The Archaeology of the Mediterranean World

More Corinthiaka and American Schooliana

Kostis Kourelis has brought back his blog: Buildings, Objects, and Situations: Thoughts on art, architecture, society and culture with special focus on Mediterranean archaeology.  So far, he's provided some remarkable prospopography on the history of the American School of Classical Studies and Corinth Excavations and offered a valuable glosses to his recent important study: "Byzantium and the Avant-Garde: Excavations at Corinth, 1920s–1930s," Hesperia 76 (2007), 391-442.

By taking a prosopographical approach to institutional history, he has demonstrated that many of the important figures in the early 20th century history of the American School were personally engaged in the cultural movements of their day.   Their involvement in the multifaceted avant-guard movements in early decades of the 20th century informed their fascination with the post-Classical periods -- especially the seemingly organic, mystical, and variegated experiences of the Byzantine -- which held forth promise as a possible alternative to failures of the modern.  The edginess of the post-war avant-guard movement comes through in the subversive tone to Kourelis' writing.  The conspiratorial feel of his blog (and article) provides a refreshing counterpoint to palpable conservatism that one can still sometimes experience at the American School.  It is a place where one can still sip afternoon tea in Loring Hall and discuss whether "the theory" has anything to add to classical studies.  And, when it's very still and quiet, one can still hear in response to an overzealous interest in the post-Classical world the infamous line "This is the American School of Classical Studies" (although to be fair, this outlook is quickly fading away...)

Kourelis' blog is also a model academic blog: the short notes, with careful citation, provide useful insights into his research as well as relevant glosses on his published work.

Site Report from Crete

Crete was beautiful.  Since I've talked about site reports in this blog in the past and sought to place them in the immediate cultural context of the American School, I thought it only fair to include one of my site reports.  This is basically the handout that I give the Regular Members with my oral report.  I don't go into as much detail as my handout contains (that's what the handout is for) and since I delivered mine at the church of Ag. Titos at Gortyn, I spent some time looking at the architecture of the building.  But I do think that the report captures the essential character of the genre:

 

Early Christian, Late Roman, and Byzantine Crete

Crete is referred to in Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1-41) and in Epistle of Titus where Paul tell Titus (Titus 1:1-14):

“I left you in Crete so that you might set right what remains to be done and appoint presbyters in every town, as I directed you, on condition that a man be blameless, married only once, with believing children who are not accused of licentiousness or rebellious. For a bishop as God's steward must be blameless, not arrogant, not irritable, not a drunkard, not aggressive, not greedy for sordid gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness, temperate, just, holy, and self-controlled, holding fast to the true message as taught so that he will be able both to exhort with sound doctrine and to refute opponents. For there are also many rebels, idle talkers and deceivers, especially the Jewish Christians. It is imperative to silence them, as they are upsetting whole families by teaching for sordid gain what they should not. One of them, a prophet of their own, once said, "Cretans have always been liars, vicious beasts, and lazy gluttons." That testimony is true. Therefore, admonish them sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith, instead of paying attention to Jewish myths and regulations of people who have repudiated the truth. To the clean all things are clean, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is clean; in fact, both their minds and their consciences are tainted.”

This text and Acts seems to suggest that Crete had a sizable Jewish community. Little more is known about the church in Crete prior to the 5th century. The local name of Aghioi Deka seems to refer to a group of martyr during the Decian persecutions. According the story, the 10 martyrs represented every region of the island (i.e. every town of the Paul’s letter to Titus; by the 8th century, however, 5 had come from Gortyn and 5 from elsewhere). Along with the Aghioi Deka, St. Titus continues to be venerated throughout the island. The rhetorical position that the Christians on Crete were among the first Christian community in Europe (e.g. Spyridakis 1990) finds parallels with similar arguments for the European character of Minoan settlements.

