Ancient Corinth - 2025

Ancient Corinth. In 2025, excavations were carried out at Corinth in two adjacent fields northeast of the ancient theater. The 2025 excavations explored four areas in two adjacent fields northeast of the ancient theater, clarifying the development and later reuse of a substantial Roman/Late Roman bathing complex and its surroundings. (Fig. 1) Christopher Pfaff (ASCSA) reports:

Excavation exposed the southwest corner of the large, bench-lined room (Marble Room), probably an apodyterium associated with the bathing complex. (Fig. 2)  Its original opus sectile floor was badly damaged and replaced in this area by a sloping mortar surface leading to a shallow pit. The pit lacked a drainage channel and may have functioned as a catch basin, with water presumably soaking into the hardpan. This arrangement may indicate that, in its final phase, the room had become an open-air courtyard giving access to a large Late Antique structure to the north. In the area south of the Marble Room, a Late Roman rubble-and-mortar foundation extended south from the Marble Room and appears to have divided two rooms with earthen floors. Earlier Roman remains included a poros-ashlar foundation that had fallen out of use before construction of the Marble Room. Particularly notable finds embedded in the earlier floor deposits were three terracotta pipelines and the nearly intact body of a Dressel 2–4 amphora. Later activity included a Middle Byzantine wall and a probable oven, alongside a similar circular structure excavated nearby in 2021.

West of the Marble Room, excavation revealed parts of the massive brick-faced walls of two heated bathing rooms. Its east wall preserves evidence for two construction phases: an earlier wall with a broad curved face, subsequently concealed by a straight wall incorporating two arched niches. The later wall belongs to the same phase as the room's north and south walls and contained flue channels for circulating hot air from a hypocaust, which remains unexcavated. Northeast of the Marble room, a test trench was opened, which provided information for the area's later stratigraphy. Part of a Middle Byzantine north–south road was found, while east of it deep mixed fill extended approximately 3.5m down to the natural hardpan. The fill contained material as late as the Middle Byzantine period. Beneath it were only a narrow cut into the hardpan and part of a Roman built drain. (Fig. 3)