"Collection","Icon","dc-publisher","Redirect","Id","Type","Chronology","dc-title","dc-description","dc-creator","dc-subject","dc-date","Name","UserLevel"
"Corinth","","","","Corinth:Report:Nezi Field 2009 by Sarah Lima (2009-05-25 to 2009-06-15)","Report","","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)",""
"Corinth","","","","Corinth:Report:Nezi Field 2009 by Karl Goetze, Dan Leon (2009-05-25 to 2009-06-12)","Report","","End of Season Summary especially for areas N, NE and E of the courtyard and some work in the courtyard itself and south of the courtyard","North of Nezi (Green) Report End of Season 2009: Will Bruce (until 25 May), Scott Gallimore (until 1 June), Karl Goetze (from 25 May), Dan Leon (from 1 June); ; The following summarizes the results of excavations during the entire season at Corinth 2009 in four areas north of Nezi Field previously excavated in the 1960s under the supervision of H.S. Robinson (NB 229, 230, 235, 253, and 264): the Byzantine courtyard, the room west of the courtyard, the room northwest of the courtyard, and the room north of the courtyard.  These rooms were excavated in the first two sessions of 2009 by Scott Gallimore and Will Bruce; in the third session by Scott Gallimore, Karl Goetze, and Dan Leon.; ; Excavation in all four areas was supervised by Guy Sanders (director) and Alicia Carter (field director).  Our pickman was Athanasios Sakellariou; our shovelman was Panos Stamatis; our barrowman was Sotiris Raftopoulos.  Excavations were conducted in the southern area of the Byzantine courtyard (E264.40-E270.50; N1027.90-N1033.40), in the room west of the courtyard (E261.10-E264.60; N1030.80-1034.90), in the room northwest of the courtyard (E260.90-E264.60; N1034.85-N1038.75), and in the room north of the courtyard (E265.30-E270.50, N1035.60-1039.20).  Periodically, overlapping stratigraphy or concern for phasing caused us to move from one room to the next.  Our main goal in this area was to expose the walls and features of the Byzantine house for consolidation and presentation to the public.  Our summary will be arranged chronologically by room.; ; COURTYARD ; ; Frankish:; Session I began excavation in the courtyard when it was found that surface layers in the courtyard overlay context 6077 in the north room where excavation had been taking place. Session II 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 of the courtyard. The only point of access after the construction of wall 5508 was in the southwest corner of the courtyard. Session II excavation removed all remaining Frankish contexts from this area and all session III contexts can be dated from pottery and stratigraphic relationships to late Byzantine 10th-11th centuries.; ; Late Byzantine:; Session II excavation ended while excavating Late Byzantine floor surfaces and sub-floor leveling fills in the southern portion of the courtyard (south of removed wall 5508). Session III began excavation in this same area with the goal of finding a common floor surface that would link the area south of removed wall 5508 with the main courtyard area north of removed wall 5508. ; ; Session III excavations in the southern part of the courtyard ended up concentrating on two areas: a series of floor and sub-floor leveling surfaces adjacent to all four sides of staircase 6296  which was pedestalled and left in situ and thus post dates all session III excavations, and the foundation trenches associated with wall 5783 (cuts 5795 and 6302) excavation of which was begun during the 2008 season but not finished. ; ; Session III began by following a series of leveling fills and floor surfaces (contexts 6435, 6440, 6441) which were overlaid by context 6423 (excavated at the end of session II) and which ran successively north of each other until reaching cut 6302, the cut for the foundation trench for the west end of wall 5783. The pottery from the fill of the foundation trench dates wall 5783 to the late 11th century. Built pebble floor 6440 as well as its associated leveling fills 6423 and 6435, also date to the late 11th century and are the last contexts that can be dated to Late Byzantine period.; ; The southern courtyard area during the late Byzantine period saw the construction of pebble floor surface 6440 as well as wall 5783 and stairway 6296 which began closing off access to the courtyard from the south. Construction of Frankish wall 5508 effectively completed this process and so we can see a gradual evolution of this space from the southern portion of an open courtyard to what seems to be an interior corridor. ; ; ; Middle Byzantine:; ; Session III next concentrated further on a series of patches, floor surfaces, and leveling fills in the area west, south and east of pedestalled staircase 6296 (contexts 6446, 6450, 6453, 6456, 6461, 6463). Successive removal of these contexts revealed a built floor made of pebble and tile that seemed to cover the whole area south of removed wall 5508 and which continues north into the courtyard proper (north of wall 5783 and removed wall 5508). We were unable to excavate this built floor surface due to the fact that it was cut by a robbing trench that robbed a section of wall 5519 and which would need to be excavated first. This area belonged to the yellow team however whose excavation had not yet reached this area. Although we could not excavate this surface, fills for two robbing trenches (6461 and 6463) that cut this floor surface help date the surface to late Byzantine, 10th-11th century.; ; Having finished excavation in the southern portion of the courtyard, we believe that we have revealed the latest surface to have spanned both areas: the courtyard and the room south of the courtyard, proving that in the 10th and 11th centuries, this was one unified space. ; ; ROOM NORTH OF COURTYARD; ; Frankish: ; Most of the Frankish levels of this room had been previously removed and were only encountered at the very beginning of excavation during session I. The only 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 foundations. 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 based on the pottery from this context.; ; Middle-Late Byzantine:; Late Byzantine levels were encountered throughout the entire room, the latest being from the 12th century. 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. 