The foundation of the church in Crete by Paul qualified it as an Apostolic See. By the 4^th century, the ecclesiastical administration of the island was at the provincial capital of Gortyn. The remains of a massive, probably Early Christian basilica at the site reflects the wealth of the Early Christian community there. Moreover, it seems likely that this church has a relatively late date. The church is a cross-domed basilica. The crossing of the transept and the main nave appear to have been barrel vaulted. The polygonal exterior wall of the apse and the pastophories situated to the north and south of the sanctuary with apsidal east ends likewise recommend a late 6th to mid 7th century date, and show close parallels with churches in Laconia (e.g. the Acropolis church from Sparta and Tigani in the Mani which may have similar dates). This date seems to find confirmation in the architectural sculpture, most notably the column capitals which appear to date to the later 6th/early 7th; fragments of a double-stair type ambo were also discovered. Arguments for a 10th century construction using earlier spolia are conceptually appealing, but probably incorrect. Theodore Fyfe, Arthur Evans first architect at Knossos, published the church in 1907 in the Architectural Review of 1907. Orlandos restudied the church in the 1920s (EEBS 3 (1926), 301ff.).

 

The late date of the church reflects the late prosperity of the island and Gortyn. The 6th and 7th century are well-represented in the epigraphy. An inscription (Bandy no. 31) of probably Justinianic date credits an archbishop Theodoros and Proconsul (anthypatos) Helios for restoring a wall (toixos). It is interesting to consider that this might refer to the wall of the city and compare it to inscriptions from a similar context in the Korinthia which make no mention of local dignitaries. Seventh century works includes the modification of the Nymphaeum and the inscribing of four acclamatory texts on the columns naming the family of Heraklius (Bandy no. 23). There is epigraphic evidence attesting the presence of the circus factions on the island (the Greens) hinting that chariot racing took place there with at least notional ties to the Constantinople (Bandy no. 20). The epigraphy from Gortyn includes numerous acclamations reflecting the continued vitality of civic life.

The Metropolitan bishop of the island functioned throughout Late Antiquity and as Balkan bishops succumbed to invasions, economic dislocations, and various natural disasters, the bishops of Gortyn rose in prestige. As with all bishops from ecclesiastical province of Illyricum Orientalis the 7th century Ecumenical Councils, the bishops of Crete signed with the bishops from the West. In the Late 6th century the Bishop of Gortyn appears in correspondence with Pope Gregory the Great who intervenes in a contested election. At the Sixth Ecumenical Council (680) the Bishops from Gortyn signed under the papal delegation with the bishops from Thessaloniki and the bishop from Corinth. By the Council in Trullo (691-2) the bishop served as the representative of Rome. It is interesting to note that despite the close ties to the pope, monophysitism (suggesting close ties with Eastern Sees) had appeared on Crete; Maximos Confessor when he visited the island in 647/9 met with Severan bishops there. By the mid 8th century, things had changed, according to his Vita, St. Andrew of Crete arrived on the island from Constantinople who seems to have appointed him bishop (rather than local bishops with the approval of Rome). Andrew of Crete becomes the most prominent Early Byzantine saint on the island. He is traditionally credited with the creation of the Byzantine musical genre of the kanon. His life provides important information on the conditions on the island during the 8th century. He also wrote several preserved encomia including one the Ayioi Deka.

Early Byzantine Crete experienced the disruption of Arab incursions in the Mediterranean basin as early as the later 7th century. Not only is their evidence that the Arabs wintered in Crete as early as 674, but the economy in Crete suffered as Roman rule collapsed among their neighbors in Africa and the Peloponnesus. Crete was incorporated into the Theme of Hellas and received considerable attention from the Byzantine army and navy. Consequently, the island maintained Byzantine rule through most of the 8th century (there was a massive Cretan delegation at II Nicaea in 787). The political turmoil of the first part of the 9th century in Byzantium led to a group of Arabs, originally driven from Spain and then Alexandria, to establish a foothold on Crete near modern day Herakleion (Medieval Chandax) some time during the reign of Theophilos (829-840). Over the next 15 years they managed to conquer the island and during the later 9th and early 10th century the Arab rulers defied Byzantine efforts at retaking the island. The Cretan Muslims were active throughout the Aegean during this time, hiding out in the waters off Kythera (according to the Vita of Theodore of Kythera) and taking hostages for ransom as far north as the Argolid (from the Vita of Peter of Argos).

