Regular members Scott Gallimore and Will Bruce supervise their area.
The first training session of the 2009 season in Corinth was completed on Friday and consisted of three weeks excavation followed by a week of study and synthesis. Nine regular members and one associate member participated with Alicia Carter, Sarah James, and Thanos Webb assisting in the field, in the pot sheds, and with sampling and osteological identification, respectively. Excavation centered on two areas: a middle Byzantine courtyard house previously dug in the 1960’s by Henry S. Robinson and an adjacent area opened only in 2007.
Joanna Potenza and Ryan Boehm excavated two rooms east of the central courtyard of the middle Byzantine house. They removed thirteenth century walls, a threshold with two pier foundations on either side built to support posts or an arch, and a stone lined drain running out into the street. In the 11th century horizon, they exposed a large stone drain reusing stones from the Roman road, leading from the easternmost room into the street. Dan Leon and Ben Sullivan excavated a pair of rooms belonging to the same structure. The rooms were originally a single larger room, which was subdivided by a jumble of later crosswalls and other disturbances. A stylus was found in this area. A report by Scott Gallimore and Will Bruce working in rooms northwest of the courtyard is still pending.
In an adjacent area, Stella Diakou and Cavan Concannon excavated Early Modern, Frankish, and Late Byzantine levels. From agricultural and dumping activities in the Early Modern period to a domestic space of the Late Byzantine period, their excavations helped clarify the history and use of the area. One of their more startling discoveries was a well that nearly swallowed their pickman, Panos Stamatis, when earth gave way beneath him. Luckily, Panos was unhurt.
Jason Harris and Mark Hammond found themselves working in the museum on an electronic catalogue of the coin study collection numbering over 3000 coins. The collection contains well-preserved, representative examples of those most frequently encountered in the excavations. In addition to those minted in Corinth, the collection abounds with coins from Corinth’s colonies, as well as from Macedonia, Ptolemaic Egypt, Rome, the Byzantium, Latin kingdoms, France, Italy, England, Ottoman Empire, Modern Greek State, even 8th c. AD China. In addition to the study collection Mark and Jason identified and inventoried all new coins discovered from the first training session. While they still do not quite consider themselves full-fledged numismatists, they definitely leave the museum with a new-found appreciation for this unique field.
The second training session begins this morning and continues to May 23, 2009.
Members Stella Diakou and Cavan Concannon defining the limits of a context in their area.
