The Archaeology of the Mediterranean World

The Body and the Liturgy

The summer 2009 issue of the Journal of Early Christian Studies is a tribute to the work of Patricia Cox Miller.  Her book on dreams in Late Antiquity has been particularly useful to my work on dreams in an archaeological context.  The volume is dedicated to a series of articles focusing on the body in Late Antiquity and represents the wide range of topics that draw upon the study of the body as a key paradigm.

The article in the recent volume of the JECS that caught my attention is Derek Krueger's "The Unbounded Body in the Age of Liturgical Reproduction".  In it, he explores the idea that in Late Antiquity there were very few checks on the proliferation of the liturgy and its power to reproduce the body of God.  As evidence, he explores passages in John Moschos' Pratum Spirituale.  In particular, he examines the well-known story of the children who play-act the liturgy and, when they utter the words of consecration accidentally consecrate the host.  Thus unordained and untrained children were able conjure the body of God through the words of the liturgy alone.  Krueger then goes on to site some other passages that, in a general way, reinforce his observations.

Several years ago, in a thoroughly unsuccessful and consequently unpublished article, I argued that the the same proliferation of the liturgy explained the appearance of liturgical phrases in inscriptions across the Eastern Mediterranean.  These texts appeared not just in the context of the church building, but also in domestic space and in public space (particularly fortifications).  While these texts rarely contained the entire text of the anaphora (central to the act of consecration), I argue that they frequently invoke the liturgy specifically and establish a pars pro toto relationship.  The implication here is that (1) literate folks were familiar enough with the words of the liturgy to recognize a liturgical phrase in an inscription.  Krueger's work substantiates this assumption.  And (2) the liturgy itself was not the exclusive domain of the clergy, but could be appropriated by ordinary folks for their homes (especially in Syria) or by the elite in monumental fortifications.  Thus, there exists some tension between clergy's position as the "ritual experts" in relation to the liturgy and the proliferation of the liturgy among members of the laity. 

These arguments are persuasive and important, especially for any scholar (like myself) who see the ritual formality of the liturgy as crucial to its role in establishing a clearly defined relationship between the laity, the clergy, and the divine.  I can't get around the idea that clergy's authority in Late Antique society was in some way linked to their role in the liturgy.  After all, the most visible mark of the liturgy and clerical presence in a community was the monumentalized expression of liturgical space -- the church building.

The Medieval and Post Medieval Mediterranean at the 2010 Archaeological Institute of American Annual Meeting

We got the good news last week that the panel put together by Kostis Kourelis and Sharon Gerstel for the 2010 AIA Annual Meeting in Anaheim has been accepted.  The panel is titled First Out: Late Levels at Early Sites and will feature papers by Jack Davis, Kathleen Quinn, Anne McCabe, Adam Rabinowitz, Guy Sanders, and Tim Gregory and myself.  Here's a link to the abstracts and overview statement.

Tim Gregory and I plan to re-examine the data produced by the decades old Ohio Boeotia Project around the ancient city of Thisvi.  This survey data was initially analyzed in a series of publications in the 1980s.  Since that time, digital analysis tools have become considerably more powerful and there is a growing body of work in the region, particularly associated with the Cambridge Boeotia Project and its various spin-offs, that promises to add significance to any re-examination of the OBE results.  Returning to excavation and survey results -- so called legacy data -- has taken on new importance in recent years as excavation permits have become more difficult to acquire, a vigorous ethical discourse has put pressure on project directors to make unpublished finds available, and the digital archaeology "movement" has improved our ability to make published and unpublished data alike visible and accessible to the professional public.  A recent issue of the leading electronic journal in archaeology, Internet Archaeology, has dedicated an issue to the reanalysis of "legacy data" taking advantage of the intersection of digital distribution, new technologies, and the remarkable potential of the existing pool of archaeological data to inform contemporary research questions.  We hope our paper frames not only some of the methods and procedures at stake in the re-examination of survey data, but also makes the argument that this kind of secondary analysis marks the coming of age of intensive pedestrian survey.  It marks the potential of survey data to go beyond its applicability to narrowly defined research questions and to have the kind of enduring value that excavations have nurtured by long standing methods and carefully cultivated archival practices. 