The reconquest was finally achieved by Nicephoras Phocas in 961 (Theophanes Continuatus Book 6). There is no reason necessarily to think that there were mass conversions to Islam during the years of the Arab conquest, but it is likely the Christian infrastructure suffered some during that time. The 10th Vita of Ay. Nikonos (O Metanoeite) tells of visiting Crete, rebuilding churches, and preaching. A more interesting source is the autobiographical Vita of John the Xenos (11th  c.) who travels around Crete rebuilding churches and founding new ones. It provides valuable information regarding the re-imagining of the Cretan landscape in the 11th century and suggests a period of social change following the disruptions of the Arab conquest. The decline of centralized Byzantine rule in the late 12th century led to the growing autonomy of the island and ultimately the revolt of Karykes in 1191-2 (as elsewhere at the periphery of the Byzantine state). This was quickly put down, perhaps by the Cretans themselves or perhaps by the threat imperial intervention.

Bibliography

Bandy, A., The Greek Christian Inscriptions of Crete. Athens 1972. 

Βαραλής, Ι.Δ., “Παρατηρήρεις στην παλαιοχριστιανική ναοδομία της Κρήτη,” Creta Romana e Protobyzantina 3.1. Padova 2004. 813-838.

Bowden, W., “Epirus and Crete: architectural interaction in late antiquity,” Creta Romana e Protobyzantina 3.1. Padova 2004. 787-800

Fyfe, T. “The Church at St. Titus at Gortyna in Crete,” Architectural Review 22 (1907), 5-60.

Orlandos, A. “Νεώτεροι ἔρευναι ἐν Ἁγ. Τιτῷ τῆς Γορτύνα,” EEBS 3 (1926), 297-328.

Δετοράκης, Θ., Οι Άγιοι Της Πρώτης Βυζαντινής Περιόδου Της Κρήτης Και Η Σχετική Προς Αυτούς Φιλολογία. Athens 1970.

Sanders, I. F. Roman Crete: An Archaeological Survey and Gazetteer of Late Hellenistic, Roman, and Early Byzantine Crete. Warminster 1982.

Tsougarakis, D. Byzantine Crete: From the 5th Century to the Venetian Conquest. Athens 1988.

Tωμαδάκις, Ν.Β., “Ὁ Ἄγιος Ἰωάννης ὁ Ξένος καὶ ἡ διαθήκη αὐτοῦ,” KrChron 2 (1948), 47-72.

Xanthopoulou, M., “Le mobilier ecclésiastique métallique de la basilique de Saint-Tite a Gortyne (Crète centrale),” CArch 46 (1998), 103-119.

To Crete with John Xenos

I am off to Crete later today to talk with the Regular Members about Late Antique and Middle Byzantine Crete.  I will talk with them at Gortyn which was the Late Roman capital of the island. 

The best thing about preparing these site reports is that you come across little bits of information, texts, ideas that you would never have encountered otherwise.  While reading on Middle Byzantine Crete, I came across the autobiographical early 11th-century Vita of John Xenos (John "the hermit" or "the stranger") (Tωμαδάκις KrChron 2 (1948), 47-72).

John spent his life going across the mountains of Crete finding churches that had been neglected and rehabilitating them.  He was often led by visions.  In one case God tells him to build a church at the site of a mnemeia (a monument -- presumably the tombs?) to Sts. Eutuchios and Eutuxianos.  He rebuilt a church of St. George and provided it with a cistern so that they could grow food there.  His most famous foundation was at a place called Myriokephala where he established a monastery on the site of a large "Greek building" (ellenikon ktisma); he later founded a metoichi (smaller dependent monastery) of St. Patapios and provides it with a garden and fruitbearing trees.  A Byzantine typika (a document describing the rules and often the foundation of a monastery) exists for the monastery at Myriokephala and has been translated.  He eventually retires near Kisamos in Western Crete.

