Corinth Basket Temple E, Southeast, context 204

Collection:		Corinth
Type:		Basket
Name:		Temple E, Southeast, context 204
Area:		Temple E, Southeast
Title:		Extension of grave fill by threshold
Category:		Deposit
Notebook:		1108
Context:		204
Date:		2014/05/06
Stratum:		Small patches of plaster (scarce), glass (scarce), roof tile (mod), human bone (freq), faunal bone (scarce), ceramic (mod), nails (scarce), kosmati flooring fragments (scarce), shell (scarce), med to coarse pebbles (scarce)
Description:		Top slope of the context is level. The soil color is dark reddish brown. The soil compaction is very soft. The soil is poorly sorted.
Notes:		Most probably equates fill 99, which was dug in a previous session. It was decided to expand the fill for this grave cut as tile, ceramics, and bone (most significantly, 1 of the skulls piled at the feet of the extended inhumation) all extended into the E wall of what was previously dug. I am going to find the east-most extent of the grave cut and excavate the fill as a separate context, marrying it to 99 at a later date. Grave cut (188) is laid against wall 21 @ the threshold to the narthex, and is truncated by Grave 1990-41C to the N as the feet of the inhumation were cut off. This grave is also S of what is probably another grave. 204/99 was overlaid by 83, which contained an upside-down column capital which was most likely a grave marker for this grave. The bottom of the cut 188 has also not been determined, and human bone (some juvenile skeletal elements as well as a disarticulated mandible, etc.) remains in situ in the north-most end of the cut. Sift dirt has been packed around them to protect them. 6/5 : Today I started to delineate the east-most edge of the cut and removing the packed, dry uppermost layer of the dirt in order to determine its extents. Bone, tile, marble, glass, ceramics, a large fragment of kosmati, and 1 coin (2014-84) were removed and all dirt was dry seived. An assortment of human skeletal elements, not articulated and from a variety of age classes, are present. Some faunal material was also placed with the other bones. High pt of undug fill, NE extent of grave fill: 1071.81 N / 123.73 E / 85.26 H 7/5 : Though the edge of the grave cut appears to generally correspond with the edge of the plaster flooring in this area, a small lip of this floor appears to overhang the grave cut, with a crack following the general existing grave cut outline. This could indicate that the grave was cut into the kosmati flooring, now preserved as a thick layer of plaster, but incompletely, so that this small lip was undercut. I removed this lip so that when the grave cut is completely removed below it, it does not collapse. In the process of removing grave fill, a lower plaster surface (possilby the earlier church floor for which the prev. session's excavators were looking) is now visible in the profile of the grave cut, and is also undercut slightly at one point by the grave cut. This surface appears to be level with the surface cut by graves to the east (2014-06 & -03), which would indicate that the latest phase of use for this grave was later than either 2014-06 or -03. Much disarticulated human bone was removed, from a variety of age classes, as was more of the kosmati flooring, large roof tile fragments, glass vessel frgs, nails and other metal fragments, shell, and painted plaster as well as ceramics. The bone and ceramic boxes were almost full by the end of the day. At the south-most end of the grave, near the skull left in situ, I began to expose a concentration of upper legs/pelvis and mandibles (representing at least 3 people) are present, all layers on top of each other, touching. Possibly these were piled on top of each other or pushed together to make room for later burials. Tomorrow I will continue to explore the relationships between these bones and the bone piles mentioned in context 99 to attempt to determine whether they predate the extended skeleton or were placed on top of it, as at least one of the removed, disarticulated skulls appears to have overlaid skeleton 121. High pt of bone accumulation (articular surface of R ilium): 8/5 : Today I decided to start sieving using a finer mesh, as I observed a deciduous tooth was able to fall through the holes in the 8mm mesh. This mesh is 4 mm. Today I started to uncover the bone pile in the south of the grave, but found that not much of 204 remained before the sediment changed composition underneath the large tile fragment covering the femur. This sediment surrounding the bone pile appears to underly 204's dirt to the north and is more red with a higher clay content, much like that remaining at the bottom of the previously excavated context 99, and will be removed as a separate context to preserve this sequence of grave use. One 10 L bucket of dirt was saved from over the bone pile in the SE of the context for water screening. I therefore moved back to the north of the grave cut, removing the darker fill. More human bone, some shell, tile, glass, painted plaster, metal and much ceramic was removed. Panaiotis has been helping me at the sieve today. In the NE-most corner, while following the grave cut I have uncovered what looks like the remains of a wall truncated by this grave cut. This appears in the grave cut profile to directly underly the lower plaster surface discovered yesterday. This appears to extend E-W, toward one as yet unexcavated grave cut. It does not show in the west profile of grave 2014-03. A nail was discovered in situ between the femur (Bone 22) and the neonate frontal (Bone 9): 1071.38 N / 123.84 E / 85.02 H 9/5 : Today I finished removing this context. The grave cut has been extended to the S now as well, so that it appears to have been more severely truncated by grave 1990-41C than previously supposed. A number of human bones, including the bone pile in the south, have been exposed but left in place as they appear to either be at the interface with the next context or to extend into it. Tile, ceramic, glass frgs, iron and 3 coins (2014-95, -96, and -99) were discovered in this fill. One coin (-96) was in situ, the rest found while dry-sieving. Panaiotis R. and Angela S. helped me screen today. Bone kept as Bone LOT 2014-21, human and animal. May include some material from commingled burials in BL 2014-13.
Context Pottery:		Fineware. preroman19 bodysherds. ; Fineware. Roman8 bodysherds. ; Fineware. slipped plain glazed (1100-1300), bowl. 1 rim. late 13th early 14th; Coarseware. matt painted, stamnos. 4 handles. 3 bodysherds. ; Fineware. late sgraffito, slipped style VII (1250-1300), bowl. 1 rim. non joining 324; Fineware. Byzantine2 bodysherds. ; Fineware. archaic maiolica, slipped (1270-1325), pitcher. 2 bodysherds.
Pottery Summary:		33 frag(s) 0.2 kg. (0% saved) fineware.
		174 frag(s) 1.5 kg. (0% saved) coarseware.
		32 frag(s) 0.3 kg. (0% saved) cooking ware.
Context Artifacts:		glass, clear, colorless with depressed bands, bs, 1; wall plaster, unpainted, 1; bronze, loop, 1; shell, murex, 2; glass, clear, colorless, bs, 15, rim, 3; glass, clear, green, bs, 2, rim, 1; wall plaster, painted red lines on black, 2; shell, 3; glass, clear, green, lamp, bs, 1 as MF 94-39; terracotta figurine, animal horn or leg, 1; wall plaster, painted red, 3; glass, clear, colorless with applied threads, bs, 3; glass, clear, colorless with applied blue band, bs, 1; iron, nails, square-shank, 9; charcoal, 5; wall plaster, painted black, 32; Cosmati flooring, 3; shell, bivalve, 2; iron, lump, 2; glass, clear, green, tubular base, 2 as Corinth XII cat. 724; shell, limpet, 1
Period:		Turkish I (1458-1680 AD)
Grid:		124.11-123.71E, 1070.38-1072.17N
XMin:		123.71
XMax:		124.11
YMin:		1070.38
YMax:		1072.17
Site:		Corinth
City:		Ancient Corinth
Country:		Greece
Masl:		84.96-85.26m.
References:		Image: digital 2014 0282 Image: digital 2014 0333 Coins (4)