Proving that survey data is available for re-analysis is absolutely critical for its persistence as an archaeological methodology in the Mediterranean.  And the recent transformation of post-Classical landscapes from spaces seen as stagnant and unchanging to dynamic "contingent" countrysides makes the study of the post-Classical world ideally suited as a test case.

Revisioning Relics: Lost, Found, and Lost Again

One of the most amazing inventio narratives, complete with multiple dreams and visions, and multiple excavations, appears in the 6th century Chronicle of the Marcellinus and involves one of the most well traveled relics, the Head of John the Baptist.  (In fact, the Head was sufficiently well-traveled to deserve a monograph as early as the 17th century:   C. Du Frense Du Cange, Traité historique du chef de S. Jean Baptiste... (Paris 1665); for a brief modern treatment see: J. Wortley, "The Relics of  'the Friends of Jesus' at Constantinople," in J. Durand and B. Flusin eds, Byzance et les Reliques du Christ. Centre de Recherche d'Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance 17. (Paris 2004), 143-157).  Ultimately, one part of the complex history of the rediscovery of John the Baptist's head is commemorated in the Synaxarion of Constantinople of May 25th. 

"John, the herald of the Lord and his baptizer, revealed his head which , at an unspeakable horrible demand, Herodias had once accepted after it had been cut from his shoulders and placed on a dish, and buried far from his headless bod; he revealed his head to two eastern monks entering Jerusalem to celebrate the resurrection of the Christ the Lord, so that when they reached the place where the former king Herod lived they were advised to search around and dig the ground up faithfully.  So while they were journeying back to their own places, carrying in their rough saddle-bag the head they had discovered by faith, a certain potter from the city of Emesa fleeing from the poverty which threatened him daily, showed himself to them as a companion.  While, in ignorance, he was carrying the sack entrusted to him with the sacred head, he was admonished in the night by him whose head he was carrying, and fleeing both his companions he made off.  He entered the city of Emesa immediately with his holy and light burden, and as long as he lived there he venerated the head of Christ's herald.  At his death, he handed it over in a jar to his sister, who was ignorant of the matter.  Next a certain Eustochius, who was secretly a priest of the Arian faith, unworthily obtained this great treasure and dispensed to the rabble, as if it were purely his own, the grace which Christ the Lord bestows on his inconstant people through John the Baptist. When his wickedness was detected he was driven out the city of Emesa.  Afterwards this cave, in which the head of the most blessed John was set in an urn and reburied underground, became the abode of certain monks.  Finally, while the priest and head of the monastery, Marcellus, was living a faultless life in that cave, the blessed John, herald of Christ, revealed himself and his head to Marcellus and showed that it was buried here, conspicuous by its many miracles.  It is agreed therefore that this venerable head was found by the foresaid priest Marcellus whil Uranius was bishop of the city mentioned.  This was on the twenty-fourth day of February in the consulship of Vincomalus and Opilio, in the middle week of Lent, and the ruling emperors were in fact Valentinian and Marcian."

Chronicle of Marcellinus. trans. B. Croke. (Sydney 1995), pp. 19-22

This is an extraordinarily complex and dense story capturing almost the entire realm of Late Antique experiences from heretical priests to traveling monks to visions, relics, and the realia every day life (potters, rough saddle-bags, jars, et c.).

The story is one of a significant number of episodes when a holy relic is lost multiple times.  For example, the the bodies of the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste reappear once in the time of the Empress Pulcharia in the early 5th century (Sozomen HE 9.2) and then later in Justinian's reign (Procop. Aed. 1.7.2-10).  Numerous icons appear and vanish from the tumultuous history of far flung monasteries representing the irrepressible sanctity of religious objects.  From a historical perspective, I have always thought that there is something incongruous about sacred objects being misplaced or lost, but then again, we hear of important documents and artifacts sometimes going missing in museums even today, especially during chaotic and unstable times. 