The Life of John Xenos is a good example of how Byzantine saints lives present a transformed landscape in the Early Middle Byzantine period.  The rebuilding and refounding of churches by not only John but also by his older contemporary, St. Nikon O Metanoeite, in Crete produced a religious landscape of the island that was significantly reshaped in the generation after the Nicephoras Phokas returned the island to Byzantine rule after over a century of Arab occupation.  There are other examples of this process for mainland Greece (I have studied Theodore of Kythera who settles in an abandoned church on Kythera).  On Crete and elsewhere these saints lives follow a similar pattern: the saint happens upon a pre-existing sacred site that has been neglected, and the saint, sometimes after a vision, restores, rebuilds, or somehow resanctifies the site. This process creates an interesting interplay between continuity (i.e. the pre-existence of a site) and change (the restored building and institutions) which allows continuity and change to persist simultaneous in the Byzantine landscape.

Two New Byzantine Churches in the Corinthia?

The southeastern Corinthia is a not a particularly well known area to most visitors to Greece.  It's rugged country, with few amenities of interest to the casual tourist (although the small harbor town of Korphos is lovely).  To put it in perspective, it is so far out of the way that the Regular Program of the American School of Classical Studies doesn't even go there -- although there is a fine ashlar tower at a place called Are Mbartze.  Unlike the much visited Corinthian plain, however, the southeastern Corinthia has Byzantine churches.  In the immediate vicinity of the town of Sophiko there are at least 5 of them.

 

The southeastern Corinthia

To my mind the Koimesis at Steiri is the most scenic and perhaps the most important.

The Panayia at Steiri

Byzantinists are attracted by churches like moths to a lamp.  The churches of the southeastern Corinthia attracted among others A. Orlandos and Tim Gregory.  The former provided a basic chronology of the churches there and the latter conducting an intensive survey there in the mid 1980s treating among other things a curious system of fortification at Mt. Tsalika which towers above the village of Sophiko and overlooks the main road south from the Corinthia in the Epidauria. (Orlandos, ABME 1 (1935), 1ff., Gregory, "The Medieval Site of Mt. Tsalika near Sophiko," in P. Lock and G.D.R. Sanders, The Archaeology of Medieval Greece (Oxford 1996), 61ff. For this route in antiquity see: M. Dixon, Disputed Territories: Interstate Arbitration in the Northeast Peloponnese, ca. 250-150 B.C., Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Ohio State 2000;  The area was investigated intensively by Michael Dixon in the late 1990s, by the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey in the early 2000s, and now by the Saronic Harbors Exploration Project).

In any event, in an article in the 2006 Deltion of the Christian Archaeological Society (M. Kappas and Y. Fousteris, "The Reassessment of Two Byzantine Churches at Sophiko, Corinthia," DChAE 28 (2006), 61-72), M Kappas and Y. Fousteris make the argument that two of the churches in this area that Orlandos dated to the 17th or 18th century should be considered late-13th century in date.  They are of unusual design: Ay. Antonios at Tourla and Hypapanti are both single-aisled cross-in-square church with cross arms of unequal length.  The eastern and western arms of the cross are longer than the north and south arms.   They argue that the Hypapanti has traces of 13th century wall painting in the tympana of one cross arm.  St. Antonios has a number of architectural features that have parallels with other 13th century churches in the vicinity.  Of particular interest are circular recesses cut in limestone for the insertion of decorative plates around the west door which is further defined by a single-arched, dog-tooth frieze.   The cuttings in stone for the insertion of plates appears also at the known Byzantine church of Taxiarchs and the Koimesis nearby.  (A better-known example of this technique can be found at the much-discussed 13th century church at Merbaka in the Argolid). 

The most interesting thing about the possibility of two "new" Byzantine churches in the area is that they would date to the same period as much of the pottery discovered by Gregory's survey of Mt. Tsalikas.  Gregory argued that the fortifications there might be of Frankish foundation.  It would be intriguing to consider the two small 13th century churches (the Hypapanti is on its slopes) as contemporary and perhaps even Frankish in foundation (as some would argue for the church at Merbaka). 

This is as good an excuse to visit the southeastern Corinthia as any that I have heard (although probably not enough to put it on the tourist itinerary!).

100 Posts

Just some quick metadata after 100 posts.

The average length of a blog is just under 400 words (I've written about 39,000 words since the blog's inception).

