Research Spotlight: Amelia Brown on Late Antique Greece in Corinth
After turning over the Kraneion Basilica Chlamydatus (S-3788), July 2005 (photo: J. Palinkas)
Until this past summer, Amelia Brown was one of nine students conducting primary graduate research at Corinth Excavations.  We are happy to announce that “Dr.” Amelia Brown was conferred her degree. Though we will miss her lively conversations at mealtime we are confident that Amelia will return—as many of Corinth Excavations’ past students do—for future visits, summer research and, of course, tours with their own students. Amelia was kind enough to summarize the following from her time at the ASCSA: In 2008 I completed “The City of Corinth and Urbanism in Late Antique Greece,” my Ph.D. dissertation for the Graduate Group in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology at U.C. Berkeley. My focus was on Roman Corinth, from the mid-2nd c. to the 7th c. I surveyed source material from School excavations, discussed major political, economic and religious transformations in the city, and critically assessed Christianization, barbarian invasions and natural disasters. Corinth emerged as a true city by both Ancient and Modern standards in these centuries, a regional hub of government, trade, and culture, with a uniquely rich set of sources for writing Greco-Roman urban history. Much of my work was done under the auspices of the ASCSA, and to the entire School community I am deeply grateful. I was first turned on to the great human and archaeological resources of Ancient Corinth by my advisor, Ron Stroud, and encouraged by Excavation Director Guy Sanders, among others, to pursue this dissertation. As the ASCSA’s White Fellow in 2003-4, I first gathered material on Late Antiquity in Greece with ASCSA Professors Jim Sickinger and Carolyn Snively.  In 2005 at the suggestion of Dr. Sanders and with the kind permission of the Byzantine Ephoreia I began research on the Late Antique public portrait sculpture of Corinth, above all the little-known chlamydati at Corinth (photo above) and Megara. Next, as the Capps fellow from 2006, I became one of a few students applying my Associate Membership to living and working in Ancient Corinth, benefiting from the excellent excavation records, museum, staff and accommodations there. During this time, I had the unique opportunity to learn not only from my wise committee at Berkeley but also from its junior and senior scholars, as well as the other archaeological schools, and the Greek Service, and to travel with the American School to Albania, Bulgaria, and Turkey. I was also fortunate to excavate two seasons in Ancient Corinth in the Panayia field, assist in ongoing resistivity and flotation projects there (photo below), and lead an optional School trip to Malta. Now that my dissertation is filed, I turn to job applications and publishing my work. My ongoing research also includes the Christianization of the Greek landscape, the role of the ‘Barbarian Invasions’ in Greek history, and the maritime links between Greeks and Phoenicians. In the future, I aim to continue to teach and conduct research on the Ancient Mediterranean, with the long-term goals of bringing understanding of the history of this area to a wider public and writing a history of Ancient Greece which includes the Hellenistic and Roman eras. Assisting Evi and Nils with Flotation, Spring 2005 (photo: D. Pettegrew)