From the perspective of narratives on dream archaeology, these stories show how densely packed stories associated with relics could be and how multiple individuals, places, and events could partake of the sacred penumbra of a single relic.  Once the head of John the Baptist appeared in Constantinople (at the church of St. John Studios or the Pharos ("Lighthouse") Church), it not only validated its power as a sacred object through the various places and people involved in its inventio, but also imparted those people, places, and invents with a share of its sanctity.  The re-inventio of a relic not only reinforced it sacred status, but also produced an expanded network that mapped together people and places from across a sacred history and landscape. 

So multiple dreams, multiple excavations, and various translations (travels) held out an extraordinary potential for creating a sacred topography (often extending far beyond the final resting place of the relic), a sacred history typically revealing the irrepressible persistence of the sacred object, and, in some cases, multiple individuals credited and blessed with the discovery of the object.  When the story is set in such mundane and ordinary surroundings as the one recounted above, the sacred object imbues even the mundane realia of everyday life like pots and saddlebags with a sacred glow.

Merrifield Graffiti

One reason that I abandoned my beloved Blackberry for a less-loved Samsung Omnia is that it has a 5 megapixel camera which has encouraged me to document more regularly "archaeological" aspects of my everyday life.

Every day I walk leave Merrifield Hall on the University of North Dakota's campus past one of the oddest and yet most traditional pieces of campus graffiti.  Unlike more urban campuses, UND's campus is remarkably graffiti free.  Even restroom poets, so common to the semipublic space of university campuses, seems to be scarce.  So this one example of campus graffiti really stood out.  Someone had scratched a Chi-Rho on the inside doorframe at the southeast corner of Merrifield Hall.   The Chi-Rho is an important symbol to Christians, representing the first two letters of Christ's name in Greek.  According to most of the major sources for Constantine's reign, the Chi-Rho appeared associated with the battle of Milvian bridge after which Constantine showed a particular dedication to the Christian cause.  It was famously incorporated into Constantine's military standard (called the labarum). By the later 4th and 5th centuries, the Chi-Rho became a symbol of the Christian cause appearing in both formal inscriptions, mosaic decoration, and graffiti.

This immediately reminded me of ancient examples of graffiti -- especially the Christian graffiti found at various points along the Hexamilion wall in Greece.  While none of those graffiti were Chi-Rhos (that I can recall), several cross graffiti were located at doors entering towers or at gates into the fortress. (See: T. Gregory, The Hexamilion and the Fortress. Isthmia 5  (Princeton 1993), p. 126, ill. 23.).  Scholars have often interpreted such graffiti as being apotropaic; that is designed to ward off evil of both the human and spiritual kind.  Thresholds such as the door of a building or a city gate are liminal spaces (quite literally) and are unstable places being neither within the protected area of the building nor safely outside and away from protected space.  The vulnerability of such places often prompted appeals to divine powers to protect the space.

Of course, in some instances, the evil or restless powers have already infiltrated the interior space and the apotropaic marker -- like the graffiti on the Hexamilion -- are reminders that the bad things of the world can't always be kept at bay.

A Few Thoughts on Formation Processes and Sacred Space

I spent little bits of time this weekend meandering through the most recent volume in the Late Antique Archaeology series from Brill: L. Lavan, E. Swift, and T. Putzey eds., Objects in Context, Objects in Use Material Spatiality in Late Antiquity.  Leiden 2007.  Aside from the sort of silly notion of material spatiality, which seems to imply that there could be spatial relationships that are somehow not material, this imposing tome has a bunch of interesting "stuff" in it.  Byrn Mawr Classical Review has offered a complete early review here.