Unique Page Views: 4575
Average per Day: 20.58

 

I've been monitoring the site using Google Analytics since the beginning of November.  It allows me to talk some about where my views come from.  I have had hits from over 30 countries (with particular volume from the US, Denmark (thanks to Iconoclasm), the UK, and Canada).  One hit from South America (Argentina) and none so far from Africa.  I get regular visitors from India, China, Singapore, and, of course, Australia. Over 30 states are represented with most hits from Minnesota (apparently UND's IP Addresses run through East Grand Forks), Pennsylvania,  California, Ohio and New York.  Strangely no hits from Delaware yet (that's where I grew up!). 

The upward trend is largely the product of links or references on several high volume blogs (especially Grand Forks Life, Electric Archaeologist, the Blegen library, and Iconoclasm) which went up in Early October.  Moreover, as my blog grows it picks up more Google hits.

Browsers are more or less evenly split between Internet Explorer and Firefox with just a few hits from Safari.  I think I am responsible for all the hits from Opera (I experimented with it for a few weeks last month).

Thanks for reading!  I had planned a long(ish) article tentatively entitled: "MetaBlogging Archaeology: Blogging Archaeology and the Archaeology of Blogging" to celebrate my 100th post, but it's not done yet.  I think I'll put it up to celebrate my 5,000th unique view.

Inside Looking In: A Wondering about the American School of Classical Studies

One of the most interesting things so far about my year in Athens is becoming re-acquainted with the American School of Classical Studies.  The American School is different things to different people; it's a research library, a social club, a lecture venue, and the liaison between the Greek government and the American archaeologists in Greece.  At its heart, however, is the Regular Program.  I've been lucky enough to contribute to the Regular Program this year, and this has given me the opportunity to observe its distinct culture first hand.

Regular Members are good graduate students from strong programs who spend the academic year traveling around Greece to sites.  The students travel in a big bus together, live together in Loring Hall, eat together, study in the Blegen library together, and relax together.  The Regular Members have just returned from their final major trip (they have one more short trip to Crete).  The trips run about 10 days each and involve visiting numerous major and minor archaeological sites.  The members visit these sites in all weather and give short site reports -- this past weekend we heard a site report on the Archaic temple at Isthmia in a steady rain.  In some cases, just visiting the site invokes a palpable machismo especially the combination of brisk, yet dignified, hikes up steep hills and relatively obscure sites (Askra is not technically obscure, but, say, Zarax in the Peloponnesus would perhaps qualify).  At the end of the trips, the students are a tired but, indeed, tightly bonded group.  A kind of archaeological boot camp!

From what I understand, this has been the deal, more or less, for the past 50+ years.  This relatively intense experience forges a bond of unity among the students and many identify their time at the American School as a unique episode in their academic development (many, for example, include their year or years here as a separate line in the education category of their CVs placing it parallel, as it were, with their undergraduate and graduate education).  I recently discovered that there is an American School Alumni Organization (although I might have known this before), and apparently regular members from various years get together at organized event at the APA/AIA Annual Meeting.

As I have noted elsewhere, part of the American School experience involves creating a scholarly and professional identity through formal academic exercises like site reports or "Tea Talks" (relatively formal presentation on ongoing research) as well as less formal behaviors like lunchtime conversations.  Even individual research becomes a communal event: regular members are each assigned space at tables in the main reading room of the Blegen library, for example, which allows them to observe each others' study and research habits.  The line between personal and professional identity, which is razor thin among most academics, is blurred entirely at the school.  Until the recent opening of the impressive auditorium in Cotsen Hall, visiting lecturers and Regular members delivered talks in the dinning room and saloni of the Loring Hall, where the students live, dine, and relax.  Depending on one's view of an academic career and the place of our discipline within the American academia, the conflation of the private and professional at the American School is either a pious invocation of traditional collegiate (or even older monastic) forms of academic culture or the kind of environment that promotes a kind of disciplinary, intellectual, and social cohesion (as a polite term) that can bewilder to our colleagues in other fields.  Moreover, the tendency of "American School people", most of whom have a genuine professional and intellectual interest in the archaeology and history of Greece, to return to the school to contribute their time and knowledge ensures that the identity and traditions of the school as an institution are continuously reinforced (although this is not to imply that they are stable or unchanging). 

