securely and whether it does in fact represent an earlier cist grave burial. 13/5 : After removing the remaining 242, it appears that the fill underlying this context does indeed represent a separate, and much earlier, grave built against this wall. The reconstructed alignment of the disturbed west wall of stones and their elevation closely matches that of the built stone cist grave to the south (gr 1990-41). This broken wall encloses a very clayey, compacted fill thick with bone chips and plaster dust at the interface. The two skulls (2014-282 and -283) which had begun to be exposed yesterday and which were fully exposed today, while surrounded with 242 matrix, were severely damaged, especially 2014-282, the top of which was sheared off and flipped to the opposite side, giving the cranium a butterflied open appearance. Both skulls are missing large portions of facial skeleton especially, and were broken in antiquity. Due to this damage and to the fact that they were located under the primary inhumation rather than piled on top of this extended burial as the majority of disarticulated bone, it seems possible if not probable that the individual burials represented by these skulls were part of the earlier cist grave interrment, and were disturbed when grave cut 188 was created for this grave. It would therefore be very likely that the remainder of their skeletons are preserved and will be found when/if the lower grave is excavated in the future, but as their presence in this grave is indicative of grave creation and activity, and they are encased in the same matrix as the bone pile and primary inhumation, they were mapped and photographed and collected at this time and associated with this grave. The skull noted last session seemed to belong instead more securely to this lower grave, and was left in situ. A bottom plan was drawn for this grave (see the top plan of grave cut 188) to preserve the evidence for this lower cist grave and demonstrate how this grave truncates the adjacent one to the north, and this context was closed. Bone, tile, ceramic, plaster, and glass were collected today from the sieve, but only small fragments of anything not bone. | |
| Context Pottery: | Coarseware. matt painted, stamnos. 3 bodysherds. ; Fineware. Byzantine1 rim. ; Fineware. metallic ware, unslipped (1275-1335), pitcher. 1 rim. ; Fineware. pre roman4 bodysherds. ; Fineware. slipped plain glazed (1100-1300), bowl. 2 rims. lale 13th - early 14th | |
| Pottery Summary: | 8 frag(s) 0.05 kg. (0% saved) fineware. | |
| 98 frag(s) 0.5 kg. (0% saved) coarseware. | ||
| 21 frag(s) 0.08 kg. (0% saved) cooking ware. | ||
| Context Artifacts: | glass, clear, colorless with applied threads, bs, 4; plaster, painted, red and tan, 2; Glass, clear, colorless, bs, 3, rim, 1; plaster, painted, black, 17; shell, 2; bronze, strip, 3; glass, clear, colorless with incised lines, bs, 1; charcoal, 16; iron, nail, square-shanked, 3; plaster, painted, red, 1; plaster, painted, red and black, 1 | |
| Period: | Turkish I (1458-1680 AD) | |
| Grid: | 124.11-123.17E, 1070.42-1072.17N | |
| XMin: | 123.17 | |
| XMax: | 124.11 | |
| YMin: | 1070.42 | |
| YMax: | 1072.17 | |
| Site: | Corinth | |
| City: | Ancient Corinth | |
| Country: | Greece | |
| Masl: | 84.81-85.1m. | |
| References: | Images (6) |
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