Ian McPhee – författare

In 1971 in the southwestern area of the Roman Forum of Corinth a round-bottomed drainage channel was discovered filled with the largest deposit of pottery of the 4th century ever found in the city, some coins, terracotta figurines, and metal and stone objects. This volume publishes the pottery and metal and stone objects, and includes a re-examination of the coins by Orestes Zervos. Some of the cooking ware has been subjected to neutron activation analysis, and a statistical analysis of all recovered pottery has been completed. The contents of Drain 1971-1 are important for the function of the Classical buildings in this part of Corinth, especially Buildings I and II, and for the chronology of the renovation program that included the construction of the South Stoa, which was probably not built before the last decade of the 4th century.

Coins, for reasons that do not always make sense, are often treated by field excavators as more reliable chronological indexes than other classes of artifacts. This always makes their discovery a welcome event, especially when they are silver or gold, which tend to survive in the ground in a more recognizable state than their bronze counterparts. The Red Figure pottery does not have quite the same chronological relevance as the coins but does on occasion contribute to the dating of archaeological contexts. Its often high quality and interesting variety of shapes has already generated commentary elsewhere in addition to what is presented here.