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 based on their elevations.; ; The majority of the contexts encountered in the room north of the courtyard dated to the late 10th –  11th centuries. This seems to indicate that this was a period of intense activity in this room.; Session III excavations removed an extremely large dumped fill of large boulders (6516) which occupied the entire southern half of the room south of wall 6526 and west of wall 6016. Session I excavators who excavated down to this level before moving out of the north room interpreted this fill (6516) as composed of boulders from the superstructure of walls 6526 and 6016. Excavation of 6516 and other contexts (6532, 6550, 6554) around walls 6526 and 6016 serve to confirm this interpretation as all were dumped fills with significant inclusions of boulders. It is likely that walls 6526 and 6016 date much earlier than these dumped fills and that they were torn down specifically in order to level the surfaces in this room for the initial phase of middle Byzantine construction of this house.; ; Session III excavation also revealed a large pit (cut 6536) between (and disturbing) wall 6526 and wall 5562. Fill contexts for this pit include 6539, 6543, 6459 and 6460 - excavation of which (6460) was stopped when it was determined that the context went even deeper (and possibly into a cistern) and the pottery was late roman 5th – 6th century. This pit (cut 6536) however, took us down to foundation levels for walls 6016 and 6526 where they intersect on the north side of wall 6526 and the west side of wall 6016. ; ; At this level there is evidence of a wall coarse of reused ashlar blocks on top of which wall 6016, made of mud and rubble, was built. Furthermore, a robbing trench was discovered above wall 6016 where it intersects with wall 5562 which served to rob stones from 6016 but which also uncovered the top of one of the reused ashlar blocks underneath. This ashlar block extends to the north into wall 5562 and either this same block, or another block on the northern course can be seen protruding from the north side of wall 5562. It was decided to differentiate this reused ashlar coarse from wall 6016 which sits on it and the new structure number is 6566. It should be noted that the tops of what looks to be more reused ashlar blocks can be seen at this same level under wall 6526. This evidence seems to indicate that these walls (6016 & 6526) are of middle or later Byzantine rubble and mud construction on top of late Roman walls of reused ashlar. ; ; Further examination of wall 5562 west of the pit (context 6650) revealed the foundation trench for the south side of wall 5562 and the foundation trench for the east side of wall 6321. The foundation trench for wall 5562 truncated that for wall 6321 so it was excavated first. About .4m of this fill was excavated until we stopped due to concern that we would destabilize wall 5562. Pottery from this foundation trench was dated to Byzantine 10th – 11th century. Excavation of the foundation trench for 6321 was postponed while we searched for the continuation of the foundation trench for wall 5562 east of wall 6016 (context 6560=6554). We were unable to locate this trench, nor the one for wall 5990 on the east side of the room. At this point it was determined that we should move back into the northwest room and continue excavating in there. We did not have a chance to explore further the south side of wall 6526 and establish whether it is indeed part of the same construction as wall 10111 and how such a wall would relate to the rest of the house.; ; ; Room NW of the courtyard; ; Frankish:; ; The latest feature in this area was a well that had been left intact by previous excavations. The well is located at the eastern end of the room, and cuts many earlier deposits.  We did not excavate all the way to the bottom of the well, but removed fill to an elevation of 83.80.  The well widens towards its base and seems to have been built in two phases, a main construction of tile and plaster (6493=6638) with a superstructure of small cobbles and plaster at the top of the well (5876).  A perplexing aspect of this well’s construction appeared at a level much below the top of the foundation and embedded within contexts dated firmly to the middle Byzantine period.  What appears to be a cut for a foundation trench traveling around the northern half of the well (6641) was overlaid by contexts that must be much earlier than this well.  It is possible that some sort of slump or collapse accounts for the cut, rather than deliberate human action, and this event may be related to the slumping that was visible at several levels in the area immediately north of the well, similar to that discussed by Lima, Webb, and Kolb in the notes for context 5558.; ; We also excavated leveling fills, a wall foundation, and fill inside a tile-built sub-floor storage feature, all dating from the Frankish period.; The latest of these features 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 storage feature with a depth of ca. 1.10 meters. None of the actual structure of this feature 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 tile-built storage feature, our excavations up to this point can only inform us that this tile-built storage feature was out of use by the late Byzantine period since it was truncated by wall 5725 which is currently dated to the Late Byzantine period. ; Removal of the storage feature fill (6115) also gave us insight into the construction history of two walls (10111 & its N-S jog 6130), which predate its construction. A portion of wall 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 (6526) uncovered in the room north of the courtyard.; In addition to pit 6115, most of the Frankish contexts excavated in this room were fills (6107, 6108, 6110).; ; Late Byzantine:; ; In the NW corner of the room, directly beneath a layer of Frankish fill, we discovered what appears to be a large rubbish dump, comprised of contexts 6607 and 6612, which together reached a depth of 1.68m.  However, we did not finish excavating the dump because we realized, when we reached the bottom of the surrounding walls (5562, 5142, 6130, 10111), that it was later cut by all four of those walls, and thus earlier, that is, the dumped fills ran under these walls.  This dump yielded a large number of cooking sherds showing evidence of heavy use, as well as a great deal of material associated with cooking such as egg shells, fish scales, and animal bones that had been chopped or sawn.  The volume of such material suggested commercial, rather than private, use of the area.  Sanders has tentatively suggested that this part of the Byzantine house may have been used as a tavern in this period, and that the dump was an associated rubbish heap.  Such usage would accord well with the hypothesis offered by Gallimore and Bruce in the summary for Session II concerning a large deposit of white-ware kettles resting on a floor (6129).  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.  Moreover, In the southern portion of this room, several leveling fills of late-Byzantine date (6151, 6153, 6154) had been deposited for the construction of a floor, 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 the tile-built storage feature discussed above. We discovered a floor in this part of the room (6496) which was a part of the same floor upon which the white-ware deposit sat (6145), and which also yielded a large number of white-ware sherds that had presumably been stamped into the floor from above.  This floor was firmly dated by pottery to the same period (1100 ± 10) and was later cut by the aforementioned tile-built storage feature (6519), which itself was cut by wall 5725, suggesting that the NW room may originally have continued further south and joined with the W room, though such a connection.; ; Middle Byzantine:; ; On the E side of the room we excavated a series of floors that had been disrupted by the Frankish well.  