I spent the last couple of days traveling from Greece to Cyprus and getting settled back into a slightly different routine for the final week of my summer research leave. This week is truly Janis-faced with part of our energy going to taking the final photographs for the our work here at Polis and part of it writing up a report on the work we just completed at Isthmia. 

Among the various goals that we had at Isthmia, one was to sort out the stratigraphy and depositional history of Rooms VIII and VII in the Roman bath. These are important in part because Room VIII has “the e-shaped feature” building into its west wall which we have associated loosely with the Early Medieval activity at the site. Room VIII also saw a late renovation which involved the installation of a clay floor prior to the robbing out of its east and south walls. After the walls were robbed out, an apsidal building, also associated with the Early Medieval settlement, was built across the robbing trench. In other words, this part of the Roman bath has connections to the Early Medieval settlement and the final phases of activity at the bath, and its final renovation.

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Room VII and VIII

Room VII and VIII were excavated in 1976 and 1977 with 1977 being the more careful campaign. In 1976, MCO excavated two trenches through Room VII from north (Room VI) to south. These trenches were excavated as three baskets. One 76-MCO-035 cut through the destruction debris in trenches 76-13,14, and 15; 76-MCO-036 removed material atop the mosaic floor in Room VII and combined it with material in Room XII and further south with Trench 76-13 being in Room VII and 76-14 in Room VII; and 76-MCO-037 took material immediately above the floor in Trench 72-15 which captures the southeastern corner of Room VII. The latest material from 76-MCO-036, which was presumably the lowest level of destruction debris and from the floor of Room VII included a Late Roman cook pot (76-MMO-036.10) of 7th century date (Hammond #364). The destruction and collapse debris included a significant quantity of later material including Slavic ware, Group N bases, and micaceous cooking pots.

In 1977, Tr 77-8 produced similar assemblages with Early Medieval material appearing on the surface and in destruction layers (77-SET-045 and 77-SET-046 respectively). It is suggestive that 77-SET-046 which was amid the destruction debris did not produce any material later than the Early Medieval period. The levels closer to the mosaic floor (77-SET-43, 77-SET-44, 77-SET-47, 77-SET-48), however, produce a generic Late Roman assemblage with relatively little diagnostic material that would allow us to date the floor level more narrowly than 4th-7th century. In light of this assemblage, there is reason to suspect that some of the latest material excavated from the floor in 1976 reflects under-excavated destruction debris rather than material resting on the mosaic floor prior to the collapse of the walls. Nevertheless, this material comes from throughout and the lowest levels of collapse indicates that it was not thrown in after the building had fallen down, but rather during the process of collapse.

Room VIII

Room VIII was excavated in 1977 in a series of east-west trenches (77-1, 77-5, and 77-8; check this!) the surface and destruction collapse included significant quantities of handmade and slow wheel made wares. The northern part of Room VIII was excavated in 1977 as trench 77-1. The quantity of wall collapse and the size of wall fragments found in the upper levels of this trench revealchunks of mortar with preserved wall plaster. It is worth noting that most of the material found in these upper destruction levels dates to the Roman, Late Roman, and Early Medieval periods. In this way, it appears consistent with the destruction debris in Room VII and in Room IX.

The latest material in the destruction debris in this area 77-CSS-011 includes rather undiagnostic Late Roman material and this seems to continue to the clay floor with the material excavated above the floor recorded as 77-CSS-015, 77-CSS-016, 77-CSS-017, and 77-CSS-018. These basket consists largely of Late Roman material: spirally grooved and wheel ridges body sherds (as well as micaceous water jar fragments). There are kitchen and coarse ware rims including the Aegean Cooking Pot fabric (Hammond no. 302; 5th century) in 77-CSS-015, 77-CSS-017, and 77-CSS-018. This deposit appears to continue through the robbing trench on the eastern side of the trench (that is between Room VIII and VII). This means that 77-CSS-021 (which must equal 77-CSS-022 and 77-CSS-023) was probably deposited at the same time as the rest of the floor deposit. This is significant because it indicates that the floor and the trench opened after the robbing of the east wall were exposed to the same depositional processes. This suggests that someone removed the roof of the building systematically and then robbed out the east wall. The destruction debris then in this trench must have come from the collapse of the western wall of the room.

