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English Pages 34 [38] Year 2009
Excavations in the Theatre District and Tombs of Corinth in 1929
miJk
A n a l e c t a Gorgiana
232 Series Editor George Kiraz
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Excavations in the Theatre District and Tombs of Corinth in 1929
Theodore Shear
gorgias press 2009
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1
ISBN 978-1-60724-461-5
ISSN 1935-6854
Extract from The A^merican Journal of Archaeology, vol. 33 (1929).
Printed in the LTnited States of America
American Hkfjool of Classical ¿>tubteai at Stfjens EXCAVATIONS I N T H E T H E A T R E D I S T R I C T AND TOMBS OF C O R I N T H I N 1929 P L A T E S I X AND
X
IT is a pleasant duty again to present a preliminary report of the results of my excavations at Corinth conducted under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. My fourth campaign in the theatre was a continuation of the work done there in the years 1925, 1926 and 1928. Also in prosecution of last season's discoveries more graves were opened in the north cemetery in the area in which burials had previously been revealed. In addition to these two sites a small tract of land was investigated in the neighborhood of the amphitheatre on the east side of the city. Operations for the present season were begun on February 20 and continued until July 15. The members of the staff were Richard Stillwell, who again had charge of all architectural studies, F. J. M. de Waele and W. A. Campbell presiding respectively over the clearance of the east and west parts of the theatre, and Miss Josephine Plainer, who superintended the work near the amphitheatre and in the north cemetery. H. E. Askew assisted with the cleaning and identification of the coins, Miss Mary Wyckoff and F. Waage cooperated in the compilation of the records towards the end of the season and W. Hege devoted a month's time to the task of photographing all the objects that were found. 1 THE
THEATRE
Excavations were conducted in three sections of the theatre district: the central part of the cavea, the west parodos and the area north of the east parodos. The removal of the deep deposit of earth that is everywhere incumbent on this structure was rapidly effected under the guidance of the skilled foreman, Sophokles Lekkas, and with the help of numerous workmen who, by participation in previous campaigns, had become thoroughly trained in the technique of excavation. Consequently, in spite of the length of the carriage to the dump the amount of earth removed during the season reached a total of 15,125 tons. In my four campaigns in the theatre 36,625 tons of earth have been taken from the area, and though progress has been retarded by the long carry the additional labor has had an 1 Grateful acknowledgment is here made of financial support given to this year's campaign by Mr. Edward S. Harkness of New York and Mr. Henry J. Patten of Chicago.
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ample recompense, because no unsightly mound mars the immediate neighborhood of the ruin and no part of the ancient city is covered by the enormous mass of earth which has been dumped without the city's walls. Clearance in previous campaigns of a small strip in the lower part of the cavea had definitely shown that most of this section of the building had been removed or destroyed. But exploratory trenches dug here by earlier investigator's had left the area in an untidy condition, so that it was obviously possible to improve its ap-
FIGTTRE 1 .
T H E O R C H E S T R A AND C A V E A AS S E E N FROM T H E N O R T H
pearance, and at the same time prospects were promising that confirmatory evidence would be secured for the periods of the successive buildings on the site. Moreover, it was desirable for mechanical reasons to complete any necessary excavation in the cavea before the bank of earth covering the east, end of the west parodos had been removed. The cavea of the Greek theatre was subdivided into sections by thirteen stairways, which for the sake of convenience have been numbered consecutively beginning at the east end. The area that has been cleared extends from the west side of stair No. IV to the west side of stair No. V I I I . A view of its present appearance is shown in Figure 1 from a photograph taken from behind the stage in the north. The hope for an amelioration of scenic effect has been
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splendidly realized, for the uncovering of the cavea has immediately made evident the impressive size of the building as well as its structural unity. Not loss important were the technical results that
FIGURE 2.