One of them showed evidence of a repair patch (context 6588), and all of them overlaid a robbing trench that ran along the E boundary of the room, to the S of the well.  This trench was filled with a mixed deposit that initially made the identification of a single trench quite difficult.  Another difficulty was that wall 6375, to which the trench grants access, seems not to run to the full northern extremity of this room.  Sanders suggested that to the S end the wall had only been partially robbed out, but to the N end the wall had been completely robbed out by some later action to accommodate construction of the well.  Such an action is difficult to reconstruct however, since the trench was overlaid by middle Byzantine floors, which would have to have been removed by the Franks as they built their well, if the robbing was indeed associated with that construction project.  Alternitavely, wall 6375 did not continue north of wall 10111, and so the robbing trench would not be expected to be found north of wall 10111. The date of this robbing action presents a problem, as the stratigraphy and pottery suggest Middle Byzantine in the northern sections, but three sherds at the southern end (fill 6349) are of Late Byzantine date, and Sanders has given a very firm date of 1150 ± 10.  It is possible that these sherds are contaminants, but a stronger likelihood is that further excavation will force the revision of the dates of some surrounding contexts, many of which are less than specific, eg Byzantine 10th-11th century NPD.; ; ; Room W of the Byzantine courtyard; ; Frankish:; ; A series of floors and sub-floor leveling fills were excavated in this space. The fills (6159 + cut 6161, 6162) seem to be leveling fills 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 belonged to 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 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 (6465), and thus we had to shift our focus temporarily 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.; ; Sakellariou believed he could discern the cut and fill of 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 has as yet not been revealed by the further removal of deposits in the area (see Middle Byzantine, below).; ; Late Byzantine:; ; In this area we excavated a series of floors that had been disturbed by later actions.  Floor 6477 had a post-hole dug into it which would be consistent with some sort of roof support.  It was also cut in the south by what appears to be a pit filled with large debris, although this pit was itself disturbed by a later pit, which was excavated in the 1960s, and so its purpose remains unclear.; ; Middle Byzantine:; ; The series of floors and leveling fills from the Middle Byzantine period were excavated in this room, one of which (6484) shows evidence of a post-hole similar to the one discovered in Late Byzantine levels.  This post-hole was probably also used for a roof support. In this period the room seems to have been used for cooking, since a hearth (6653) was cut into the fill at the southern end of the room (6658=6664).  The same fill was cut dramatically short of the southern wall of the room for a purpose that remains unclear.  It was in this area (fill 6658) that a fragment of the Roman sima of the South Stoa was discovered, namely a terracotta head of a female divinity.  The earliest material excavated in this room was a floor that was broken in many places (6670=6668=6672) that does not show evidence of cooking, so it seems that cooking only took place in this area for a limited time during the Middle Byzantine period.  The removal of floor 6668 revealed a slump that may be related to the foundation trench for wall 5725, but no firm cut has been discerned.  Since wall 5725 cuts a Late Byzantine tile-built foundation feature (see above), and thus must be a Late Byzantine or later wall, it seems unlikely that a foundation trench will be found below this level and that the foundations of this wall were constructed flush with the foundation trench cut.; ; ; Conclusion:; ; All four of the areas excavated by Team Green during the 2009 season are components of the Byzantine house under investigation in the area north of Nezi Field. They represent four independent, but interconnected spaces which appear to have undergone substantial modification during their use. Our excavations this season 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, probably 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 the construction of a support system for a roof over 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 leading toward threshold 6320 in the northwest corner of the courtyard.; ; The high-volume cooking activity apparent in the NW area (cut by walls 5562, 5742, 5725, and 6321) suggests that for at least part of its history the house may have been used as a tavern, which may also account for the frequent renovations.  The true nature of the cooking activity may be revealed by the further demolition of late walls such as 10111 and 6130.  The Frankish well would ideally be removed as well, though there may be some practical difficulties owing to the nature of the shaft, which expands at its lower levels.  The NW room’s relationship to the W room has become much clearer, and the removal of wall 5725 should make it easier to treat the two as a single space.; ; With respect to the room immediately north of the courtyard, there remains at least one deposit of leveling fill atop the earlier E-W wall in this space that dates from the period when the first phase of the house had gone out of use and the floor levels were raised for the construction of the second phase of use of the house. This leveling fill may reveal floors associated with the first phase of use of the house. However, attention must be paid in keeping excavation in phase between the room north of the courtyard, the courtyard itself and the rooms NE and E of the courtyard so as not to artificially break up earlier features/deposits associated with the first phase of use of the house.","","Corinthia | Ancient Corinth | Central Area | Nezi Field","","Nezi Field 2009 by Karl Goetze, Dan Leon (2009-05-25 to 2009-06-12)",""
