Elizabeth R. Gebhard - Böcker

Pindar's metaphor of the Isthmus as a bridge spanning two seas encapsulates the essence of the place and gives a fitting title for this volume of 17 essays on the history and archaeology of the area. The Isthmus, best known for the panhellenic Sanctuary of Poseidon, attracted travelers both before and after Pausanias's visit in the 2nd century A.D., but only toward the end of the 19th century were the ruins investigated and, a half century later, finally systematically excavated. More recently, archaeologists have surveyed the territory beyond the sanctuary, compiling evidence for a varied picture of activity on the wider Isthmus and the eastern Corinthia. The essays in this book celebrate 55 years of research on the Isthmus and provide a comprehensive overview of the state of our knowledge. Topics include an Early Mycenaean habitation site at Kyras Vrysi; the settlement at Kalamianos; the Archaic Temple of Poseidon; domestic architecture of the Rachi settlement; dining vessels from the Sanctuary of Poseidon; the Temple Deposit at Isthmia and the dating of Archaic and Early Classical Greek coins; terracotta figurines from the Sanctuary of Poseidon; the Chigi Painter; arms from the age of Philip and Alexander at Broneer's West Foundation on the road to Corinth; new sculptures from the Isthmian Palaimonion; an inscribed herm from the Gymnasium Area of Corinth; Roman baths at Isthmia and sanctuary baths in Greece; Roman buildings east of the Temple of Poseidon; patterns of settlement and land use on the Roman Isthmus; epigraphy, liturgy, and Imperial policy on the Justinianic Isthmus; and circular lamps in the Late Antique Peloponnese.

The well-preserved marble theater that Balduin Saria uncovered in 1924 at Stobi was thought for many years to be the only theater in the city. Following Saria’s initial campaign, the remainder of the cavea, orchestra, and scene-building, but not the parodoi, were uncovered to the present ground level by Saržo Saržovski (c. 1965-1969). From 1970 to 1981, as a member of the joint Yugoslav and American excavation project directed by Djordje Mano-Zisi and James Wiseman, Elizabeth Gebhard opened a series of deep trenches to explore the history of activity in the building. Unexpectedly and near the end of the excavations, remains of an earlier scene-building were uncovered. They revealed a predecessor with a different plan and built at a lower elevation; much of it was destroyed or incorporated into the later building. The initial construction of the theater belongs to the end of the first or beginning of the second century AD; it was completed in the middle of the century. After what appears to have been a major earthquake, placed about 300 by associated deposits, the cavea and scene-building were repaired and remodeled, and the orchestra was enclosed as a permanent arena.