| Collection: | Corinth | |
| Type: | Basket | |
| Name: | Nezi Field, context 1199 | |
| Area: | Nezi Field | |
| Title: | Levelling fill S of wall 1155 and W of wall 5435 | |
| Category: | Deposit | |
| Notebook: | 1107 | |
| Context: | 1199 | |
| Page: | 0 | |
| Date: | 2013/06/05 | |
| Lot: | Lot 2013-019 | |
| Stratum: | Inclusions of pebbles, cobbles, some boulders, roof tiles, mudbrick, plaster, metal, bone, ceramic sherds (total ~ 55%) | |
| Description: | Top slope of the context is level. The soil color is light reddish brown. The soil compaction is firm. The soil is very poorly sorted. It is sandy silt. | |
| Notes: | We are digging this deposit in order to better understand its relationship to the features around it and to determine the extent of the wall extending east of wall 1155. On Guy's advice, we are leaving a balk of soil on the southern edge so that we can see a section through the deposit. This deposit is bounded to the west by a robbing trench (contexts 5151 and 5152 in the 2007 Nezi notebooks) which was cut by a pit (contexts 5148 and 5150 in the 2007 notebooks). It appears to be cut by and therefore earlier than both of these two features. The pottery dates from the contexts excavated in 2007 are very mixed -- Early Roman npd for 5150, 1st century CE for 5148, 5th century Roman npd for 5151, and Hellenistic npd for 5152. It could be that there were few pieces of definitive pottery from this area and that stratigraphic dating would be more helpful in establishing chronology here. Wall 1155 is sitting on top of this deposit and seems to postdate it. Wall 5435 also appears to postdate the deposit; as we go down in elevation, we are exposing the rubble foundation below it. Pottery from this context has not yet been read, but it appears to comprise a wide range of dates. Due to this and the poor sorting of the deposit, we are interpreting it as leveling fill. Stones in the deposit are mostly angular. We have recovered many fragments of painted wall plaster and a few tesserae, which suggests a Roman or post-Roman date. As we descended in elevation in the northern part of this context, we exposed two courses of limestone blocks extending to the east along the line of wall 1155. The bottom course consists of two squared blocks which are resting directly on floor 1191. The larger and westernmost stone has a rectangular groove (about 8 cm by 2 cm) on its top face running north to south. Although we originally thought it might be part of a doorway, the groove looks too small and is in the wrong orientation to form a threshold. It is more likely that the block is in secondary use, and the groove may have originally been used to support a stele with a tongue sticking out of the bottom (Lewis holes generally do not occur on blocks this size, and the groove isn't the correct shape for a Lewis hole anyway). The stones on top of these two squared blocks do not extend as far north as the ones below them, and only one is squared-off. James does not think that the cobble and tile-rich deposit running underneath and extending to the west of wall 5435 is a foundation, since it contains too much earth and the cobbles and tile pieces along the edge are oriented vertically. It may be fill from a pit or part of a robbing trench below the wall, but it is difficult to tell for sure without digging to the east of wall 5435. If this is later pit or robbing trench fill, it is possible that sherds from the area may have contaminated the pottery from 1199, and we could test this by sampling the balk we have left to the south of 1199 which does not border this fill. This deposit contained 5 coins -- one found in the sieve, one which fell from the deposit during cleaning, and three that were discovered in situ (see top plan for coordinates and elevations). A mold-made terra cotta figurine was also discovered (see top plan). It appears to depict an old woman with a ceramic vessel, and some yellow pigment remains on her hair. Deposit 1199 overlays two different surfaces. In the northeast area, we revealed an uneven floor (?) of whitish-grey cay. In the western part of the area and at a lower elevation is a smoother, harder-packed, darker surface with several ash and charcoal-rich areas on top. Several deposits of small (~0.001 