"Corinth","","","","Corinth:Report:Nezi Field 2010 by Scott Gallimore (2010-04-07 to 2010-04-23)","Report","","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","","","","Corinth:Report:Nezi Field 2008 by Joseph Lillywhite, Joel Rygorsky, Matthew Sears, Martin Wells (2008-04-07 to 2008-06-13)","Report","","Early Modern through Late Byzantine levels in Nezi Field","We, Joseph Lillywhite, Joel Rygorsky, Matthew Sears and Martin Wells, continued excavation in the entirety of Nezi Field from May 5 – June 13th, 2008.  This report will summarize our own findings, while also incorporating those of Alexis Belis and Christina Gieske, who excavated during Session I of the 2008 season.   The shape of our excavation area was somewhat irregular; its maximum coordinates ranged from 993.98 N to 1015.43 N and from 255.41 E to 279 E.   In the area of the Nezi Field 2007 excavations we resumed excavation where the 2007 team of Lina Kokkinou and Angela Ziskowski left off, the northern edge of which is an irregular escarpment left by the excavations of 1936 and 1961; in the northwestern area of Nezi Field, the northern edge of which is also an irregular escarpment formed by 1960’s excavations, we take up where Alexis Belis and Christina Gieske, who excavated from April 7th-April 26th, 2008, left off; south of where AB and CG excavated, our excavation began at a ground level revealed by a bulldozing operation.  Both of these latter two regions border the first on their eastern edge.  The bulldozing operation in the southwestern portion of Nezi Field was undertaken because the 2007 excavations proved that Nezi field had a deep disturbed agricultural stratum. This context was carefully dug by hand in 2007, but at a great cost of time. Therefore, this season, the excavation area was extended in order to find more of the structures uncovered in 2007, and to save time, the agricultural levels were removed by machine. The northwest area, where AB and CG excavated, was not bulldozed because it was known that it contained the continuation of the E-W running Early Modern property boundary wall (excavated to the east with B64 in 2007) and we wanted to record this structure (wall 243) properly before removal. We worked under the supervision of director Guy Sanders and assistant field director Alicia Carter. We excavated with Panos Stamatis (pick man), Sotiris Raftopoulos (shovel man/barrowman) Kleomenes Didaskalou (pick man), and Vangelis Kollias (shovel man/barrowman).; ; Our objective was to reach the level of the 2007 Nezi Field excavations, in order to continue the investigation of Turkish, Frankish, and Byzantine remains uncovered there. In the process of excavation to reach these earlier levels, we discovered evidence of Early Modern and Modern activity. The overall goal of the Nezi Field excavations has been to show the relationship of this entire area to the previously excavated area to the north (North of Nezi). ; ; This final report for the 2008 ASCSA Corinth Excavations in Nezi Field describes our interpretation of the stratigraphy encountered in our excavation area.  ; ; LATE BYZANTINE (1059-1210); The earliest contexts found to date in Nezi field date from the Late Byzantine period.  ; ; Two fills, 408 and 424 are datable by pottery to the Late Byzantine period, specifically to the last quarter of the 12th century CE.  Both of these fills are bounded on the east by wall 332, while 408 is bounded to the south by wall 365, and 424 to the north by wall 366.  On this basis, we tenuously interpret these three walls as having been constructed prior to these fills, making them Late Byzantine or earlier in date.  If subsequent excavation in this area reveals associated floors or foundation trenches, more accurate and precise dating should be pursued.  Context 371, which lay immediately to the west of where 408 was deposited, also was dated by pottery to the 12th century; however, 371 was overlain by a context whose pottery dated to the early Frankish period (401), leading us to the interpretation that both of these fills have been disturbed by a process of natural deposition, and thus are not related to the usage period of these walls.; ; Walls 332, 365, and 366 are part of a series of walls that form two rooms (one bounded by walls 305, 306, 332 and 365, the other bounded by walls 365, 306, 332 and 366).  Based upon the appearance of the walls, it seems that walls 305, 365 and 366 all abut wall 306, which leads us to believe that wall 306 should be no later than contemporary with walls 365 and 366, i.e. wall 306 should be dated no later than Late Byzantine, last quarter of the 12th century CE.  Circumstantially, it also seems appropriate to tentatively date wall 305 as contemporary to walls 306, 365 and 332, since these four walls together form a room.  It should be noted, however, that no contexts have yet been found inside this room that can be dated to the Late Byzantine period.; ; An area that will need further examination is that revealed beneath deposit 325, a tile filled destruction layer that directly overlaid a floor in the SE corner of the excavation.  The floor ran up to wall 316 to the W and 311 to the E.  There are no securely dated deposits of the Late Byz. In this area but for 325 (see below), which may turn out to be Frankish after the floor is excavated.  It is likely, however, that both wall 316 and 325 were constructed in the Byzantine Period.  More excavation is needed.; ; One other context was excavated that was datable by pottery to the Byzantine period.  A pit (cut =386), filled by context 385, was a small pit cut into the silty layer of natural deposition that seems to have lain over all of Nezi field (both the 2007 area of excavation and that which we excavated in 2008).  While its pottery does date to the Byzantine period, we believe this is impossible stratigraphically.  Since the pottery recovered from this pit comprises a total of only four coarseware sherds, we interpret the cutting of this pit as an activity much later than the Byzantine period.  The digging and filling of this pit will be able to be more accurately dated when the surrounding fill it cuts is excavated.; ; FRANKISH (1210-1458 CE); ; A multitude of various contexts seem to indicate that Nezi Field was the site of sustained activity during the Frankish period.; ; One distinct area of Frankish activity can be reconstructed in the southwestern area of Nezi field.  Discussed above was a tentatively dated Late Byzantine room bounded by walls 305, 306, 365 and 332.  Excavation of a later floor partially bounded by the limits of this room, fills underneath this floor, and a trench cut for the partial robbing of wall 305 allow us to speculate on the usage of this area during the Frankish period.  Floor 374, which lay partially directly beneath a layer of silty natural deposit (=301) and partially below a small extent of patchy surface(277) datable to the 13th century AD (npd), was bounded by walls 305 and 306 to the south and west, but overlay walls 332 and 365 to the north.  The pottery associated with floor 374 is datable to the early 13th century CE, perhaps around 1230.  Thus, we interpret this floor as part of an early Frankish partial re-usage of the earlier Late Byzantine room.  The contexts below floor 374, however, are somewhat problematic in their pottery dates.  There was some discussion in the field as to whether this context was truly a floor, however, since it was such a hard surface of relatively uniform clayey matrix with 3 small pits were dug into its surface (350, 353, 356) it seems likely that our interpretation of its being a floor is correct. ; ; Two of the three contexts excavated below floor 374 are consistent with our interpretation of the phasing of this part of the site; fill 387 dates to the second quarter of the 13th century, and the patch of red surface excavated as context 378 has a pottery date of early 13th century.  The other (389), however, has been dated by pottery to anywhere between 1250-1340.  Thus, our pottery here is somehow contaminated, the dating of the pottery needs to be re-evaluated, the construction of the floor needs to be pushed back to after 1250, or our entire interpretation needs to be rethought.  