Tr 77-5 is to the south of Tr 77-1.The destruction debris that extended from the surface (77-CSS-029) appears to end on a lens of black earth, which the excavator removed as a separate basket (77-CSS-31). It yielded very little pottery. Beneath that was another level of collapse (77-CSS-30 and 32) which produced parts of the room’s Early Medieval and Slavic assemblage. There are then another series of debris levels (Level 3: 77-CSS-33 and -35; Level 4: 77-CSS-34; Level 5: 77-CSS-35 and -38, -39 [no finds]; Level 6: 77-CSS-37). Destruction Level 7 (77-CSS-41, -45, -46, -47, -51 [this is under fragments of the wall and basket 45]) is very close to the floor and characterized by a sandy soil (77-CSS-40 seems similar and at a similar elevation) and the floor is reached at 77-CSS-42. Destruction Level 8 seems to be the same as the “floor fill” (77-CSS-49). The floor deposit from 77-CSS-042, reached under level 48 as 77-CSS-49 and from under basket 46 as 77-CSS-50 appear more or less contemporary with the floor levels in Tr 77-1 which is to say a generic Late Roman date. 77-CSS-042 produced a flu tile presumably from the wall of Room IX.

This trench also featured a series of test trenches designed to establish the date of the clay floor. The most productive of these, 77-CSS-024, largely produced small fragments of pottery that suggest a broadly “Late Antique date” (2nd-4th) for the repavement of Room VIII. Two of the fragments appear to come from pitchers (IPR 77-011 and 77-012) which may date as late as the 5th or 6th century based on very loose comparisons to the vessel IPR 70-082 (which, in turn, is comparable to the Agora V, L26 via Sanders 2026). The fragments of these vessels, however, are too small to make a completely convincing comparison.

Another trench to the south of 77-5 was then opened, 77-8. Much like trenches 77-5 and 77-1, this trench features a series of levels of destruction. The first subsurface basket is 77-CSS-66 much like the destruction level baskets from 77-5, this produced both Early Medieval kitchen wares and Slavic ware and seemingly parallels the kinds of material coming from similar levels of destruction debris in 77-5. Levels CSS-067, -069, -071, -072 are more layers of destruction debris. The red, sandy fill comes out at 77-CSS-070, -075 and -076 (which might be an under excavated basket which includes -075). The eastern part of 77-8 extends to into Room VII and shows that the red earth fill near the surface of Room VIII continues into Room VII. This suggests that both Room VIII and Room VII lost their roofs (and the wall between them) before their west and east walls (respectively) collapsed inward. In trench 77-8, two contexts (-086 and -091) runs through the foundation trench of east wall of Room VIII and sits atop a level of black fill (-085). This black fill may be related to the collapse of a wood roof. The floor levels in this trench are 77-CSS-088 and 77-CSS-101. They appear to have produced largely Late Roman material although there is some sign that CSS-088 might be contaminated.

There are several conclusions that proceed from this reconstruction of the later history of Rooms VIII and VII.
 

1.     Room VIII was apparently damaged at some point and the floor was replaced with a clay floor. It is appealing to imagine that the clay floor replaced a mosaic one which was perhaps damaged by the collapse of the vaulted roof. Alternatively, there may have been a decision to renovate the floor of this room, as there were late bath renovations, including (does the date work?) modifications to heat Room III.  Excavation below the clay floor suggest that it was installed sometime in the 2nd-4th century (based on the presence of micaceous water jars and middle- to later- Roman pitchers in the fill beneath the clay floor), but this material could be part of an earlier fill dating to the previous floor. It is critical to note is that the clay floor of VIII has been carefully joined to the floor of Room VI, including the placement of tesserae on the threshold of the door to Room VI, indicating this floor was placed for a functional bath (Gregory 1993, 290-291).

2.    The amphora deposit in Room IX appears to date to the 5th century (at earliest) indicating that the floor of Room VIII was open at this point allowing access to the amphoras placed amid the hypocaust of Room IX.

3.    At some point the east and south wall and the roof of Room VIII were removed. This was after the installation of the clay floor and the amphora deposit in Room IX. Part of the building continued to stand, however, and the robbing trench and the floor of Room VII and Room VIII was covered with a layer of red earth.

4.     The “E-Shaped Feature” stands against the west wall of Room VIII in the red earth fill. This dates this to after the robbing of the east wall of the room because the red earth fill runs through the robbing trench. It indicates that the west wall of Room VIII continues to stand even as the red earth is deposited in the trench. 

5.     The apsidal structure south of Room VIII runs atop the robbing trench of the south wall of the room, but appears more or less at the same level as the floor of Room VIII and the e-shaped structure and the line of tiles.

6.     The west wall of the Room VIII collapses covering the E-Shaped Feature and the apsidal structure with successive lenses of debris. This collapse is one of our best indicators of the abandonment collapse of the bath. While there was some 5th century (?) roof and wall collapse in the eastern rooms, this was a result of the deliberate robbing of walls.  The abandonment collapse of the bath does not come until after the early Byzantine settlement.  The area of the E-shaped features and apsidal structure are thus one of the best preserved abandonment deposits in the bath.