| Collection: | Corinth | |
| Type: | Basket | |
| Name: | Nezi Field, context 5298 | |
| Area: | Nezi Field | |
| Context Type: | Fill | |
| Title: | fill in 1961 house courtyard | |
| Category: | Deposit | |
| Notebook: | 1101 | |
| Context: | 5298 | |
| Page: | 0 | |
| Date: | 2008/04/18 | |
| Stratum: | 15% medium to large pebbles, tile fragments, some pottery | |
| Description: | The soil color is mixed. The soil compaction is firm to hard. The soil is moderately sorted. It is sandy silt. | |
| Notes: | We began excavating the north-west corner of the courtyard because there was a slight mound of fill here at the edges of which some plaster are visible. We hoped with this context to remove the fill on top of this plaster and reveal a floor layer. The intial soil removed was mixed and included ceramics. It lay in an uneven layer on the top of the mound and can most likely be considered a final cleaning pass for this area. Underneath, we came upon a hard, uneven layer of greyish brown soil under which lime plaster could be seen protruding on the north-east, south-east, and south-west. In order to better understand the stratigraphy we had encountered, we began to explore this hard layer at its south-west corner along its south edge and on its eastern edge. At these spots, we found that there were four thin successive layers all roughly contemporaneous. The bottom of these four levels was a pebble floor, probably the same floor of which we excavated a patch on the eastern side of the courtyard (5291). Above this very thin 7-8 mm layer of plaster which rests immediately on top of the pebble floor. Above the plaster was roughly 2 cm of soft brown soil and on top was the hard uneven surface of the mound. With help from the director, we have interpreted this mound and its stratigraphy as the remains of a construction area used for some re-modeling project within the 1961 house. This location in the north-west corner of the courtyard, out of the way of traffic throughout the house and entryways, would have been an ideal spot to mix and/or spread out a pile of plaster (especially with the well nearby), which could then be transported to whichever room of the house was under construction. When the work was done, a thin layer fo plaster remained on the floor over which debris, possibly from the construction deposit itself, accumulated. Then, on top of this debris, a new floor, poorer in construction than the original pebble floor, was laid. Our exploration of these construction debris also provides some information about the relationship between the courtyard floor and the walls. The north-east corner of this context, a thicker mass of plaster, had accumulated in the corner between the floor and 2 cm up the face of the last remaining stone of the north wall of the courtyard, making it clear that the wall already existed at the time when the plaster accumulated on the floor. This probably suggests that the pebble floor should be associated with the wall on the north. Additionally, the western edge of the plaster remains forms a conspicuously straight line which was most likely created as it ran up against the western wall of the courtyard, which is now missing. It should be noted that the pebble floor is somewhat uneven at least as far as can be discerned from the visible patches. This is probably due to settling. One final note: the initial cleaning of the courtyard at the beginning of the season seems to have cut through this construction stratigraphy in one part of the eastern half of the mound. | |
| Context Pottery: | Coarseware. amphora6 bodysherds. ; Fineware. pre-Medieval1 bodysherd. | |
| Pottery Summary: | 2 frag(s) 0.005 kg. (0% saved) fineware. | |
| 8 frag(s) 0.1 kg. (0% saved) coarseware. | ||
| 1 frag(s) 0.005 kg. (0% saved) cooking ware. | ||
| Period: | Late Byzantine (1059-1210 AD) | |
| Chronology: | NPD | |
| Grid: | 267-7E, 1033.81-1035.12N | |
| XMin: | 7 | |
| XMax: | 267 | |
| YMin: | 1033.81 | |
| YMax: | 1035.12 | |
| Site: | Corinth | |
| City: | Ancient Corinth | |
| Country: | Greece | |
| Masl: | 84.83-84.99m. | |
| References: | Report: Nezi Field 2008 by Jody Cundy and Megan Thompsen (2008-04-07 to 2008-06-13) Report: Nezi Field 2008 by Josh Gieske, Laurie Kilker (2008-04-07 to 2008-04-24) Image: digital 2008 0043 |