The volume contained, among other things, a series of articles on object in Early Christian space.  The articles by B. Caseau, V. Michel, and Z. Fiema, employed various textual and archaeological methods to survey the range of objects associated with religious space in an Early Christian context.  Of particular note was Z. Fiema's discussion of documents in the storeroom of the Petra Church.  The careful excavation revealed a fairly substantial archive originally arranged on shelves and in cabinets. The two articles by B. Caseau examined textual sources for the various objects that they associate with Late Antique churches.  Her work reminds us how few of the objects recorded in Late Antique church inventories or in more literary sources are regularly found in excavated churches.  Her discussion of the objects associated in texts with healing shrines reminds us how how most of things present in the everyday life of even the most imposing churches were perishable.  Brooms, wooden buckets, leather, metal and papyrus only survive in very particular archaeological and cultural environments and consequently remain invisible to excavators.

These articles reminded me of a short paper that I wrote, probably 8 years ago, with Tim Gregory and David Pettegrew, ("Archaeological 'Signatures' of Byzantine Churches: Survey Archaeology and the Creation of a Byzantine Landscape," Byzantine Studies Conference Abstracts of Papers 27 (2001), p. 38.).  We did very intensive archaeological survey in the immediate vicinity of Byzantine Churches on the island of Kythera hoping to discover some kind of material signature for Byzantine churches.  We were not particularly successful.  The tendency to keep church yards clean, the position of churches on the tops of hills or ridges, and the generally overgrown condition of the island made it difficult for us to find much material that was distinct to the religious function or chronological range of these buildings.

This all led me to think a bit about the distinct set of formation processes that create the archaeological evidence for religious space.  The tendency for the community to regard some religious spaces as sacred and consequently to continue to function on some level after catastrophic events like earthquakes and fires.  Later burials in the remains of Early Christian basilicas is one example of post-destruction re-use.  The functioning of informal and sometimes open air shrines at collapsed churches is another.  The religious significance of various objects associated with churches might prompt more significant kinds of intervention in prior to total abandonment.  Easily recognizable architectural forms (particularly the apse) made churches particularly visible even centuries after their initial abandonment and led to patterns of episodic reuse separated by centuries.

The studies pertaining to religious space presented in Objects in Context, Objects in Use, focused almost exclusively on the link between the location of objects in an archaeological context and their primary use within space.  In general, the archaeological studies avoided over reliance on the so-called Pompeii Premise, which assumed that objects found in an archaeological context revealed the function of those spaces in antiquity.   While carefully wrought observations regarding the location of objects and the function of space remain significant for unpacking the difficult matters surrounding the function of space in an Early Christian context, it provides less help understanding the dynamic processes that form the archaeological record and reveal persistent attitudes toward space in antiquity and in subsequent centuries.

Revising Dream Archaeology

I've set as a goal to send out my now over-hyped Dream Archaeology paper by the beginning of May -- that is before the start of my field season with the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project. I presented the paper in the early winter at North Dakota State University and got a good bit of helpful feedback.  I've also had some useful conversations with Kostis Kourelis (see his discussion of Tanagras) and read a good bit more, particularly on modernism and nationalism in a Greek context.  G. Jusdanis Belated Modernity and J. Fabion's Modern Greek Lessons proved particularly helpful as did a relatively recent volume of MODERNISM/modernity (11 (2004)) which featured a relatively extensive discussion of the relationship between archaeology and modernity.  While I felt fairly confident about my ability to analyze ancient and even Byzantine (particularly hagiographic) sources, my grasp of the modern 

As is so often the case, the final substantial revisions has far more to do with repositioning the paper that I already have than some massive re-write.  In fact, I began the process of repositioning by adding one paragraph:

