Corinth Basket Nezi Field, context 1227

Collection:		Corinth
Type:		Basket
Name:		Nezi Field, context 1227
Area:		Nezi Field
Title:		Dump fill east of wall 1222
Category:		Deposit
Notebook:		1107
Context:		1227
Page:		0
Date:		2013/06/12
Lot:		Lot 2013-015
Stratum:		10% tile, ceramic fragments, large cobbles (10-15 cm), pebbles, glass, wall plaster, metal (esp nails), brick, carbon
Description:		Top slope of the context is moderate down to the E. The soil color is dark brownish red. The soil compaction is compact. The soil is poorly sorted. It is clayey sand.
Notes:		We (the Blue Team) focused on the east side of newly exposed wall 1222 and the area around well 742, while the Pink Team moved west of wall 1222. We opened context 1227 as a large dump fill, very similar to 1210 above, covering the entire area. Thanasis began by excavating along robbing trench 1171, in order to determine the thickness of the deposit, which is still around 15-20 cm deep. We continued to expose the north face of an earlier phase of wall 366 which we first glimpsed in robbing trench 1171 while excavating deposit 1167. 11 June 2013 We continued this context this morning, gradually working from east to west. The lower painted ashlars under wall 366 seem to stop at this elevation after the first one; the remainder of 366 is all above soil. Like 1210 above and 1187 to the west, 1227 contains a fair quantity of architectural debris like tiles, bricks, nails, polychrome painted plaster, and bits of carbon which look like burnt wood. Cleaning around the well today, it now looks like the miscellaneous stones around the well exposed by context 1210 are resting on soil, and may not be part of a built structure at all (similar to the stones around the higher part of the well removed in session 3 2012?). At the center of the context, Thanasis began to expose a hard layer of whitish (lime?) material at 85.75 masl. It is domed, and seems to continue sloping down to the east and to the west under this same red fill, but to stay at a somewhat higher elevation running roughly N-S. Our first thought was that it might be the top of a cistern structure associated with well 742 (which seems to have some open area to its east when we peer into it from above), but the orientation does not quite align in any sensical way; we will have to expose more and see the full extent tomorrow. 12 June 2013 Early this morning we removed the stones east and north of well 742 as part of this context, since Thansis believed that the same fill continued beneath them. The limestone stones are mostly roughly hewn, ranging in size from 0.30-0.40 to 0.15-0.20 m. They were set in two rough layers in a soil matrix. Removal along the east side produced a hole underneath the stone at the current top of the well. The soil does seem to be the same moist, reddish, sandy material as the rest of the context. The workmen thought these stones came from the major E-W road south of here, and possibly they were torn out of the road and reused here to build or support the well. It seems these stones were used to help shore up the sides of the more formal well construction: it did not matter if they were neatly laid, because this area was all to be covered with fill anyway, so it was never meant to be seen. It now also seemed that the white dome we identified in the middle of the area yesterday was just more of the same fill; as Thanasis traced it from the west, it became apparent that the moist, sandy, reddish soil continued entirely underneath. Maybe this whiter, more compact bit was a sort of temporary working surface during either well construction or filling a "surface" exposed to a rain or for an extra few days. 10:00 We now worked back eastward from well 742, and no end of this context was in sight. We did not find much material in the sieve, so we cut back to sieving only 5-10% instead of 20%. We continued to find abundant tile, brick, and wall plaster. Guy suggested in pottery reading that all the residual redeposited material from this context and the other architectural dump fills (esp 1210) is from mudbrick which was dumped here and then degraded. 11:30 Excitement! Just after deciding to stop sieving, we found a nice round carnelian cut gem at 261.47 E, 1009.06 N, 85.60 masl. (Given inventory number MF 2013-23.) 13 June 2013 The dump fill continued this morning. One more cut block emerged at a lower elevation (85.57) along the line of wall 366, just west of the last block. Already first thing, we found larger pieces of pebble floor like the one exposed at the bottom of context 1202, which ought to be about 25 cm below (current elevation 85.44; floor exposed at 85.17). 12:45 Thanasis identified two dirt surfaces at the bottom of the dump fill, appearing to cover the western two-thirds of the context area. The dump fill 1227 continued to run up against the well structure at all elevations, and it seems clear that this fill was set against the built wall during or shortly after its stone construction. We could also see in the scarp under wall 366 the true thickness and homogeneity of this sandy red fill. We finally closed the context after exposing four distinct areas: two fills, one on the east third of the trench and another around the area we cut through to find the pebble floor; and two floors, one stretching under the second fill and the other below. 17 June 2013 It should be noted by anyone who continues to excavate this area that 1227 continues under wall 366 and to the west before changing around the stone feature south of well 742.
Context Pottery:		Fineware. Unidentified redslip, dish. 1 bodysherd. 1 complete profile. (saved to lot) .similar to LRC form 1; Cooking ware. Stewpot2 rims. (saved to lot) .Upturned rim with interior ledge for lid; Coarseware. Jar1 rim. (saved to lot) .concave rim; Fineware. Imitation Chandarli form 3 (saved to lot) .; Fineware. African redslip unidentified form1 bodysherd. (saved to lot) .feathered rouletting inside; Fineware.
Pottery Summary:		329 frag(s) 2.19 kg. (2% saved) fineware.
		965 frag(s) 27.3 kg. (0% saved) coarseware.
		341 frag(s) 3.36 kg. (1% saved) cooking ware.
Context Artifacts:		bricks, 59; brick embedded in plaster, 3; bronze, nail, square shaft, intact, bent near head, l 0.10, diam head 0.018; wall plaster, green 3, green with red, white, and/or black stripe, 9; glass, clear, blue, tubular ring base, plate/bowl, 1; bronze, sheet 4, miscellaneous parts 7, three-pronged object 1; glass, clear, blue, bs 3, 1 with exterior wheel-cut grooves; thickened rounded rim, jug/flask?, 1; iron?, slag, l 0.11 x w 0.06 x h 0.06, 1; wall plaster, red 60, yellow 22, yellow with green and white 2, black 11, black with yellow and white 1, purple 5; tessera, 1; marble revetment, 2; metal, nail, head and shaft 6, head 1, shaft 5; pebble flooring, 4; lead, sheet 3, hook? 2, belonging to one object?; wall plaster, white 56; metal, unknown, slag, l 0.09 x w 0.095 x h 0.045, 1; glass, clear, pale green, bs 2; unknown color, bs 5; wall plaster, white/brown coat, 20, white with pale red and brown stripes 4, white with black architectural/vegetal motif 1; wall plaster, imitation marble veneer, blue with white, red, and yellow, 10; wall plaster, beveled edge 2, convex white architectural moulding 1
Period:		Late Roman (5th -6th c AD)
Chronology:		4th, possibly early 5th century AD
Grid:		262.15-258.49E, 1007.05-1009.92N
XMin:		258.49
XMax:		262.15
YMin:		1007.05
YMax:		1009.92
Site:		Corinth
City:		Ancient Corinth
Country:		Greece
Masl:		85.44-85.99m.
References:		Object: MF 2013 23 Coin: 2013 213 Coin: 2013 215