Site formation processes in urban Corinth, Greece – a micromorphological approach
Institut für Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie, Universität Tübingen
Research in classical archaeological areas has been mainly focusing on architecture and artifacts, which are intensively investigated, while the sediments surrounding the artifacts are often underexploited. The site of ancient Corinth in Greece was one of the earliest studied areas in classical archaeology. Corinth, lying on the Isthmus between the Peloponnese and the Greek mainland, was an important and flourishing city in the classical era. Recently, excavations were conducted in urban areas of the city.
This study has two major purposes: to investigate a profile located in an urban area and to demonstrate the usefulness of micromorphological analyses in classical context. The profile comprises of periods from Late Roman until modern times, and is characterized by robbing and infilling processes as well as two different sediment colors. With the use of micromorphology and FTIR analyses I wanted to develop site formation processes concerning this profile. The goal was to answer questions about the origin of the sediment, the containing materials, the existence of mud bricks, the infilling processes and possible floor formations. Sampling was conducted in April 2015 and the resulting thin sections were studied in the following summer.
Generally, all processes occurring in the profile could be associated with infilling. The presence of mud bricks is still questionable without the use of local reference material, since the occurring red sediment can indicate both decayed mud brick and soil material. Lime floors and a huge abundance of lime distributed all over the profile could be identified, as well as an earthen occupation surface. The origin of the sediment could be assigned to the slopes south of the excavation area.
This work is significant because of the application of methods that are novel to classical archaeology, especially in urban settings. That micromorphology is currently rarely used in these periods, might be due to the enormous amount of material findings in classical excavations that are capable of answering most research questions that are being tackled in this discipline. However additional information can be brought in by micromorphology and as yet unanswered questions could still be solved. The hope lies on this work being an impetus to other classical archaeologists to include micromorphological analysis into their research.