Corinth at the AIA / APA Meetings: January 5-8, 2012

Tomorrow begin the annual meetings of the Archaeological Institute of America and the American Philological Association in Philadelphia.  I repost below info about Corinth papers.  If any one would like to contribute reviews of individual papers or sessions, let me know. 

Friday Morning (Jan. 6)

  • “The Archaic Temple at Isthmia Reconsidered” – Cornelis J. (Neil) Baljon, AIA Member at Large (AIA Session 1D: Greek Architecture)
  • “The Hellenistic Theater at Corinth: New Evidence” – David Scahill, American School of Classical Studies at Athens (AIA Session 1D: Greek Architecture)
  • “The Southeast Building at Corinth: Recent Investigations” – Paul D. Scotton, Califorinia State University, Long Beach (AIA Session 1D: Greek Architecture)
  • “The Lord and the Ring: A New Interpretation of a Corinthian Finger Ring with an Inscribed Cruciform Invocative Monogram” – Jeremy Ott, New York University Institute of Fine Arts (AIA Session 1E: Religion in Late Antiquity)
  • “Survey and Visualization of Mycenaean Buildings at Kalamianos” – Philip Sapirstein, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (AIA Session 1G: Recent Work in Aegean Prehistory)
  • “Ta graphenta pro rostris lecta: Bilingual (In)scribing at Roman Corinth” – Brad Bitner, Macquarie University, (APA Section 7: Bilingual Inscriptions)

Friday Afternoon (Jan. 6)

  • “Polyphemus and Galateia at Ancient Corinth” – Aileen Ajootian, University of Mississippi (AIA 2A: Roman Sculpture)
  • “Tracking an Archaic Greek Warrior in the Near East: A Corinthian Helmet from Haifa Bay, Israel” – John R. Hale, University of Louisville Jacob Sharvit, Israel Antiquities Authority (AIA 2B: Greek Arts)
  • “Learning from Their Mistakes: Try-Pieces, Wasters and Other Evidence for Ceramic Production from the Potters’ Quarter at Corinth” – Bice Peruzzi, University of Cincinnati, and Amanda S. Reiterman, University of Pennsylvania (AIA Poster Session)

Saturday Morning (Jan. 7)

  • “Mycenaean Mortuary Practices in Ancient Nemea,” Mary K. Dabney, Bryn Mawr College, Eva Pappi, 4th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, Greece, Panayiotis Karkanas, Ephorate of Speleology and Palaeoanthropology, Greece, Angus Smith, Brock University, Sevi Triantaphyllou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and James C. Wright, Bryn Mawr College (AIA Session 4E: Staging Death)
  • “Excavations at Nemea: The 2011 Season” – Kim Shelton, University of California, Berkeley (AIA Session 4H: Current Research at Nemea)
  • “The Archaic Heroaon and Nemean Landscapes” – Nathan Arrington, Princeton University (AIA Session 4H: Current Research at Nemea)
  • “Local Ceramics from the Xenon and Houses at Nemea in the Late Fourth – Early Third centuries B.C.: Preliminary Results” – Heather Graybehl, University of Sheffield (AIA Session 4H: Current Research at Nemea)
  • “A Bioarchaeological Approach to the Early Christian and Byzantine Burials from the Sanctuary of Nemean Zeus” – Jared S. Beatrice, Michigan State University, and Jon M. Frey, Michigan State University (AIA Session 4H: Current Research at Nemea)
  • “The Sanctuary of Zeus at Nemea: The Medieval Deposits (12th-13th centuries A.D.)” –  Effie Athanassopoulos, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (AIA Session 4H: Current Research at Nemea)
  • “Nemean Neighbors: A Survey Perspective from the Nemea Valley” Christian Cloke, – University of Cinncinnati (AIA Session 4H: Current Research at Nemea)

Saturday Afternoon (Jan. 7)

  • “Visualizing Archaeology: Panoramic Photography and the Greek Architecture Project at Corinth” – Christopher J. Stackowicz, Bethel College (AIA Session 5E: New Digital and Visual Approaches to Archaeology)
  • “Producing the Peasant in the Corinthian Countryside” – David Pettegrew, Messiah College, and William Caraher, University of North Dakota (APA Session 43: Finding Peasants in Mediterranean Landscapes)

