Lechaion Harbor and Settlement Land Project - 2023

Georgios Spyropoulos (Ephorate of Antiquities of Corinth) and Paul Scotton (California State University) in collaboration with Panayiota Kassimi (Ephorate of Antiquities of Corinth), report on the first year of excavation of the Lechaion Harbor and Settlement Land Project.

The excavations, which continued earlier work at the site, concentrated on four areas, A, B, C, and D.

In Area A the team explored Rooms 1 and 2 of the stoa-like structure. A hearth was found next to the west wall in Room 2 (Fig. 1). A room with a tile floor (Room 1) was also uncovered nearby, predating the stoa-like structure, as it seems to have been used from the Augustan period. Two new rooms were also excavated in Area B (Rooms 2 and 3, Fig. 2). Room 2 revealed a succession of thin floors, with sockets possibly used as footings for pithoi, while Room 3 contained a collection of floor tiles, apparently stored in the space. Area C revealed a Flavian period basilica (Fig. 3), with evidence for later construction in the same area, and Area D contained a circular structure with pieces of marble and mosaic associated with Hellenistic and Roman ceramics, dating from the first century BC to the fourth century AD (Fig. 4).