OSU Excavations at Isthmia: Excavation Projects

OSU EXCAVATIONS AT ISTHMIA

EXCAVATION PROJECTS

		Volunteer Program 2003
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You will get information from your instructor about how and when this project is to be done. You will notice that the project will require considerable preparation and you will need to allow time to do it; some aspects of the project can only be done at Isthmia, while others can be done more conveniently in Ancient Korinth. Be sure you take these logistics into consideration.

Your job is to find information about a particular archaeological feature or object discovered at Isthmia and to prepare a very brief report on this. Your report should be succinct (probably 1-2 pages) and should contain, at a minimum, the following information:

       when and where the feature or object was found;

    where the primary references for this discovery are located (normally notebook references, along with any preliminary reports that might be available); these should be very specific and clear;

       any publication or published references to the object, including pictures and drawings;

      your own interpretation of the object, along with an explanation of your reasoning;

   drawings and/or photographs as appropriate.

In order to do this assignment you will need to know a lot about the Isthmia information and publication system. You should not start this assignment until you understand such things as the inventory and context systems. In addition, you need to know where to find publications of Isthmia materials. One place you can start is to examine recent publications: the Preliminary Report on the Roman Bath, the Sculpture Volume (Isthmia VI) and the Hexamilion Volume (Isthmia V). In addition, you may want to look at preliminary publications of past seasons in the Archaiologikon Deltion.

The following are the suggested topics; you should choose the one that sounds most interesting to you:

1.      the so-called E-shaped structures in Room VIII of the Roman Bath

2.      the multiple burial in the corner of the Hexamilion north of the Roman Bath (Gully Bastion)

3.      the KY Painter cup from the West Cemetery

4.      the blocking wall in the Northeast Gate of the Byzantine Fortress

5.      the questions of whether there was a series of small windows in Room VI of the Roman Bath

6.      who the large "horse-fish" figure in the Roman Bath mosaic is and what he “means”

7.      the large Roman building under the gate near Tower 14 in the Fortress

8.      the location of a church in the Byzantine Fortress (or why none was found)

9.      the importance of the "Ionic Column Base" discovered by Paul Clement

10. the methods of burial in the West Cemetery (i.e., how were people buried?)

11. the so-called cult tunnel in the East Field

12. the date of the abandonment of the Sanctuary on the basis of coins from the East Field

13. the water line and basins in the Greek Bath

14. the furnace under Room III in the Roman Bath

15. the drain in Room II of the Roman Bath

As mentioned, the best place to start this investigation is with the annual reports of excavation, published in the Archaiologikon Deltion. Copies of these reports are available in the Library in Ancient Korinth. You should start by identifying the "area" of the excavation associated with your question (the list of these areas is contained in the Isthmia "Basic Recording Procedures" (http://isthmia.ohio-state.edu/record.html). Then you should find out when that area was excavated (from the list below) and then go to the copies of the "Isthmia Deltion Reports" in the Library.

Isthmia Deltion Reports: 1967-1976

Byzantine Fortress- 1967

West Cemetery- 1967, 1968, 1970

Northeast Gate- 1967, 1969

Theater-

North Drain- 1967

Theater Court- 1967

Northwest Precinct- 1968

Tower 14- 1967, 1969

Tower 10- 1972

Tower 2- 1968

Tower 15- 1968

Ionic Column Base & Decauville Graves- 1969

Fortress Stairways-

Loukos- 1969

East Field- 1970, 1971, 1972

Roman Bath- 1972, 1976

Hexamilion- 1967, 1970, 1972

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This site is created and updated by Timothy E. Gregory (gregory.4@osu.edu)

revised 11 February 2003

	when and where the feature or object was found;
	where the primary references for this discovery are located (normally notebook references, along with any preliminary reports that might be available); these should be very specific and clear;
	any publication or published references to the object, including pictures and drawings;
	your own interpretation of the object, along with an explanation of your reasoning;
	drawings and/or photographs as appropriate.