V I E W OF T H E E I G H T H STAIRWAY o r T H E CAVEA FROM T H E SOUTH
were achieved. Many seat blocks of the Greek theatre were found to be still in place, and where the seats had been removed their foundations almost invariably remained. The evidence for the date of this building period was abundant and conclusive, for in the deposit of earth and chips of poros about the foundations of the seats
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were lying sherds of Attic and Corinthian pottery, lamps and fragments of lamps, and many bronze Corinthian coins that date from the early part of the fourth century B.C. These foundations were usually set in hard-pan, but in occasional slight deposits beneath some of them that had been removed fragments of earlier ware were secured. This fact, which had also been noted in the investigation of the east side of the cavea where all the seats and foundations had disappeared, 1 warrants the inference that the building to which the extant Greek remains belong was erected in the fourth century B.C. on the site of an earlier structure. Some of the seat foundations are marked with distinguishing letters and symbols, and on the face of one of the seats that adjoin the eighth stair in the thirty-fifth row are scratched the words N I K A N I K A, which presumably are due to the ebullient enthusiasm of some spectator rejoicing over a victory in the games. Heavy walls of Roman construction are built directly above the Greek seats, and without doubt many of these seats were removed or destroyed in the major alteration of the building by the Romans. In one case there is still in place part of a seat block that had been cut so as to make a passage for the later wall. A part of the Roman wall at the back of the cavea was removed in order to uncover the eighth Greek stair for its entire extent of sixty rows of seats. Figure 2 gives a view of this cut as it appears from the south to one looking along the stairway towards the stage. Objects found in the wall furnish convincing evidence for the date of its erection. These include one coin of Julius Caesar, four coins of Augustus, 2 a lamp of Ephesus type similar to those that have been found elsewhere in the theatre in juxtaposition to coins of Augustus, and a fragment of an Arretine bowl with the signature C. Sen (ti), a potter whose work has been assigned to the reign of Augustus prior to 12 B.C.3 This is final confirmation of the view that the Roman reconstruction of the theatre occurred in the time of Augustus and shortly after the resettlement of the city.4 Many small objects were scattered throughout the deposit of earth overlying this terrain, but in most cases their presence was evidently due to casual dumping here at widely different ages, and they are without significance for determining periods of stratification. Numerous archaic terracotta figurines were again found near the surface of the ground. Such a deposit has been noted as being generally prevalent over the entire area of the orchestra and the cavea 1
A.J.A. X X X I I , 1928, pp. 482, 483. They are the types shown in Brit. Mus. Cat. Corinth, pi. XV, nos. 2, 4, 6 12 Rh. Mus. 59, 1904, p. 130. 4 A J.A. X X I X , 1925, p. 388, and X X X I I , 1928, p. 485. 2 s
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at an average depth of 0.50 m. to 1 m. below the present surface. As they do not occur in the neighboring terrain outside of the immediate confines of the theatre and as B y z a n t i n e objects are often with them or beneath them, they must have been dumped here at a late period to fill the hollow caused by the underlying cavea and orchestra. The figurines are votive in character and include horses, dogs, deer, doves, cocks, bearded men, and seated and standing women. Among the terracottas was one archaic figurine that was made of lead. The usual heterogeneous collection of coins was also here secured. They range in date from the Corinthian silver drachms of the sixth century B.C. down to modern times. The pottery which included much Corinthian and Attic ware was abundant in quantity but fragmentary in condition. One of the more interesting sherds is illustrated in Figure 3. A winged horse, the Pegasus of Corinth, is painted in white in spirited pose but with sketchy technique on the black glazed surface of a vase. Although the top of the . P E G A S U S ON A P O T S H E R D wing is broken away it was ob- F I G U R E 3FROM THE THEATKK viously shaped with a pointed end and the feathers are delimited by incised lines. The type of the Pegasus with the pointed wing appears on coins of Corinth only after 431 B.C.,1 but changes in coin design were conservatively adapted to altered taste in style and the Pegasus from the cavea much antedates that period. The technique of representing figures in white paint on a black glaze is used by Nikosthenes at the end of the sixth century, 2 and to this date our Pegasus should rather be assigned. Two inscriptions from this area should also be mentioned. The first, which is cut on a piece of a shaft of a small marble column, is a dedication in Latin to Isis and Serapis, each of whom was worshipped in two sanctuaries at Corinth that were located on the way up to Acrocorinth. 3 The second is a late Greek inscription, preceded and terminated by the Christian cross, on a marble block that was sot over the grave of Makedonia, a lady of blessed memory. It contains the threat that if anyone shall try to 1
Brit. Mas. Cat. Corinth, p. X X I I . - Corp. Fns. Ant. Louirc, fasc. 4, 111 H e, pi. 37, nos. 0, 12, 13, 16; pi. 38. Paus. II, 4, fi.
a
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open the grave on him shall be visited the curse of Annas and Kaiaphas. The significance of this curse is revealed by the apocryphal account of the fate of the two Jewish high priests. 1 By command of Tiberius the officials in Jerusalem who were concerned in the death of Christ, including Annas and Kaiaphas, were ordered to Rome for trial. On the way there Kaiaphas died in Crete, but as the earth would not receive his body it was covered with a cairn of stones. Annas was sentenced to execution and was sewed into a
FIGURE 4.
