Kenchreai Quarry Landscapes 2013-2016: Geoarchaeological survey 2013
The first season of intensive pick-up survey in the ancient quarries of Kenchreai, conducted to identify the periods of quarrying and the types and locations of post-quarrying activity. Building upon his earlier close study of these quarries, the results of this combined archaeological and geoarchaeological survey will for the first time permit a holistic understanding of a major Greek quarry complex, the material culture of stone extraction, the subsequent use of the space, and its integration into local and regional historical and cultural contexts. The study area comprised the two quarry complexes (A and B) plus a 100 m-wide zone around the quarried areas. The quarries are mostly a series of small, shallow pits. Some represent stone extraction over short periods (possibly for single projects), which should enable (uniquely within the Corinthia) close dating of quarrying activity at certain locations. Relatively undisturbed by modern activity, they preserve the deposition/formation processes operative in each area, and enable discrimination between material in primary (or close to primary) deposition and linked to a period of quarrying, and that redeposited during quarry operation in the immediate area (e.g. in clearance of debris), or deposited after quarrying had ceased. The survey methodology was designed to accommodate low artefact density in quarry interiors, differences in land use during quarrying and thereafter over a period in excess of a millennium, and scales of activity from individuals and small work gangs to domestic groups and agricultural activities.
Active from 2012 to 2013.
Kenchreai Quarry Landscapes 2013-2016: Geoarchaeological survey 2013 (Project)
Kenchreai Quarry Landscapes 2013-2016: Geoarchaeological survey 2013 (Survey)