The wide range of material available from Late Antiquity, the Byzantine period, and contemporary Greek history has emphasized the importance of dreams and visions in creating an understandable historical and archaeological landscape.  These stories suggest that Dream Archaeology stands at the intersection of a number of crucial strands in the development of the Greek landscape.  The following discussion will seek to explore four distinct connections between the world of dreams and archaeological practice.  First, this paper will expand Y. Hamilakis recent discussion of the role of dreams in creating a sacred context for archaeological practice by placing it in a more developed historical context.  To do this, I will focus on both the historical and the performative elements of dream archaeology especially as they provide a link between the role of archaeology as a sacred commission and its production or discovery of  sacred objects.  The liturgical roots of the hagiographic tradition in which Dream Archaeology and inventio play such an important role, connects the obligation of the archaeologist to excavate to religious rites that mediate between the secular present and a divine.  In the modern era, the role of Dream Archaeology in bridging the gap between the eternal sacred and the present and local parallels the role of modern inventio stories that tied local experiences to key events in the emergence of a nationalist narrative.  Nationalism in Greece, as elsewhere, sought to capture and propagate common experiences across geographical extent of the modern nation state and use these narratives as a foundation for a distinct Greek identity.  The power of Dream Archaeology, and the final focus of this discussion, is that it not only promoted the autochthonous character of the Greek identity and experience, but it recognized it within dreams which rank among the most personal experiences of an individual.  Thus, Dream Archaeology creates a set of conditions in which the nation can transcend the chronological experiences and spatial limits of a local communities and pervades the unconscious world of the individuals. 

Stay tuned for another "working" draft in the next couple of weeks.

An Early Draft of an AIA Abstract

Lots going on this week!  If you're in Grand Forks -- and have dug yourself out of the snow -- come and check out my research talk at the Lecture Bowl at the Memorial Union at the University of North Dakota today at 12 pm. 

If not, here's part of my chaotic life: an abstract for next January's Archaeological Institute of America's meeting.  The plan is for a panel that looks at post-Classical levels at well-know ancient sites sponsored by our Medieval and Post-Medieval Interest Group of the AIA.  My paper will tweak that a bit by looking at data collected from a handful of small intensive survey projects and re-analyzing them in light of recent work on the post-Classical world and changes in the basic questions survey archaeology has proven adept at addressing.

New Views on Old Data
Reinterpreting Intensive Survey Results After 30 Years

Intensive pedestrian surveys across Greece have vastly expanded our understanding of the Greek countryside, particularly for the post-Classical period.   Over the past 25 years, the publications of the so-called second-phase intensive survey projects have contributed to our understanding of a more prosperous Late Roman east and refined our view of the post-Classical settlement structures.  With these successes in mind, this paper will reexamine the results from several small-scale survey projects conducted in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Boeotia and the Corinthia.  Using a series of case studies, this paper argues that there is much to be gained by returning to old survey data with an eye toward addressing recent questions regarding the post-Classical landscape.

The survey projects examined in this paper coincided with many of the early second-phase survey projects, like the Cambridge Boeotia Project and the Argolid Exploration Project, but were published earlier and in a less comprehensive way.   Returning to the material from these projects, in much the same way that archaeologists return to excavation material many years after its recovery and publication, both represents the coming of age of intensive survey and continues the reflexive trends in the study of survey material and data.  Re-examining the data and these projects’ underlying assumptions increases the transparency of these older efforts, enriches the pool of material available for the comparative study of the Greek countryside, and contributes to the way in which current survey projects collect and organize their data.

Phi Alpha Theta Conference and Other Fun Stuff

If you are in the Grand Forks area, stop by the Red River Valley History Conference today at the Memorial Union at the University of North Dakota.  In particular, stop by my panel at 9:30 am in Medora Room 209.

Historical Idealism & Religion
Dr. W. Caraher, Commentator,
Memorial Union Medora Room 209     

"Croce and Collingwood: Continuities in Idealism"
Dalton Little,University of North Dakota

"A Late Antique Saint"
Kathryn A. Hughes Nedegaard
University of North Dakota    

“Standard of Salvation: The Christian’s Use of Greco-Roman Literary Genre”
Paul Ferderer, University of North Dakota

______________________

And stick around for the other panels and our keynote speaker:  Dr. James Stewart: "The Old Slavery and the New: History, Memory and the Challenges of Human Trafficking"

A few other fun quick hits:

• Some interesting discussion over that Teaching Thursday.  Check it out and leave a comment!
• This is interesting and cool.
• This will be fun to follow.

