Lechaion

It was great to read the expansive (~80 pages!) preliminary report from the Lechaion Harbor and Settlement Land Project (LHSLP) in Hesperia 93.4 this past week. It presented three seasons of excavation from 2016-2018 and the finds from a number of structures located to the south of the great Lechaion basilica.

The buildings seem all to be Roman in date with Late Roman phases. The excavations appear to be careful enough to produce significant assemblages of Roman and Late Roman pottery, botanical remains, and coins. These artifacts reveal what appears to have been a prosperous Roman and Late Roman settlement.

The archaeobotanical remains suggest either the processing of olive oil or the use of olive pits for fuel, the range of grains — notably rye, but also legumes — offers insights into the diet of denizens of the settlement, and the presence of seeds from a range of weeds provides perspectives on the fields on the coastal zone of the western Corinthia.

The ceramic evidence reveals economic contacts with the western and eastern Mediterranean as you might expect at a port on the isthmus of Corinth. The Late Roman period represented in the assemblage appears to be a bit earlier than, say, what we see at Polis on Cyprus with the assemblages dating to the 5th to mid-6th centuries rather than our more common 6th-mid-7th century (or even 8th century) assemblages on Cyprus. The imported fine wares from Lechaion, however, look vaguely similar in origin to what we might see at a similar coastal site on Cyprus with African Red Slip and LRC wares rubbing shoulders with local variants. The utility and cooking wares from Lechaion have a decidedly more Aegean orientation than what we see on Cyprus. It goes without saying that the Lechaion assemblages will be useful as we start to try to sort out the ceramics at Isthmia over the next couple of years.

The coins from Lechaion appear to tell a similar story to the ceramics chronologically. It is interesting to note that the coins do not appear much different from those found in Corinth (and perhaps a bit different from those found at Kenchreai) leading the numismatist to speculate that Corinth might exert a significant influence over the monetary preferences at Lechaion such that it isn’t much swayed by the appearance of western coins at the port itself. 

The only architecture of particular interest to me was the Augustan period basilica which appears to have been reconstructed in the “Neronian/Flavian.” Like most basilicas everywhere, there is some evidence that this building also witnessed some modification in Late Antiquity, perhaps for use as a church. I’m open to this as a possibility, but as a rule, I’m not convinced of such tales of reuse. All I can do in this case is take the excavators word for it. It is interesting to read the speculation that the building’s superstructure was reused in the massive Lechaion basilica of the 6th century. That the various buildings excavated by the LHSLP appear to have gone out of use at around the same time that D. Pallas argued the Lechaion basilica was constructed is intriguing. Perhaps the Lechaion basilica was a kind of urban renewal project after some kind of mid-6th century turmoil at the port? This is wildly speculative, but one could even imagine that the Lechaion basilica was part of an imperially funded effort to restore the port perhaps under Justinian… ok, ok, I know that I’m talking out of my neck…   

As someone who has studied the Corinthia for the better part of three (!!) decades, the publication of a growing quantity of Roman and Late Roman knowledge being produced from sites in the region is amazing. From Joe Rife and Eleni Korka’s Koutsongila near Corinth’s eastern port of Kenchreai to David Pettegrew’s work on the Isthmus, the various Lechaion projects, and the tireless work at Corinth itself, I’m thoroughly invigorated to be able to contribute to these conversations through our work at Isthmia. Despite my growing interest in the long Late Antiquity on Cyprus, reading about the recent work in the Corinthia is reminding me not to sleep on the 5th and 6th centuries when it is clear that the Corinthia underwent fundamental and dramatic transformation. The Hexamilion Wall, the construction of the massive Early Christian basilicas, the decline (and transformation) of ancient sanctuaries, the appearance of interesting (and innovative?) architectural forms, transformed both the urban and rural landscape of the region. A Pettegrewian traveller would have encountered a landscape that was fundamentally different in the 5th century from what it appeared a century or so earlier. This is exciting to encounter and try to understand even 1500 years later!