Ano Vayia and Lychnari Tower

The Saronic coast of the southern Corinthia provides some of the most beautiful views of Corinthian territory.  It also provided for the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey some of its most spectacular finds.  One week spent in the area of Kalamianos near the harbor village of Korphos, for example, led to the discover of a major Mycenaean settlement—the end result being an entirely new research endeavor called the Saronic Harbors Archaeological Project.  In the area of Vayia and Lychnari Bay, Bill Caraher and his extensive team found an unknown rural tower and ‘farm’ of Classical-Hellenistic date.  He and I published these sites last year (with colleague Sarah James) in an article titled “Towers and Fortifications at Vayia in the Southeast Corinthia,” Hesperia 79.3 (2010), 385-415.  [Vayia (PDF Offprint) *Copyright © The American School of Classical Studies at Athens].  The abstract of that piece:

“Although rural towers have long been central to the discussion of the fortified landscapes of classical and Hellenistic Greece, the Corinthia has rarely figured in the conversation, despite the historical significance of exurban fortifications for the territory. the authors of this article report on the recent investigation by the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological survey of two towers and associated fortifications in the region of Vayia in the southeast Corinthia. by integrating topographic study, intensive survey, and architectural analysis, they suggest that these three sites served to guard an economically productive stretch of the Corinthian countryside and to protect—or block—major maritime and land routes into the region.”

There is plenty of material in Bill’s archived Archaeology of the Mediterranean World blog about our work in the Lychnari Bay area.  I have added to this website a series of pages in the photo gallery section:

This concludes my scanned slides of the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey.  Thanks again to Cindi Tomes of Messiah College’s Faculty Services for making this possible.  At some point soon, I will upload scans of slides from other parts of the territory and the urban center, as well as scanned prints from EKAS.

A few of the highlights from the new galleries.

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Lychnari Bay (left), Ano Vayia (right lobe), and Saconic Gulf from the coastal highway to Epidaurus.  Ayioii Theodoroi smoke stacks in distance.

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Lychnari Bay from the site of Ano Vayia.  Oneion and the Isthmus in background.

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Remains of a building of late Classical-early Hellenistic date, probably used for guarding a strategic corridor to Corinth and protecting local citizen properties.

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The team discusses the crumbled remains of the tower above Lychnari Bay.

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Timothy Gregory reading pottery from the Ano Vayia buildings.

The Corinthia Rocks! in Hesperia 79.3

“The Corinthia Rocks!”  The homepage of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens website gave some attention this week to Lychnari Tower in the southeast Corinth, one of the Classical-Hellenistic sites Bill Caraher and I investigated in 2008.  One of the scrolling images on the site shows Bill Caraher standing on Lychnari Tower (photo by K. Pettegrew).  Yes, it doesn’t look like much but a pile of rocks now, but believe it or not, that was once a tower that stood as high as 15 m (50 feet) above the ground.

Corinthia Rocks

The editors of the journal Hesperia chose the image for the website because the most recent issue (79.3) includes an article by Bill, myself, and Sarah James called “Towers and Fortifications at Vayia in the Southeast Corinthia.”  The article was the culmination of fieldwork conducted by the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey in 2001, 2003, and 2008.  The three sites described in that article are fascinating, but I have said before that creating the stone-by-stone drawing for the Ano Vayia building was some of the most boring archaeological work I’ve ever done!  Bill Caraher blogged about our 2008 fieldwork in a series of posts:

The Corinthian Countryside: Classical Vayia

New Research on the Corinthian Countryside: Vayia Microregion
The Corinthian Countryside: The Site of Ano Vayia
The Corinthian Countryside: Distributional Data from the Site of Ano Vayia
The Corinthian Countryside: The Lychnari Tower
The Corinthian Countryside: The Passes of the Eastern Corinthia

Okay, so here’s an abstract of our article:

“Although rural towers have long been central to the discussion of the fortified landscapes of Classical and Hellenistic Greece, the Corinthia has rarely figured in the conversation, despite the historical significance of exurban fortifications for the territory. The authors of this article report on the recent investigation by the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey of two towers and associated fortifications in the region of Vayia in the southeast Corinthia. By integrating topographic study, intensive survey, and architectural analysis, they suggest that these three sites served to guard an economically productive stretch of the Corinthian countryside and to protect—or block—major maritime and land routes into the region.”

The full article is available here* as a PDF offprint, and is posted in the EKAS Publications section of this website.  If you don’t have time to read the text, there are some nice images of the rural Corinthia in the piece.

*[Copyright © The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, originally published in Hesperia 79 (2010), pp. 385–415. This offprint is supplied for personal, non-commercial use only. The definitive electronic version of the article can be found here.]