Having spent considerable time at "the School" over the last 10 years has made it difficult for me to assess its real impact on my academic and intellectual development (I did develop an interest in epigraphy here...) or to understand fully how the environment here shapes the discipline (in both intended and unintended ways).  It would be interesting, indeed, to consider how the environment of the American School -- both through its expressed academic goals and its social and professional culture -- has influenced the discipline of Classics and Mediterranean Archaeology in the U.S.  Do, for example, cohorts of regular members (and many scholars, even years after their time in Athens, remember the names of their colleagues in the Regular Program and have shared experiences) possess distinct intellectual or academic identities?  Do these cohorts exert power or influence outside the realm of the American School like fraternities at the big state Universities in the Old South?   Presumably it one could compare American School cohorts to those present at particular moments in places like the Institute for Advanced Study or Dumbarton Oaks.  It seems hard to imagine that the social experiences of each cohort here at the school, which in their intensity can approach a kind of hazing (hearing a talk about an Archaic temple in a steady rain!!), would have no impact on how the various interrelated disciplines (archaeology, philology, history, art history) developed.

A few quick hits

Just a few interesting links today:

• David Gill at Looting Matters has laid out the basic arguments surrounding the current wrangle over the State Department's stand on the importation of Cypriot Coins.
• I've just discovered Sebastian Heath's remarkable online work-in-progress monograph.  His blog is great as well.
• Joe Patrow's new documentary project is arriving in peoples' hands even as we speak.  He prepared a series of shorts from his footage from last field season and hopefully we can get them up on UND's iTunes Store by the end of the year. 
• I've gathered all the PKAP related blog material in one place, and there are some notable new additions: 
• Scott Moore's blog is becoming well-established by the standards of the blogosphere. 
• His success seems to have prompted Dave Pettegrew to set up another rival blog (surely in the dark of night!).  Not much there yet, but if it is half as entertaining as his wife's blog, it will be a welcome addition to my daily reading. 

The Corinthia and Survey Archaeology

My talk on the Fourth Trip, in the Corinthia, was on survey archaeology, particularly the work of the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey (EKAS).  No one in this group of Regular Members has any experience doing survey.  This is particularly striking because many of the folks at the school right now, from Jack Davis and Guy Sanders to Tim Gregory and myself, have spent time doing survey and have some investment in the method.  In any event, I introduced, in a very general, way the survey of the Corinthian landscape. 

I focused my brief presentation on four things.  None of them are new, but this is the gist:

1) Survey and Colonialism.  I began with the idea that survey had as long and august a history in Mediterranean archaeology as excavation, and, moreover, it had roots in the same colonialist impulse as the first large scale excavations.  In fact, I suggest that in some ways survey is more colonialist in that mapping the landscape and producing inventories of archaeological "resources" represents one of the most basic tasks that colonizers undertook in their efforts to domesticate "the other" by translating terra incognita into scientific (i.e. basically Western) notation and assigning it significance and meaning (in a recent email discussion with Dave Pettegrew, he offered the phase "appropriating knowledge" to which I objected (ironically)).  I suggested that the difficulties EKAS experienced in getting permits might be tied (in a very big picture kind of way) to the colonial legacy of Survey, particularly, the difficulties in "controlling the activities" of large scale regional surveys which sent teams out in the countryside in a way that was difficult (or manpower intensive) for local officials to supervise.  One can almost see the survey archaeologists as guerilla archaeologists out beyond the settlement and village both appropriating the countryside for scientific archaeology and (in some ways) using this intimate local knowledge for their own advantage.  This can be contrasted to large scale, contemporary excavations, which take place (in some instances) in the village surrounded by fences, under the watchful eye of the community.  It is theatrical and a spectacle and therefore somehow constrained by the spectators gaze.