A V I E W OF T H E T H E A T R E FROM T H E
WEST
fresh bull's hide which contracting as it dried squeezed him to death. In Christian iconography the two priests are represented as dwellers in Hell. 2 The clearance of the west parodos was undertaken with the aim of improving the symmetrical appearance of the excavated building and in the hope of establishing the presence of a street on the west side. The walls of the west parodos are not as well preserved as on the east side, but the remains are sufficient to yield a complete plan, which shows a similar right-angled turn to the north at about half way of the lateral length. A view of this district is given in Figure 4 from a photograph that was taken from a position a little north of west. Part of the south wall of the parodos is here seen in place 1 Apocrypha, translated by M . R. James, p. 157. - Wilpert, Die rdmizchen Mosniken imd Malereien, II, p. 1034.
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by the adjacent bank of hard-pan from which other stones of the wall have been removed. It is supported by buttresses at the west end and its date is fixed by a coin of Julius Caesar t h a t was found at the very base of one of the buttresses, 1 which is confirmatory of similar evidence from the east side. This wall is partly constructed of blocks from the earlier building, and on one of the Greek seats t h a t is reused in the east end of the wall the word K 0 P F A N is inscribed in large carefully cut letters. Their shape is somewhat distorted as they appear in Figure 5 because the block is in the lowest course of the parodos wall in front of which a later wall has been placed, and the photograph was necessarily made from the top of the wall in front. This is the dialectic form of the genitive plural
FIGURE 5.
INSCRIBED SEAT BLOCK IN THE W E S T PARODOS W A L L
of the word t h a t appears in Attic as Koprj. One epigraphical example only is cited of this word spelled with a digamma. 2 I t occurs on the rim of a bronze kymbalon of unknown provenance, 3 and is called Thessalian by Frankel in his publication of it in the Archaeologische Zeitung after its first publisher, Oikonomides, but this attribution is doubted by Meister. 4 Van Herwerden calls it Messenian 3 and Buck Arcadian. In view of the attestation of the form for Corinth by the new discovery it is not unlikely t h a t the inscribed bronze may be also of Corinthian origin. The lateness of its date, the fifth century, would account for the fact that the epichoric alphabet is not employed. The forms of the letters on the seat of the Greek theatre would suit a date in the early fourth century which would accord with other evidence for dating the Greek building at that time. The word in the genitive on the face of one of the seats clearly suggests t h a t a seat or section of the cavea was reserved for girls, just as the seats of officials in the theatre of Dionysos at Athens were marked by names in the genitive. As the seat is built into a wall of the first Roman reconstruction of the theatre it probably 1
Similar to Brit. Mas. Cat. Corinth, pi. XV, no. 1. Buck, Greek Dialects, 2nd ed., p. 46. Arch. Zeit. XXXIY, 1876, p. 31, pi. 4 Die griecMsehen Dialckte, I, p. 297. 5 Lex. Grace, supp. el dialect., 2nd ed., I, p. 820. 2 3
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came from the wings of the Greek cavea that were removed to make the shape of the cavea conform to the semicircle required by the Roman plan. Thus the girls would have been seated in one of the less desirable locations. The block is broken at one end, but by comparison with the dimensions of other Greek seats it is evident that the word was centred on the face of the stone with space at either side. It is therefore improbable that the word is part of a longer inscription. The girls of Corinth par excellence may have been the famous hierodoules of the temple of Aphrodite who are called by this name in Pindar's hymn to Xenophon, the Corinthian. 1 At the west end of the parodos an area paved with limestone was uncovered, and beyond this was a broad way of hard beaten e a r t h . A l t h o u g h no p a v i n g blocks were in place this was presumably the site of the hypothetical west street, but an extension of the clearance for 15 m. to the north failed to disclose a n y r e m a i n s of p a v e m e n t . Stratification of deposits was marked here by the usual scatt e r i n g of coins, l a m p s a n d pottery. Among the objects FTNTTRE 0 . R O M A N ALEMBIC FROM T H E recovered, mention should be W E S T PARODOS made of a Roman pot of curious shape that is illustrated in Figure 6. This was found with Roman remains at a depth of 4 m. below the surface of the ground and beneath a later Roman wall. It is 0.28 m. high and is made of coarse red clay with horizontal ribs about the body. There is an opening in the small projecting neck at the top, and an open passage through the handle forms a tube-like conductor that extends on the side in a curve from the top to the bottom of the pot. This is evidently a vessel used for purposes of distillation. The process of distillation is mentioned in the first century A.D. by Dioskourides 2 and by Pliny 3 as employed for the purpose of securing respectively quicksilver and turpentine, 4 but their description of the apparatus suggests a vessel 2 • Prag. 122, 15. V, 110. »Nat. Hist. X X X I I I , 123. 1 Blümner, Technologie uiui Terminologie der Gewerbe und Künste bei Griechen und Römern, IV, pp. 98, 99.