It seems that, when floor 374 was put in, the original northern and eastern boundaries of the room (walls 365 and 332) were built over, thus creating a larger space bounded to the west and south by walls 306 and 305.  The northern and western boundaries of this early Frankish space, however, are indeterminate, since floor 374 was not bounded by any visible structures to the north or west.  Cut into floor 374 were a series of three small pits, all placed just north of wall 305 and running along its bearing E-W.  These pits (352, 354 and 357) were all quite shallow, and their fills (350, 353, 356) gave no precise clues about their purpose.  We tentatively interpret these as small garbage pits cut into floor 374, but their alignment along the line of wall 305 does suggest the possibility that these may have been post holes used in the support of some structure for which we have no other evidence.  Unfortunately, the pottery from two of the three pits was lost during a particularly windy day at the pot sheds, and the third did not contain pottery that gave a definitive date. In the second half of the 13th century, wall 305 was partially robbed out by cut 304.  This cut had two distinct fills, 303 and 381, the first of which is datable by pottery to the third quarter of the 13th century, and the second less precisely to the second half of the 13th century.  Our interpretation, based upon stratigraphy and pottery dates, is that wall 305 was partially robbed out after floor 374 fell out of use.; ; The other room discussed above, bounded by walls 365, 306, 366 and 332, has no Frankish floors.  Above 408 and 424 we found two distinct Frankish fills.  331, which has a pottery date of early fourteenth century (?) overlaid 360, which has a pottery date of second quarter of the 13th century.  Below 360 was uncovered wall 332, the eastern wall of our putative Late Byzantine room; this again points to a discontinuance of usage of this room in the Frankish period.  Also below 331 was fill 368, which was of indeterminate Frankish date.  Cut into fill 368 was pit 431, whose fills (336 = 338) date to the mid thirteenth century.  At the bottom of this pit, we discovered a well or cistern head (346), which had pottery datable the second quarter of the 13th century associated with.  It is unclear to what period this structure 346 should date.  A linear stone feature only partially exposed this season may be a stone built drain that is running roughly N-S up to the mouth of the structure – this may suggest it is a cistern rather than a well.; ; Another area where we see Frankish activity is in the area bounded by wall 313 to the east and 332 to the west.  Fill 394, bounded on either side by these two walls, was the lowest context we removed from this area; its pottery date is Frankish, first half of the 13th century.  Below this fill, we came down onto a reddish clay floor, which ran all the way from wall 313 to wall 332, and further to the northwest in a strip that runs along the eastern edge of wall 332. This floor is truncated in the south by pit 310, so we are unable to know its southern boundary.  Its northern boundary is unclear, as it seems to be disturbed to the north by fill 398 (datable by pottery to the second half of the thirteenth century), although we cannot find a cutting at the interface of the two fills, so we cannot explain the disturbance as another pit.  We believe further excavation in this area will reveal more information about the limits and usage of this space, but it does seem clear that we are dealing with some sort of built space in usa before the middle of the thirteenth century CE.  This unexcavated floor upon which fill 394 sits is thus likely either early Frankish or Late Byzantine, and is bounded by both walls 313 and 332. ; ; Above fill 394, we excavated what we interpreted as a rough surface (358), the pottery date of which was also first half of the 13th century.  Above surface 358, we excavated other Frankish contexts: 340 and 344 were rough surfaces dating to the first quarter of the 13th century, and 348 was a lens of blackish fill, whose date is unfortunately unknown due to an accidental post-excavation contamination of the pottery collected with the context.  Directly overlying surface 340 and surface 358 was context 280, dating to the last quarter of the 13th century and abutting a small semi-circular structure (283).  At the SE corner of 280 a small ash deposit (281) and its underlying debris (284), date to the Late Frankish period. The fill inside the semicircular structure, which was directly to the W of the small ashy deposit but not abutting it, dated to the late 13th century, while the fill beneath it (deposit 288) dated to 1280 +/-10 years.  All of these contexts seem to post-date the usage of wall 332, since surface 358 and fill 348 partially covered wall 332.  In contrast, both surfaces 340 and 350 abutted wall 313, leading us to believe that wall 313 was in use when these surfaces were constructed and used.  The southern boundary of surface 358 was cut by pit 310.  The fill of this pit (308) has a pottery date of second quarter of the thirteenth century.  Pit 310, however, is later, and should post-date the usage of surfaces 358 and 340, since pit 310 also cuts fill 302 (=314), which has a pottery date of the last quarter of the 13th century.  Thus, in this area, we believe we have evidence of Frankish activity (340, 348, 350, 394) from the first half of the 13th century, which included a re-use of wall 313.  The cutting of pit 310 sometime during or after the last quarter of the 13th century may indicate a terminus ante quem for the destruction or abandonment period of this space.; ; Directly south of this area, just west of and over top of wall 316, we discovered more evidence of Frankish activity in Nezi Field.  Of Frankish contexts, we found here only fill or destruction levels, i.e. no contexts directly associated with usage periods.  328 was the earliest context we uncovered here; this fill sat directly on top of courses of stone foundations for two walls, 316 and 305.  The pottery date of 328 is the first half of the 13th century.  On top of this fill, we seem to have encountered destruction debris, which was excavated as contexts 285, 287 and 321.  These contexts were full of tiles and large boulders, which we speculate may have fallen from wall 316 or been dumped here upon the collapse of some other structure(s).  The pottery of this destruction debris dates to the second half of the 13th century.  Context 318 was laid on top of 328, and seems to be a small lens of dumped fill; its pottery date is third quarter of the thirteenth century, and may be related to some sort of post-destruction/abandonment leveling activity.  Context 289 overlaid all of these fills, and is the last deposit of Frankish date in this area; its pottery date is also third quarter of the 13th century.  