2) Surveying the Suburbs.  Permit restriction, expense, and the incredible logistical demands all have influenced the decline in large scale, regional survey in the Greece.  In its place, more localized and focused survey has emerged (it is much easier to monitor a small scale survey centered on a known site).  Focused, smaller scale survey have had a long tradition in Greece with surveys in the suburbs of known sites being a component of the Nemea Valley Archaeological Project, the Cambridge Boeotia Project, and the Ohio Boeotia Expedition (and it appears to be the focus of a new project called the Eastern Boeotia Archaeological Project).  While almost all survey has sought to study the hinterland (i.e. not the center), the real variation has occurred only in how far the "hinter" the land really is.  Because permit limitation prevented it from being a genuine regional survey, EKAS reflected the tradition of suburban survey by focusing primarily on the eastern suburbs of a known urban center.  Two issues are associated with the "suburban" focus of this survey: (a) How do we define and understand the limits to our survey area and the concentration of pottery within it.  This is the old "what is a site problem" that most survey archaeologist know only too well. (b) How do we cope with incredibly high artifact densities in an efficient and responsible way.  Traditional sampling strategies (site based collections, the collection of all "diagnostic sherds" et c.) break down when confronted with the continuous high density carpet of unit after unit with densities of over 2000 artifacts/hectare.

3) Thresholds of Intensity.  The problem encountered working in an environment with astronomical artifact densities is where does one set the threshold of intensity.  The threshold of intensity refers, in the case of EKAS, to not only our desire to collect or document artifacts on the surface in a very intensive way, but also consequently document their environmental context.  EKAS, for example, was "bogged down" by a combination of high artifact densities and a very thorough set of forms that sought to document almost every conceivable variable an archaeologist might encounter in a field (visibility, vegetation type, surface clast type, surface clast size, soil type, et c.).  In theory this was an excellent idea, but in practice it prevented us from surveying a particularly large section of the Korinthian landscape.  Moreover, when analyzing the data we discovered that some of the variables that we recorded did not correlate with archaeological features in any demonstrable way.  This, then, marked the threshold of intensity -- the exact place where data collection inhibited the overall goals of the survey, which in the case of EKAS was to produce a meaningful sample of the suburbs of Korinth.  In our defense, we didn't realize that we had reached the thresholds of intensity until we actually analyzed the data. 

4) A Survey Discourse. The overall impulse behind increasing intensity of data collection in survey is to produce a landscape that will hold up to scientific scrutiny.  A "scientific landscape" would approach a kind of objective reality that can then be held up against excavation (the seemingly more scientific older brother of survey) in a positive light.  The overarching assumption is: "if we can somehow control for all the variables then survey data will have irrefutable meaning and have secured its place in the archaeological discourse."  The hope that survey archaeology can produce the same kind of meaning and support the same kinds of arguments as excavation, however, is problematic from the start.  First and foremost, survey data, with few exceptions, must rely upon excavated contexts for all ceramic chronologies.  Secondly, survey archaeology only ever produces a sample of the known material on the survey (and the level of intensity dictates how large a sample this is). 

Consequently survey is not a highly precise instrument and it is rarely suitable to answer the same kinds of questions that excavation can answer.  In particular, it is much better suited to inquiries framed by the Braudelian longue durée whereas excavations are better suited to shedding light on the historical eventement.  This shouldn't be particularly surprising as intensive survey in Greece was developed primarily by prehistorians who were interested in long term processes (Landscape Archaeology as Long Term History as it were). For those of us interested in the historical period, however, this means that we have to be willing to construct arguments that function of multiple scales that may or may not (as is the case with Braudel) intersect in a precise way.  This involves the development of a Survey Discourse for the historical period, a project that is currently underway, but far from being complete.

Corinth in Late Antiquity

Last night I heard Michael Walbank present a talk, "The Christian community in Late Roman & Early Byzantine Corinth", at the Canadian Institute on the Late Roman/Early Byzantine inscriptions from Corinth.  Walbank revised the reading and interpretation of many of the texts published by Kent in Corinth 8:3.  (He and his wife published an article on the epitaph of Maria wife of Euplous in Hesperia 75). His talk introduced me to many interesting new denizens of Late Antique Corinth: Muleteers names Theodoros, a Singoularios called Polychronois, and perhaps even an exiled Bishop of Tyre named Irenaios.  The paper was first present at the University of Texas, perhaps last winter, at a conference that brought together "Christian types" and "Archaeology types" to discuss the context for Early Christian Corinth.  My impression is that this conference will be published (like the first such meeting in the book Urban Religion in Roman Corinth.)