Archaeology of the Mediterranean World at 400

Yesterday I posted my 400th post.  Now, some of those posts were not the most substantial things, but I pride myself on some degree of regularity (bordering on obsessive consistency), so maintaining this blog for now over 400 posts does give me a degree of satisfaction.

I began just this morning to reflect a bit on what I am doing with this blog.  In particular, I was thinking about its origins.  It began as an effort to document the goings on the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project.  The goal was primarily to extend what I do to a broader audience and maybe even to impart a modest sense of community among those individuals who shared a common interested in our project on Cyprus, Mediterranean archaeology, and North Dakotiana.  It's hard to evaluate how successful I have been at achieving those goals, but I have met many interesting colleagues through my blog and am occasionally (and pleasantly) surprised when I meet a well-respected colleague in my field who knows a something about my work and my interests through my writing here.  (I am also pleased that, with one or two rather minor exceptions, I have stayed out of trouble!).

As the blog has developed, however, my interests and goals have changed.  Beginning with a well-received article on Blogging Archaeology, I began to think more explicitly about the intersection of archaeology and the "new media".  Over the the life of this blog, I have continued my tinkering with digital video (in collaboration with Joe Patrow), digital audio (via podcasts), and group authored explorations of the archaeological experience (though our "sister" blogs).  This work has made me more aware of the way in which the accessibility of the new media has started to open the doors to new ways of thinking about not only the past but also those processes that allow us to document and explore the past.

Next month I am going to give a talk on the first 6 years of fieldwork at Pyla-Koutsopetria.  I've divided the talk into three sections.  The first one sets out the the basic historical questions that our work has sought to answer with a particular emphasis on those relating to Late Antiquity.  It's a public talk so some of this will need to be simplified, but I start with a critique of the idea that Late Antiquity was a time of decline and settlement contraction, and then go on to place Cyprus in the context of a prosperous Late Roman world.  The second part of the talk discusses archaeological method and methodology.  I set out our tiered approach to the sit and explain how we used intensive survey, geophysical prospecting, and targeted excavation to address specific research questions.

The final section will draw at least part of its inspiration from this blog. I will bring in our efforts to encourage reflexive thought about the archaeological process and to document this reflexive critique in real time.  Our earliest efforts at documenting the reflexive habits have been top down in the spirit of traditional media.  Project directors, team leaders, senior staff wrote blogs, a video documentary organized and funded by the project directors documented many of the day to day activities of the project, and I orchestrated a series of podcast interviews.  These top down approaches presented only a fairly rarified perspective on archaeological decision making and hardly captured the spirit of the new media which has emphasized the democratic nature of the discourse (think: wikis, youtube, et c.), the ability to produce mash-ups that juxtapose different perspectives and visions, and the ultimately the instability of any authoritative discourse.  So, the paper will conclude with a look toward the future where it will be easier to produce kaleidoscopic and multipolar views of the archaeological experience. 

Low cost digital video cameras can produce better images than expensive "pro-sumer" models available just 5 years ago.  Server space for blogs, photographs, and video and audio is now inexpensive and widely available for the storage and distribution of new media content.  The 1+ years and 400 posts on the blog have begun to outline my interest in the opportunities and challenges provided by new media approaches to archaeology.  Hopefully the next 400 posts will begin to embrace more fully the potential of new approaches to old stuff.

A Description of an Early Christian Baptistery

I continue to work with Robin Jensen and Richard Rutherford in an effort to prepare a catalogue of Early Christian baptisteries.  The goal of the catalogue is to present this material in a way that makes it more accessible to a broader audience (than Ristow's otherwise satisfactory work) and with a greater emphasis on regional characteristics, indicators of ritual activities, and their place within their immediate spatial context and built environment.  I've taken a stab at one of the longer entries in this catalog, but may not have struck the balance between scholarly precision and accessibility.