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of larger diameter than that of the alembic from Corinth, and no other pot of this shape is known to me. The third area of the season's excavation is on the northeast edge of the theatre and includes a section east of the street, the square at its north end and the east part of the space behind the stage. The demarcation of the various districts is clearly shown on the plan of the building drawn by Richard Stillwell that is reproduced as Plate X. Figure 7 gives a photographic view of the area as it is seen from the southwest. Many walls and other remains of
F I G U R E 7.
A V I E W OF T H E N O R T H E A S T P A R T OF T H E E X C A V A T I O N
the Byzantine period were lying near the surface of the ground. The houses are usually -of careless construction, and after the walls were measured, drawn and photographed, most of them were necessarily removed in order that the earlier underlying structures might be revealed. Home information derived from these Byzantine deposits may here be mentioned. A small hoard of fourteen bronze coins, the pieces of which were adhering to one another in groups of two and three, contained one coin each of Constantine IX, Corstantine X and Nicephorus III, one of Nicephorus I I I that was double struck, two anonymous Crusaders' that had been overstruck on Nicephorus III, three anonymous Crusaders', and five of Alexius I. As the Crusaders' coins are overstruck on those of Nicephorus III
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and are associated with those of Alexius I, they must date in the time of Alexius who succeeded Nicephorus. 1 The periodology of Byzantine pottery is not accurately established and it was, therefore, interesting to find a small Byzantine grave which contained two plates and eight coins. One of the plates, which is illustrated in Figure 8, is yellow glazed ware with simple decoration. The coins were in a bad state of decomposition from corrosion and the effects of burning, but after being cleaned in the electrolytic bath four were legible, two of which are of Constantine IX., 1042-1055 A.D. and two
FIGURE 8.
A B Y Z A N T I N E P L A T E FROM T H E E A S T A R E A
of Nicephorus III, 1078 1081 A.D. This type of Byzantine ware is thus dated in the latter part of the eleventh century. Many other pieces of glazed ware in yellow, green and brown colors, with circular and linear decoration and occasionally with figures of birds and animals, were discovered in a large cistern that is located in this area. The dimensions of the cistern, of which the vaulted roof had been broken away, are 7.15 m. long, 3.03 m. wide and 2.75 m. deep. In addition to the pottery 314 bronze coins were picked up from the earth with which it was filled. A few of the coins are of the late Roman Emperor Constantius II and one that was lying on the floor is of Justin II, but the great majority are coins of Manuel I. Here again, then, chronological evidence is available for determining a 1
Bellinger, The Anonymous Byzantine Bronze Coinage, pp. 21-23.
A R T E M I S
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PLATE X .
P L A N OF T H E TIIJSATKK AT COHINTIL
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classification of Byzantine ware. On the walls of the cistern three ships are crudely scratched in outline in the stucco with which the walls are faced. The vessel on the south side is the most elaborately drawn with its masts, spread sails and banks of oars. Numerous coins dating from Byzantine and Roman times were scattered over this region in the superficial deposits of earth. Among these was a hoard of 67 small bronze pieces that had evidently been wrapped in a bag, for the texture of the cloth was still visible on some of the coins. Sixty-four of the coins were legible after their bath and were found to belong to three types in the following proportions: one of Julian the Apostate, 4 of Constans and 59 of Constantius II. The date of the Constantinian group is subsequent to that of the hoard recently published by Bellinger, 1 for 53 of the coins belong to
FIGURE 9.