It is interesting to note that the deposition of 328 on top of the foundations of walls 316 and 305 (pottery date = second half of the 13th century) post-dates the pottery dates of surfaces 340 and 358 to the N (pottery dates = first half of the thirteenth century); perhaps the abrupt truncation of these surfaces, as well as the surface below context 394, is related to the destruction of the superstructures of walls 305 and 316?; ; One of the main goals of excavation in the eastern area of Nezi field (E of robbing trench B54, wall 313, and wall 313) was to remove the overlying contexts of a very large Boney Ashy Layer (BAL).  This deposit is cut by the apsidal structure and underlies much of the Frankish/Late Byzantine deposits in the area.  It was revealed beneath deposits 432, 407, 373, 364, 355, 359, and parts of floor 337 in the northern/central area of Nezi field.  Further excavation is needed to precisely identify the limits of the BAL which will certainly be an excavation priority in 2009. ;  ; Directly E of wall 316 no part of the BAL was uncovered, but there were several areas of Frankish activity.  The most notable are the fills above and around the late Byzantine tile filled destruction debris of 325, which sat atop a floor that extended up to wall 316 at its NE corner, bordered by wall 299, pit cuts 290, and 310 to the N, and the edge of the excavated area to the E and S.   This area also has several natural deposits dating to the Late Byzantine period but their dates are tenuous and could change with further excavation (see above).  ; ; Wall 399, projecting from the eastern edge of excavation, must date to the Frankish period or later, as deposit 375, which dates to the 2nd ¼ of the 13th century, runs beneath it to the S, and possibly the BAL to the N.  Other than the terminus post quem for wall 299, dates for most of the deposits in this part of the site are difficult to fix precisely. The cobble fill of 375 was cut by pit 297 and its fill 292, which dates to the last ¼ of the 13th century or later, as well as pit 293, filled by 291.  Above 375 was a series of fills also dating to the 13th century: 309, 296, and 294.  In this area, however, E of wall 311 several late Byzantine deposits were also uncovered in very close proximity to the Frankish material: deposit 384 also goes beneath wall 299, 380 is bordered by wall 311 to the W and cut by pit 297 to the E, 382 sits directly against the S portion of wall 311, 383 is a small red patch perhaps related to the floor beneath 325, and 388 is an erosional fill that continues into the eastern edge of excavation. Of these Byzantine deposits it is 388 that is best dated, as it had a moderate amount of pottery dating to the 2nd ¼ of the 12th century.  ; ; Just to the S and W of wall 311 deposits continued to be of various dates, with 377 dating to 13th century and 379 abutting it, dating to the 12th.  Deposit 312, which runs into the southern edge of excavation, overlaid deposits 379 (Late Byz.) and 323/322 (Frankish).  The entire area should be clarified when the clay floor revealed beneath 325, 300, and 390 is excavated.  Overall most deposits were small and did not provide much evidence indicating precise dates.  As 375, the largest and most securely dated (2nd ¼ of the 13th century), sat directly above 388, it is likely that all of these small fills and depositional layers date to the Frankish period.  ; ; What does seem clear, however, is that the area E of and abutting wall 316, was disturbed in the Frankish period. The loose rocks of deposit 300, which dates to the early 14th century, were revealed by the bulldozer and sat directly upon the floor mostly revealed beneath 325.  The large context 302/314 overlaid 325 in parts but also ran up to the missing eastern section of wall 316 and dates to the 4th ¼ of the 13th century.  Indeed all contexts abutting the E section of wall 316 date to the Frankish period (307, robbing trench 315/319, 317, 320, 322, and 324) except for 325.; ; A Frankish pit, 286/290 was sunk through both the floor revealed under 325 and the silty fill of 302. The upper fill of this pit (286) should then date no earlier than 302, or the 4th ¼ of the 13th century.   Pit 290 was not completely excavated, however, and its interpretation may change when the bottom layers of fill are examined.  Just to the east of 290 is pit 310 (see above).  Between these two pits (and cut by them) were fills 326 and 327, both dating to the Frankish period.  At the northern edge of 290 parts of a wall are visible running E-W.  This wall had parts of floor 337, inside the apsidal building, running over it.  It seems clear that after the floor beneath 325 was covered in destruction collapse a long period of deposition and natural processes affected the area.  As there is no robbing or foundation trench yet identified for wall 316, the debris and fills over and to the E of the missing eastern half of the wall were most likely deposited after the wall was removed or collapsed.  More excavation is needed to determine this hypothesis.  To the E of wall 311 there are no surfaces and much of the material may have been due to natural processes (esp. 388) or a later leveling operation, perhaps associated with the BAL.  If the Late Byz. Pottery dates of deposits 380 and 382 prove correct then wall 311 must date no later than this, but more excavation is required.; ; Within a room of the apsidal structure bordered to the W by wall 313, the east by wall 334, and the N by wall 335, we excavated a floor (337) and a series of fills S of cut B71 from the 2007 excavations.  Above this floor a few contexts, 329, 330, and 333, must date to the Frankish period, as 337 contained pottery from the 2nd ¼ of the 13th century.  Floor 337 abutted wall 313 to the W, 335 to the N, and 334 to the E.  To the south pit 290 seems to have cut floor 337, as parts of the floor were visible resting atop the E-W wall at the N edge of the cut.  Just beneath floor 337, S of pit B191 (2007 excav.), more of the BAL was revealed along with a reddish layer that may go beneath it.  Wall 334 cuts through the BAL as can be seen in the scarp of robbing trench B216 (2007 excav.).  E of pit B191 and W of wall 334 a series of fills produced a mixture of dates.  Just beneath the floor and over the BAL, fills 359 and 355 yielded a Late Byzantine date for their pottery. However, 339 and 341 abutting them in the NE corner, while containing only late Byzantine pottery, were stratigraphically later than 351, which dated to the 2nd ½ of the 13th century.  Therefore 339 and 341 must be Frankish. The same can be said for 342, which overlies wall 347, but 343 rests against this wall and dates to the Frankish period.  Deposits 345 and 349, furthermore, rest partly over 343, and thereby date to Frankish times.  ; ; All other deposits in this area, 361, 362, 363, 364, 367, 369, 372, and 373 are small and insecure regarding their dates.  Surfaces 361, 363 and 367 may have been misinterpreted in the field as they seem to be part of a series of fills cut into the BAL rather than true surfaces.  Cut 370 was only identifiable when a red matrix was discovered beneath deposit 364 that seems to go beneath the BAL to the S.  The BAL, in addition, seems to be laying within some of this cut, namely, that to the W of the exposed area and beneath deposit 364.  