Lechaion

The Lechaion Baptistery ranks among the most architecturally elaborate and lavishly decorated baptisteries in the Eastern Mediterranean and yet remains relatively unknown.  The baptistery sits less than 200 meters from the Gulf of Corinth at the ancient harbor of Lechaion, the Western harbor of Corinth.  The baptistery is situated at the southwestern corner of the Lechaion basilica.  This massive three-aisled basilica with a large atrium and double narthex is the largest and most ornate church in Greece and seems almost certainly to be associated with a prominent local saint.  Today, nothing of the church exists about the lowest reaches of the walls, but these are sufficiently well-preserved to provide a complete floor plan of this impressive building.

The baptistery itself consists of three architecturally distinct compartments.  The largest is a 16.20 m x 7.60 hall with apses on its north and south end.  This main hall was entered from the south end, presumably from the basilica , through the apse.  To the east of this apsidal hall were two additional chambers.  The northern chamber has a central core measuring 5.05 m square with apsidal exedra at the cardinal directions.  Entered from the west through the western apse, this room was identified by the excavator as the apodyterion.  This chamber lacks a font and seemed well positioned for this purpose.  Immediately to the south of this chamber was the octagonal photisterion or baptistery proper which measures 3.15 m across.  It appears to have communicated with the apodyerion to its north through the triangular space formed by the east wall of the long hall and the west walls of the north and south chambers.  The octagonal room featured apses at the corners and square exedra at the cardinal directions.  To the west, the photisterion communicated with the long hall.  To the east projects an usually shaped apse.  Marble revetment decorated the walls of the elaborate buildings and the interior of the font. 

The photisterion preserved two fonts.  The center of the octagonal interior space featured cruciform octagonal font set in the floor with stairs on the northern and southern cross-arms.  It is just under .50 m in depth.  Such cruciform fonts are common in the Corinthia and in Late Roman Achaea more broadly.  A smaller font sits in the southeast apse.  The chronology of the baptistery complex is difficult to ascertain with any certainty.  The basilica has a terminus post quem of 425 leading the excavator to argue that the basilica was largely 5th century in date and destroyed during the 6th century earthquakes.  Recently, however, scholars have been inclined to date the basilica to the 6th century, perhaps during the reign of Justinian or Anastasius, on the basis of ceramics found in nearby graves and architectural cues.  While an archaeological date for the construction of the basilica is unlikely to emerge, it seems probable that the building continued to stand into the second half of the 6th century.  Any clarity regarding the dating of the church sheds little light on the date of the baptistery.  It is on a slightly different orientation to the main church, however, suggesting an earlier date.  The baptistery may have also remained in use later than the main church.  One argument for the second font suggests that it came into use to allow the photisterion to serve as the church after the main basilica became damaged or fell out of use.  This practice appears to have occurred elsewhere in the Corinthia.

The baptistery is striking in that it is close to the main basilica, but they hardly represent an architectural unit.  The entrance on the south side of the baptistery allowed for easy access from the narthex of the main church through a door in its north wall.  Seemingly later and relatively insubstantial walls created a courtyard between the north wall of the basilica and the baptistery.  Ancillary room attached to the northern wall of the basilica may have also functioned in conjunction with the baptistery and provided access to the church’s northern aisle or galleries which are no long preserved.  This may have provided an easy way for catechumens to enter and leave the basilica for the baptistery complex.

Bolonaki, I. (1976). Ta Palaiochristianika Baptisteria tes Ellados. Athens Archaeological Society, Athens, 65-66.

Ristow,S. (1998). Früchristliche Baptisterien, Aschendorffesche Verlagsbuchhandlung.  Munich, pp. 155-156, no. 249

Sanders, G. D. R. (1999). A Late Roman Bath at Corinth: Excavations in the Panayia Field, 1995–1996. Hesperia 68: 441–480.
Sanders, G. D. R. (2005). "Archaeological Evidence for Early Christianity and the End of Hellenic Religion in Corinth," in D. N. Schowalter and S. J. Friesen, Urban Religion in Roman Corinth. Harvard Theology Studies, Cambridge, MA., pp.. 419-442.

Varales, I. (2001). E epidrase tes theias leitourgias kai ton ieron akolouthion sten ekklesiastike architectonike tou anatolikou Illyrikou (395-573). Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki.