Corinth Basket New Apotheke: D. Kokolopoulos and E. Lambraki Field, context 106

Collection:		Corinth
Type:		Basket
Name:		New Apotheke: D. Kokolopoulos and E. Lambraki Field, context 106
Area:		New Apotheke: D. Kokolopoulos and E. Lambraki Field
Title:		Room 7 - Ashy Deposit South of Wall 126
Category:		Deposit
Notebook:		1111
Context:		106
Date:		2016/06/10
Stratum:		5-10% bone; ~5% pottery, perhaps increasing slightly further down; less than 5% small rock; very little tile.
Description:		Top slope of the context is uneven. The soil color is dark greyish brown. The soil compaction is soft. The soil is poorly sorted. It is silty clay.
Notes:		After excavating 101, Andreas/Thanasis noted that the soil east of the hearth appeared to be the same and posited that it may be part of the same layer. So we opened Context 106 to excavate this material. There was lots of bone, but very little rock and also little pottery-- though more than in Context 101 and the pottery increased slightly the further down we excavated, including a few quite large sherds of a 12th century amphora (~0.10 x 0.20 x 0.02). We continued to excavate to the northwest until hitting the boundary of the hard clay layer (what would become the upper portion of 114). The soil also became more pebbly (with rounded spherical and angular pieces) the further down we excavated . Early on, we thought that we had a pit cut ("Context 108"), and that this put cut into the hard clay layer. At first this seemed to be corroborated by the sections created beneath Wall 80 and on the western side, both of which exhibited concentrated ash layers at about the same level (with a reddish layer atop the ash in the section below 80); thus, we thought that the pit cut into the clay layer as well as this earlier concentrated ash layer. The further we excavated it seemed that the "pit fill" extended beneath the hard clay deposit (and yet we hadn't reached the bottom of this "pit fill"). Therefore, we closed Context 106 in order to remove the hard clay deposit and then continue excavating the "pit fill" as a new context. After removing the hard clay (i.e. upper portion of 114), however, it immediately became evident that we did not have a put but an expansive layer of ashy, mixed soil (which the hard clay had cut into), likely the same deposit as 101 (as Andreas had initially suggested). In hindsight, I think that the more clear-cut ash layer visible in the sections created by our 'pit digging' were simply patches of more concentrated ash within a much wider, mixed deposit, essentially comprising 101, 106, and the bottom of 114. We found an earring (New Apotheke 17), a bone stylus, 19 pieces of glass, a lamp, an iron nail and another iron object (as well as a shell that we though was worked but Nicole informed us that it was not). 21/6/16 TB and EJ: The glass stems from this context are similar to glass stems collected from contexts 79, 128, and 140 in size, style, and color. 2016/06/21 [-K. Petrole] NA-6: shell (old number MF-2016-61) NA-17: bronze earring NA-19: bone stylus NA-28: glass goblet base NA-33: lamp
Context Pottery:		Coarseware. pithos lid. 1 rim. (saved to lot) .; Cooking ware. cooking pot2 rims. (saved to lot) .flaring rim; Cooking ware. collar rim stew pot (1000-1100)6 rims. (saved to lot) .; Cooking ware. (saved to lot) .; Fineware. plain glazed, unslipped (800-1100), chafing dish. 2 bodysherds. (saved to lot) .; Coarseware. pilgrim flask. 1 rim. (saved to lot) .burnished; Coarseware. midlle byzantine, amphora. (saved to lot) .about 20 handles; about 400 body sherds
Pottery Summary:		7 frag(s) 0.1 kg. (100% saved) fineware.
		809 frag(s) 28.3 kg. (100% saved) coarseware.
		142 frag(s) 3.8 kg. (100% saved) cooking ware.
Context Artifacts:		Decorated bone stylus (L 0.105m) as MF 2951 (different shape but same decorative pattern), MF 6116, and MF 982 (see Davidson 1952, Corinth 12, cat. 1368); Glass clear colorless BS 4; Glass opaque colorless BS 1; Glass clear bluish green severely weathered BS 1; Glass clear green Stem 1 as MF 6539 and MF 267 (but MF 267 is slightly larger; see Davidson 1952, Corinth 12, cat. 711-723); Glass clear colorless (severely weathered) BS 1; Glass clear light blue Rim 1; Glass clear colorless Rim 1; Glass clear greenish blue BS 1; Glass clear greenish blue Stem 1 as MF 6539 and MF 267 (but MF 267 is slightly larger; see Davidson 1952, Corinth 12, cat. 711-723); Glass clear yellow BS 3; Glass clear green BS 1; Glass clear blue Rim 1; Glass clear light green Base 1; Iron implement ( 0.052 x 0.01 x 0.011m). Possible knife blade.; Iron objects (4); Glass clear yellow Rim 1; Glass clear light greenish blue Rim 1
Period:		Late Byzantine (1059-1210 AD)
Chronology:		Late 11th century
Grid:		-292.94--294.34E, 1490.11-1492.19N
XMin:		-294.34
XMax:		-292.94
YMin:		1490.11
YMax:		1492.19
City:		Ancient Corinth
Country:		Greece
Masl:		57.64-58.42m.
References:		Object: MF 2016 61