Ancient Corinth - 2022

Ancient Corinth. Christopher Pfaff(ASCSA) reports on excavations conducted in 2022, where the current field campaign began in 2018.

Excavation in the field north-east of the ancient theatre area

Excavation revealed portions of the north-south Byzantine (12th century) road, first recognised further north in 2018, as well as sections of walls of contemporary structures to its east. Below the Byzantine road layers, a deep robbing trench was revealed extending down into a partially plundered vaulted drain, which underlay the earliest Roman road layers uncovered to the west in 2021. To the east of this drain, part of a smaller secondary drain was discovered below a fill of stones and transport amphoras. The amphoras, including at least two Spanish types, date to the 1st century A.D. (Figure 1). 

To the west of the road, much more of the Late Roman “Marble Room” discovered in 2020 was revealed. Substantial remains of its brick- and stone-faced concrete east wall were found to extend northward for a distance of over 15 meters from the southeast corner of the room. The newly revealed portion of the floor of the room preserves much of its original opus sectile pavement with circles in a reticulate pattern, but some areas show signs of crude repairs (Figure 2). Excavation in this area revealed two massive east-west walls constructed in two distinct styles. The south wall abuts the west face of the pre-existing east wall of the Marble Room and is constructed in part with irregular poros blocks set in mortar with troweled lines similar to those found on several Late Antique buildings in Corinth (Figure 3). 

The north wall is also likely to date to the Late Antique period, but in contrast to the south wall, it cuts through the east wall of the Marble Room and is constructed of larger, more regular poros ashlars. At its east end, this wall forms a right angle with another wall that extends northward into the north scarp of the excavation trench. The exposed corner of the interior space defined by these two walls preserves evidence of a marble pavement and a marble veneered bench, similar to that of the earlier Marble Room to the south (Figure 4). The Marble Room seems to have remained open at least until the first of Late Antique walls was constructed toward its north end. The late 6th- to 7th-century fill deposited over the original floor of the Marble room south of the Late Antique walls produced large quantities of pottery and glass vessels as well as a variety of other finds, including the head of a full-size marble copy of the Cassel Apollo type (Figure 5) and part of the leg of another large marble figure. Fill deposited between, and north of, the Late Antique walls seems to be contemporary with the fill to the south of these walls, but it contained very little apart from building debris (blocks, bricks, and marble revetment). 
    Excavation also revealed seven graves cut into the hard upper surface of the north-south Byzantine road that lay just below the modern plow zone (Figure 6). The location of these graves in close proximity to four others excavated previously in 2019 strongly suggests that all eleven graves belong of a single burial plot. Six of the seven graves excavated in 2022 were elongated, shallow pits, while the seventh was a slightly more elaborate rectangular cist lined with small stones. The disposition of the skeletons (supine with arms crossed and head positioned to the west) is consistent with Christian burial practice, but the lack of accompanying finds contemporary with the burials leaves their date in doubt. An isolated grave of a small child covered with a single cover tile was discovered in fill above the Marble Room. Its relationship to the other burials is unclear at this time, though it, too, appears to be a Christian burial, no earlier than the 12th century.