A N I N S C R I B E D STONE'INT T H E S Q U A R E
the type with the legend P E L T E M P R E P A R A T I O on the reverse side, but the distribution of the mints confirms the previous evidence. The names of the mints are legible on half of the total number and show that 16 are from Nicomedia, 7 from Thessalonica, 6 from Constantinople and 3 from Cyzicus. After the superincumbent deposits had been removed the square at the north end of the street was entirely uncovered, and although some of the limestone blocks of the pavement are missing the area, which is about 19 m. square, is now clearly defined. On a long pavement block at the entrance to the square from the street are cuttings for letters that were presumably of bronze and were fastened in place with lead (Fig. 9). The stone, which is 2.26 m. long, is cut away at both ends, b u t the spacing of the second line of the inscription is such t h a t probably not much of the stone is missing. The inscription reads ERASTVS P R O ' A E D | S P S T R A Y I T : Erastus, procurator, aedile, laid the pavement at his own expense. 2 The archaeological evidence indicates that this pavement was in existence 1 2
A.J .A. X X X I I , 1928, pp. 496 if. For this use of sternere, cp. Livy, VIII, 15, 8.
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in the middle of the first century A.D. A procurator of Corinth named Erastus, who was in office at this time, is mentioned by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans, XVI, 23. A Roman procurator of a great provincial city would normally be a man of wealth and influence and as an administrator of the city he would be opportunely situated for the execution of public works at his own expense.1 It is, therefore, most probable that the procurator Erastus who paved the square is identical with the Erastus who was "chamberlain of the city" and a friend of St. Paul. 2 In a search for the extension of the street a trench 38 m. long and 3 m. wide was dug at a distance of 15 m. to the north of the square. Only some walls and a late vaulted cistern were discovered by this trial, which, however, proved that the street did not pass in this direction and its exit was subsequently found in the northeast corner of the square, whence its course is to the east. On the west there is egress from the square into a large rectangular open court that lies behind the stage and extends for its entire width. This court was enclosed by a portico the floor of which is paved with marble, and a marble veneering is used on the face of the boundary wall on the north. The marks where the columns stood are visible on the stylobate, and by their absence just behind the centre of the stage, it may be presumed that here was a second entrance to the stoa. The building must have been a magnificent adjunct to the theatre and have furnished a spacious and elegant ambulatory to its habitués. On the south the street curves to the west with the curve of the cavea and ascends by means of a ramp and steps to a higher level, probably eventually reaching the level of the odeion that lies south of the theatre. Adjoining the ascending way at a point southeast of the cavea and outside of its exterior wall a pier constructed of large blocks was uncovered in the last few days of the season, and further investigation here will be necessary before a correct interpretation of the remains can be suggested. After the clearance of the square at the north end of the street it seemed desirable to uncover the area lying to the east and extending from a point on the south, opposite the entrance to the east parodos, to the north end of the square. The familiar congeries of Byzantine and Roman walls was found to be present here, but in addition to the unimportant ruins a structure of great interest was brought to light. This is a mosaic floor that is illustrated in Figure 10. The pave1 Mattingly, The Imperial Civil Service of Rome, pp. 29 ff. It was specifically a duty of an aedile to attend to the pavement of the public ways, see Humbert in Daremberg-Saglio-Pottier, Dictionnaire des Antiquités, I, p. 98. 2 The word in the Epistle okcwÔMos that is translated as chamberlain is used by Lucian, Alex. 39, in the phrase o Kaiaapm okocôjuos which would be rendered into Latin as Caesaris procurator.
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ment is not quite square, measuring 3.80 m. long by 3.60 m. wide. The designs are made of small blue-black and creamy white pebbles laid in cement. The outside border is a meander pattern, while the wave design is used for the border of a large circle that is placed within the rectangle. At the heart of the circle is a small circle that is filled by a rosette, and from the circumference of which extend large palmettes and anthemia alternately arranged. The corners of
FIGURE 10.