More excavation is needed to clarify these relationships.; ; Between the N edge of the apsidal structure and the baulk left by the 1936 excavations at the extreme N edge of Nezi field, a pit (cut 430), a series of destruction debris layers, possible natural deposits, and floors were excavated around wall 420.  Pit cut 430 was sunk into part of wall 420 and probably dates to the Frankish period, though it has not been completely excavated.  From this pit we removed 9 layers of fill that followed a pattern of a central slumping in the central portion (in this case extending to the southern edge) and a softer lens draping over the harder central cone.  A hard clayey layer was left at a higher elevation when excavation ceased.  The harder central cone slump consisted of contexts, 427, 423, 422, 421 (which was pure clay), and 418.  The softer strata around these included possibly 428, although parts of 427 seemed to overlie it, 419, and 417. The top layer of fill within pit 430 was 416.  To reveal the cut of this pit several layers had to be taken off (412, 414) and around (415) wall 420.  These were of firm to hard compaction and possibly related to the destruction debris to the N as they were composed mainly of clay and degraded mudbrick. They might be the result of weathering of the walls in this area – the building material being washed off the walls and pooling on the surface below.  ; ; Excavation N of wall 420 began with an obvious destruction layer intermingled with clay slumping and erosional deposition from a structure that we were not able to identify.  Above the tile layer 395 several clay fills (391,393) and some erosional debris (392) were removed, all dating to the 2nd ¼ of the 13th century.  395 was bordered to the south by a much disturbed robbing trench, 396, revealed in 2007.  Some of the tiles associated with 295 were visible in the bottom of robbing trench 396.  It was clear that there was a series of overlying phases of destruction.  S of 395, deposit 397 also represents a tile destruction layer that was visible in robbing trench 396, but its pottery dated to the Late Byz. Period.  Deposits in the area that are stratigraphically earlier than 397, however, provide Frankish dates.  These include 399, 400, 404, and 402 (another tile collapse).  The earliest of these, 402, dated from the late 12th to the mid 13th century. Cleaning E and N of wall 420, deposit 403, also yielded a date in the mid 13th century.  Beneath 395 a small patch of soil, 413, at a higher elevation than the Frankish layers around it, dated to the late Byzantine period but with very little pottery.  It will most likely be dated to the Frankish period after further excavations needed to fully decipher this area and its relation to the BAL are carried out.; ; Near the E edge of robbing trench B54 (2007 excav.) and the N limits of Nezi field, what may be either floor surfaces or erosional debris were revealed.  These contexts (425=433) were the same fully rounded pebble mixture with a few boulders projecting above their strosis.  There is no structure associated with the surface so it may be erosional.  Whatever the case, 433/425 dates to the 1st ¼ of the 13th century and so the stratigraphically later fills in the area, 404, 405, 406, 409, and 410 must all be after this date.; ; South of wall 420  deposit 432, which abuts the wall and sits directly on a portion of the BAL, dated to the 2nd ½ of the 13th century.  To the E, N, and overlying parts of 420, deposit 429 was ceramically dated to the 12th century but not precisely datable.  It stands to reason, then, that 429 should be re-dated to after 432 and is therefore Frankish.; The only deposit that cannot be proven Frankish at this time is 407, just NE of the apsidal structure.  This sat directly upon the BAL and will need further investigation before a precise date can be given.  The fact that 375 ran beneath wall 299 in the S edge of the trench, however, that the BAL seems to run up against the N face of 299, and that the cleaning pass of the BAL, 267, yielded a Frankish date, strongly suggests that the BAL is Frankish.  If this is correct 407 would need to be dated to the Frankish period.  More excavation is needed.; ; NATURAL DEPOSIT:  POST-FRANKISH TO EARLY MODERN; ; Above the various Frankish levels uncovered in Nezi field during the 2008 excavation season, we encountered throughout the area thick silty deposits that consistently contained pottery of various time periods.  Our current interpretation of all these contexts is that they are natural deposits created by the erosion of soil from further uphill over the course of hundreds of years.  Implied in this interpretation is that in these areas of Nezi Field, very little non-agricultural activity occurred between the end of the Frankish and beginning of the Early Modern periods.  We dealt with these deposits on an ad hoc basis, not fully realizing with what we were dealing until near the very end of the season.  Some were removed as cleaning contexts (e.g. 264 and 267), while others were excavated more carefully and are entered into to our Harris matrix (=257, 260, 262, 273, 278, 301, 371, 401, 411).  As a consequence of the random nature of these deposits, the pottery dates from context to context can vary widely, e.g. 371 has a pottery date of 12th century CE, 411 of Ottoman II, and 257 of 19th century CE.  ; ; EARLY MODERN; ; In the northern portion of the excavation area, the earliest feature is a pit (Context 248), which cut through a yet unexcavated layer containing lime and pebbles used for cement mixing. Because of the large boulders present in the fill of the pit, it seems possible that the superstructure of the N-S portion of Structure 243 was destroyed and placed in the pit. AB and CG dug one lense of fill in this pit (247), which was early 20th century CE according to its pottery date.  We dug three more lenses of fill in this pit (249, 251 and 252), two of which had pottery dates of Early Modern, and one of which had a pottery date of Frankish.  We discontinued excavation in this pit, in large part because its northern edge had been disturbed during the course of the 1960’s excavations carried on North of Nezi Field.  We were not confident that we were digging in sequence, and we took the decision to delay excavation inside this pit until such time as the contexts surrounding it could be better defined, which did not happen during the 2008 season.  We support the original presumption of AB and CG that it seems likely that this pit was contemporaneous with the construction of the Giambouranis house located just north of Nezi field because of the unexcavated layer containing construction debris (the lime and pebbles). ; ; Sometime after pit 248 was cut a cementy fill layer, represented by contexts 250, 252, 265, and 274 was deposited, the pottery from which dated to the late 19th-early 20th centuries.  This cementy dumped fill layer was found in pit 248 and was also cut by the laying of the E-W wall 243.  Wall 243 is represented chronologically by its cuts, 272 for the E-W portion, and 276 for the N-S return.  The lower fills for the cuts, 268, 269, and 275 (the N return foundations), contained flecks of the cementy fill through which they were dug.  