Event

Speaker: Christopher Pfaff, Associate Professor, Department of Classics, Florida State University

Abstract: Since 2018, excavations conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Corinth have focused on a field northeast of the ancient theater. The goals at the outset of this excavation campaign were to shed light on the nature of the little explored area between the theater (to the south) and the ancient gymnasium and Asklepieion (to the north), to clarify the system of Roman roads in this part of the city, to define the boundaries and size of a large Roman bath complex north of the theater, and to search for evidence of pre-Roman occupation in the area. The past seven years of excavation have now brought to light evidence of two major Roman roads and a likely Roman domus at the intersection of the roads; they have also uncovered components of the Roman bath, including a large room with an opus sectile floor that may have served as a changing room (apodyterium). The excavations indicate that this part of the city flourished from Early Roman times to roughly the middle of the 7th century CE. Thereafter there was little activity until the Middle Byzantine period, when a roadway was re-established, and buildings of unknown function were built beside it. From the middle of the 13th century, it appears that the area was again abandoned, probably in response to a general contraction of the medieval town to the higher plateau to the south.