As I sat waiting for his talk to begin (and chatted awkwardly with folks afterwards) I began to make a list of all the scholarship produced in the last 5-10 years on Late Roman Corinthia.  Much of the credit for this goes to Charles William, longtime director of the Corinth Excavations, and his successor Guy Sanders (who along with Kathleen Slane has worked to revise the chronology of Late Roman ceramics: See Hesperia 74; as well as the publication of a Late Roman bath in Panayia Field), and, of course, Tim Gregory with among other things Isthmia V. 

In the last 10 years you have (and I am sure this is a partial list...):

Richard Rothaus's book Corinth: The First City of Greece: An Urban History of Late Antique Cult & Religion. (Leiden:  Brill, 2000), which was his 1993 OSU dissertation.

Betsy Robinson's 2001 Dissertation at Penn: Fountains and the Culture of Water at Roman Corinth, takes a long look at the Late Antique phases of the city center and its water supply.

David Pettegrew, of course, has been working on converting his 2006 dissertation, Corinth on the Isthmus: studies of the end of an ancient landscape, into a book, and has written several papers and articles on the topic.  

My 2003 dissertation looks some at the Corinthian basilicas and I have presented on a paper on the Justinianic epigraphy from Isthmia and Corinth this summer at the "Half a Century on the Isthmus" Conference which I am currently revising for publication.

Jon Frey has recently completed a dissertation that looks, at least in part, at the use of spolia in the Late Antique Hexamilion Wall.

P. Nick Kardulias has just published his 1988 dissertation as the book: From Classical to Byzantine: Social Evolution in Late Antiquity and the Fortress at Isthmia, Greece.

Joe Rife's Kenchreai Cemetery Project, now Kenchreai Exacavations, will continue to have a serious interest in Late Antiquity as will his forthcoming Isthmia volume.

There are at least two dissertation in progress, Amelia Brown's at Cal and Jeremy Ott's at NYU, that will look in some way at Late Roman material from the Corinthia.

I am sure that I have forgotten people, but the impression remains striking nevertheless.  There are dozens of publications, research projects, and dissertations in the last decade alone on Late Roman Corinth.  It seems fair to suggest that in the next decade the Corinthia will take its place among the best studied provincial region of the Later Roman Empire.

Follow up on Athens -- Broken Pieces and AIA Annual Meeting Overview

First, Susie's post "Athens -- Broken Pieces" has received rave reviews!  In fact, Kostis Kourelis forwarded to me a link to this very recent New York Times article, which echoes the spirit of Susie's post, if in a somewhat less gracious way:

"In Athens alone, swarms of scooters race down crowded sidewalks. Pedestrians struggle to circumnavigate construction debris, torn-up pavement and mounds of refuse. The greatest impediment, however, is the fleet of vehicles that each day mount the city’s approximately 1,200 miles of tree-lined sidewalks or other walkways to park."

I'll be on the lookout for the efforts of the Street Panthers to keep the sidewalks accessible for pedestrians!

 

Second, as a follow up to my post on the AIA Annual Meeting, Dave Pettegrew, the chair of the Medieval and Post Medieval Archaeology of Greece Interest Group of the AIA sent along word that the IG will have its annual meeting at Sunday, January 6th at 7AM in the Columbian room of the Hyatt Regency Chicago.  We'll have a agenda for the meeting together soon, but we will certainly discuss plans for a panel at next years AIA meeting.  I've already floated ideas for a panel considering the influence of the Early Travelers on the archaeology of the Medieval and Post-Medieval Mediterranean (inspired by recent work by Jon Frey and Kostis Kourelis) or perhaps a panel that looks at the place of the Medieval and Post-Medieval world in our teaching narratives.  We hope to have more and (better) suggestions at the meeting in Chicago!