Kenchreai Quarry Landscapes 2013-2016: Excavation 2016
Excavation to investigate site formation processes relating to the deposition of chipped stone lithics. Three excavation trenches were opened in an area where concentrations of flint lithics were found in 2013. Notwithstanding 100% collection in 2013, the recovery of significant surface artefacts attests to processes of erosion accelerated by fire damage to soil and vegetation in 2012. The principal functions of Trench 1 were to clarify both the character and chronology of lithic manufacture in this area, to establish any functional or chronological association with historic oolite exploitation along the Kenchreai Quarry Line and to place it within the broader regional historical narrative. Trench 1 produced no in situ anthropogenic deposits, just unstratified soils to a maximum depth of 43 cm. Hellenistic Middle Roman transport amphorae, cups and cookwares dominate the surface and thin underlying fire-damaged soil layers, while below this Roman material is absent, but prehistoric (including Late Helladic) pottery more abundant and lithics more numerous than pottery. The entire deposit appears to reflect erosion downslope of whole deposit(s) probably over a small distance (noting limited abrasion). Upslope, Trenches 2 and 3 provided controls for Trench 1. In both, the pottery is of similar date and type to that above the base of the fire-damaged soil layer of Trench 1. Prehistoric pottery is uncommon. Pottery in Trench 2 exhibits less abrasion from trampling than that in Trench 1, and in Trench 3 damage was likely caused by trampling. These results will assist in the interpretation of 2013 surface finds from large areas of Quarry Complex A.
Active from 2015 to 2016.
Kenchreai Quarry Landscapes 2013-2016: Excavation 2016 (Project)
Kenchreai Quarry Landscapes Excavation 2016 (Excavation)