The foundation course, 266, was exposed during the beginning of the 2007 excavations while searching for the foundation trench.  Pottery from the foundation courses of wall 243 dates to the 1st ½ of 19th century, but as this wall cut through the cementy dumped fill it must date to the late 19th/early 20th century.  Sometime after the original construction of wall 243 a S return, 244, was added, but not bonded.  An aerial photograph from 1909 does not show the southern extension and the pottery dates to early modern NPD.  A more precise date is not attainable.; ; A water pipe, 258, cut 261, was punched through wall 243 sometime in the late 19th, early 20th century.  The sections of repair to the superstructure of wall 243, 253 for the superstructure, 254 cementy fill beneath 253, and 255 (concrete directly over water pipe 258), provide this date, as does the packing over the pipe to the S, 256, and the fills for the installation of the pipe (259 and 263).  Notably the silty fill in this area, 257, 260, and 262, through which the pipe was cut, also date to the early modern period (and so too that to the E of 243, deposit 273).  The pipe itself (258) brought water from somewhere S/SE of Nezi to the Giamboranis house, and extended from the N edge of the excavation area to the south as far as wall 306 (see above), which it overlaid for several meters.  North of wall 243 the pipe sat upon the cementy dumped fill (274), which also seemed to have been deposited over the pipe. Clearly the cementy dumped fill was too soft to preserve any sort of cutting.  53 sections of pipe are preserved varying in length from 0.30-0.36m. with a thick layer of lime incrustation inside.  Male ends were generally pointed north except for the portion in the repaired section of 243, where the pipe was deposited at a slightly higher elevation.  ; ; Beneath the cementy dumped fill and just N of wall 243 a small oval pit, cut 271 filled by 270, must predate the wall and the pipe.  Very little pottery in this pit emerged, but what did exist dated to late Frankish (late 13th) times.  The chronological relation of this pit to 248 is unclear at this time and needs further excavation.  ; ; One other area of early modern activity is 279, a small ashy deposit revealed by the bulldozer W of 313.  This patch was too small to suggest any conclusions with confidence.  ; ; CONCLUSIONS; ; While many of the walls uncovered in the 2008 excavation season will most likely prove to be of Late Byzantine or earlier date, there is little evidence of securely dated Pre-Frankish activity in the Nezi field.  In the western half of excavation, what appear to be three small rooms with shared cross-walls yielded a few Late Byzantine deposits but the period of construction or first use phases have not yet been revealed.  These rooms, bounded by N-S wall 306 to the W and 332 to the E, are divided by the E-W walls 366 in the N, 365, and 305 in the S.  On the last day of excavation what may be another wall appeared N of 366 that could prove to be part of the same complex.  Wall 376, which runs W of 306, is in line with wall 305 to the E and may prove to be another room of this structure.  It should be noted, however, that while several pre-Frankish fills were found inside these rooms (371, 408, 424) nothing unearthed conclusively indicated a Byzantine period of use.  ; ; To the E of wall 316 the only possible period of Late Byzantine activity is deposit 325 and the floor revealed beneath it and deposits 300, and 390.  This area may prove to be another Late Byzantine building, bordered by wall 316 to the W, 311 to the E, and the wall visible in the N face of pit cut 290 to the N (the edge of excavations limits our knowledge of any southern delineation.  Indeed north and on top of the wall in pit 290 was floor 337, which dated to the 2nd ¼ of the 13th Century.  Most of the SE area is heavily disturbed and eroded, however, with fills primarily dating to the Frankish period.  More excavation is needed.; ; In the central and north sections of Nezi field activity centered around trying to define the limits and relationships of surrounding contexts to the Boney Ashy Layer (BAL), which is visible inside, to the E, and to the N of the apsidal building.  The BAL may be part of a Frankish leveling operation across most of the E ½ of Nezi field.  A Frankish date is suggested for the BAL by deposit 375, a large fill layer at the SE edge of excavation that could be seen to run beneath the S face of wall 299.  The N face of 299 appears to have the BAL poured up against it.  A cleaning pass probing the limits of the BAL also yielded a Frankish date.  Notably the E wall of the apsidal structure, 334, cuts through the BAL, making everything contextually associated with this structure Frankish.  The floor and fills generally followed this rule, although many deposits beneath floor 337 north and east of pit B191 were small and insignificant, sometimes giving late Byzantine pottery dates.  Stratigraphically, however, this area should date to the Frankish Period.  One exception, which may well prove itself Byzantine, is cut 370, discovered beneath deposit 364, which itself was one of a series of disturbances into the BAL.  More excavation is needed.; ; Pursuing the N limit of the BAL led us to a series of destruction and fill layers N of wall 420.  These all can be tentatively dated to the Frankish Period, although a few small deposits did not have pottery past Late Byzantine.  Much tile and clay destruction collapse was removed near the Northern limits of Nezi field which extended S as far as wall 420.  The pit that removed part of 420, while not fully excavated, will probably prove Frankish as well, though this is by no means certain.  Running against the S face of 420 and sitting in part over the BAL was deposit 432, which dated to the late 13th century.  Although more excavation may show the BAL also present N of 420, a red layer beneath the E portion of 432 seems to go under the BAL, suggesting that perhaps wall 420 is the Northern limit.  Before excavating the BAL more excavation is needed to the N and E of 420, explorations should be carried out in the N room of the apsidal structure, and several patches to the E, left by the 2007 excavations, should be removed.  ; ; Evidence of modern activity came primarily from the NW corner of Nezi field and dates to the end of the 19th/early 20th century.  These included a wall and several pits cut through the silty erosional debris that was mostly removed by bulldozer to the S.  The E-W wall 243 was removed with its bonded N return and later, unbonded, S extension.  This wall 243 was cut through a layer of soft concrete fill (250) that sat above the silty debris and ran into pit 248.  Through this wall was punched a pipe (258) that was preserved running S as far as the possible Byzantine wall 306.  Another pit (271), shallow and with little pottery, was found beneath the concrete fill but the relationship of this pit to the larger 248 requires further excavation.","","Corinthia | Ancient Corinth | Central Area | Nezi Field","","Nezi Field 2008 by Joseph Lillywhite, Joel Rygorsky, Matthew Sears, Martin Wells (2008-04-07 to 2008-06-13)",""