MOSAIC FLOOR IN THE E A S T AREA
the room are decorated with animal groups representing a feline animal that in one case has attacked a horse and in the other an antelope. The designs in the northeast and southeast corners have been destroyed. Although stripes appear on the body of the attacking animal it is probable that a lion rather than a tiger is portrayed, as the end of the tail is tufted. The technique of construction, the materials used, the meander and wave borders and the animal combats are similar to those occurring on the floor of a house at Olynthos discovered by D. M. Robinson in 1928.1 For stylistic reasons 1 A.J.A. XXXIII, 1929, p. 65,fig.13.
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Robinson dates his work about 400 B.C., and the ultimate limit at Olynthos is 348 B.C. when the city was destroyed by Philip. The style of the palmettes in the Corinth floor agrees with a date early in the fourth century. Its discovery definitely proves the existence of elaborate mosaics at Corinth in the time of Diogenes the Cynic and supports Galen's story about that philosopher's visit to a friend's house that was decorated with fine mosaic floors.1 Careful investigation in various parts of the theatre provided some important chronological evidence. More post holes were cleared in the foundation of the east end of the stage, and in two of them were found respectively a bronze coin of Corinth and one of Sicyon. The coin of Sicyon is similar to that shown in the British Museum Catalogue, Peloponnesus, PL IX, No. 14, with the name of the magistrate Olympiad (as) above the dove on the obverse, and is dated 250-146 B.C. The Corinthian coin is of the familiar type with Pegasus and the trident and may be dated in the third century B.C. This is clear evidence for the existence of a stage structure in Hellenistic times. Another valuable bit of information was supplied by a coin that was secured from a wall that had been built to curve from the west end of the stage. This wall was faced with stucco and formed a continuation of the painted wall about the orchestra. In delving into the fill behind the stucco in search of proof for its date, Mr. Stillwell discovered a bronze coin, which even after cleaning is in a poor state of preservation. On the obverse the head of an Emperor appears and the design on the reverse side is a standing figure of Poseidon. Mr. Edward T. Newell, who has kindly examined the coin, definitely identifies it as a coin of Domitian. The painted wall, therefore, cannot date prior to that reign. This evidence furnished by the coin is supported by the fact that the structure of the Roman west parodos at its east end has been cut away in the transformation of the orchestra into an amphitheatre. Thus the painted wall does not belong to the first Roman reconstruction of the theatre that was made in the time of Augustus, and the tentative opinions to this effect expressed in my reports of the previous campaigns in the theatre must be abandoned. 2 Structural evidence is available that indicates some alteration of the theatre in the time subsequent to Vespasian,3 and it is possible that the painted wall is part of a reconstruction that occurred in the early part of the reign of Hadrian when there was much building activity in Corinth. Coins, which have thus in some cases proved of great service in 1 2
A.J.A. X X I X , 1925, p. 397. A.J.A. X X I X , 1925, pp. 387, 388; X X X , 1926, p. 453; X X X I I , 1928, p. 476. 4 J . A . X X X I I , 1928, p. 481.
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solving problems of chronology, were again found in abundance in all parts of the excavation; 5,500 silver and bronze pieces were secured during the present season and these added to the 8,000 found in previous campaigns give a total of 13,500 coins found during m y work at Corinth.
T h e electrolytic process of cleaning was again
constantly used with most satisfactory results, and the task of identifying
and
classifying
this
great mass of material is progrcssA m o n g the many smaller objects
tT^^B
that accumulate in the course of a large excavation the terracotta figurines
should
mentioned.
be
They
r
especially
range in
date
f r o m the early archaic types through
•
the fine products of the classical
yfKjttt?
period and the realistic expressions
^jte^kggJSBtiB
of the Hellenistic age down to late R o m a n times.
The
.
example se-
•':,•..
lectcd for illustration in Figure 11 is an archaic v o t i v e
figurine.
•
It
. 5
is made of Corinthian clay with a solid cylindrical body.
The
are red discs and red bands
eyes are
painted about the neck and body.
*
Flat cakes are held on the extended hands.
This
is
similar
to
; U
two
JHp^BPfc
figurines found previously b y me, 1 and to others f r o m elsewhere in the Corinthian excavations.
T h e large
number
that
of
certainly
terracottas
of
local
are
n