m) greenish-yellow seeds were recovered from the soil directly above this surface and were taken to the museum for further study. It's possible that this lower surface is a continuation of floor 1191, which also has several ashy patches in its southeastern corner. When this deposit was fully excavated, it came down upon four different contexts. On Guy's advice, we are ceasing from excavation in this area because we are reaching levels that are earlier than the Late Roman material that this session is focused on. However, we are drawing a detailed bottom plan labeling the new contexts as 1, 2, 3, and 4 so as to elucidate their relationship, even though they will not receive new context numbers this season. Deposits 1, 2, and 3 are floors. Floor 1 overlays floor 2, but the two seem to have a similar color and composition -- reddish brown with inclusions of cobbles and pebbles. Both appear similar to the Middle Roman floor layers (deposit 1148) that we dug to the west of the robbing trench and may be of similar date. Floor 3 is overlaid by floor 1 and is harder-packed and flatter with ash inclusions but few pebbles or cobbles. This may be a continuation of floor 1191 under wall 1155, but this is difficult to determine without removing floor 1. Overlaid by all three of these floors is deposit 4, which is not a surface. It appears to contain pebbles, cobbles, and pieces of lime plaster and may be levelling fill for the construction of floor 3. We are planning to cover these areas to protect them (especially the carbon-rich areas on surface 3) for potential future excavations. 20/6: Coin 206, which we recovered while cleaning around the western edge of 1199, has been identifed as a Byzantine coin from the 7th century CE. It is likely contamination from the Byzantine robbing trench to the west of 1199 and was not taken into consideration when dating the context. | |
| Context Pottery: | Coarseware. Stamped amphora handle1 handle. inventoried; Fineware. Eastern sigilata A unidentified2 bodysherds. ; Fineware. Arretine, plate. ; Fineware. African red slip, form 50A1 rim. ; Fineware. Eastern sigilata A, plate. 4 bodysherds. ; Fineware. Arretine cup, conspectus form 22, cup. 2 rims. 3 bodysherds. ; Fineware. Arretine bowl, conspectus form 14.2, bowl. 3 rims. ; Fineware. Arretine unidentified2 bodysherds. ; Fineware. Pre-Roman538 bodysherds. ; Fineware. Thin-walled, plate. 1 rim. ; Cooking ware. Round-mouthed pitcher1 rim. 1 handle. ; Fineware. Miniature vessel1 rim. writing A[, second line AGA (inventoried); Fineware. Brittle ware, mug. 1 bodysherd. | |
| Pottery Summary: | 569 frag(s) 1.91 kg. (0% saved) fineware. | |
| 1217 frag(s) 14.7 kg. (0% saved) coarseware. | ||
| 497 frag(s) 3.38 kg. (0% saved) cooking ware. | ||
| Context Artifacts: | TC conical loom weight, profile Corinth XII 8 or 9, 400-350 BCE (saved to lot); Glass, clear green: bs 1; Glass, clear yellow: bs 3; Iron: 1 blade, 2 rounded shafts, 1 buckle, 1 tack shaft, 1 nail, 1 ring (buckle?); Glass, clear light blue: bs 2; Shell: murex 5, cardia 1; Bronze: 40 blade pieces; Red flint blade: 1; Bronze and iron slag, 2; Glass, unknown color: rod with laminar break, 1; TC figurine, draped female (inventoried); Seeds, greenish brown, L. ~ 0.001 (saved to lot); Obsidian: 2; Relief lamp, Broneer type 22 (inventoried); Olive pit, burnt, 4 (saved to lot); TC figurine, draped male (inventoried); TC conical loom weight, profile Corinth XII 12, see Corinth XII 1187, ca. 250 BCE. Weight 0.274, H. 0.096 (saved to lot); Glass, clear colorless: bs 4, rim 1; Furnace brick, 1; Painted wall plaster: 118 black, 8 black with white stripes, 2 red, 1 green, 2 yellow, 22 white, 17 white with green/black/yellow spots (saved to lot); Bronze: blade 3, slag 1; Lamp, Broneer type 22: rim 16, shoulder 1, base 1 (saved to lot); Tesserae: 4 white, 1 pink | |
| Period: | Late Roman (5th -6th c AD) | |
| Chronology: | First half of the 4th century, but with much earlier material | |
| Grid: | 271.22-269.41E, 1017.79-1020.54N | |
| XMin: | 269.41 | |
| XMax: | 271.22 | |
| YMin: | 1017.79 | |
| YMax: | 1020.54 | |
| Site: | Corinth | |
| City: | Ancient Corinth | |
| Country: | Greece | |
| Masl: | 84.89-85.47m. | |
| References: | Objects (5) Coins (5) |
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