1998 Trendall Lecture

1998 TRENDALL LECTURE Wealthy Corinth: The Archaeology of a Classical City Elizabeth Pemberton Delivered at The Institute of Classical Studies London 24 November 1998 Australian Academy of the Humanities, Proceedings 23, 1998 Wealthy Corinth: The Archaeology of a Classical City stinguished colleagues: I am honoured and delighted to give the second D.Trendall ' memorial lecture, for1 had the highest regard for DaleTrendall both as a scholar and as a person. It was his wish that this series of lectures, which heendowed, should promote thecause ofclassical studies and classical archaeology in Australia, to which hedevoted his life. I thank the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Institute of Classical Studies, two institutions with which Dale was long associated, and also the Institute for Commonwealth Studies for co-sponsoring this talk. I would like to take the opportunity to remind you of the significance of DaleTrendall's scholarship. Karim Arafat recently wrote that Dale's achieve- ment might be even greater than Beazley's, as it was necessary to sort out the different fabrics of South Italy and Sicily, adifficult task, because of the cross fertilization between thedifferent pottery centres. His workcontinues through the Trendall Centre at La Trobe University, made possible by his bequest to theuniversity. Ascloseas I was toDale, Ididnot have the fortune to work with him. So I cannot talk about matters South Italian. My work has been primarily in Ancient Corinth and it is to that city we will go today. Two years ago, the American excavations at Corinth celebrated one hundred years of digging, and yet there is still so much we do not know about the city in all its successive periods.' We do not have many texts, and those wedo have werenot written from acorinthian viewpoint. Thematerial evidence gained from archaeology must be the primary source of data for reconstructing the life of the city. I want to illustrate that in a number of ways in this study, with the underlying problem being this: How do you ascertain from physical evidence the relative wealth and importance of an ancient city-state? Corinth's two major epithets in antiquity were 'wealthy' and 'well- watered'. The latter, made famous by the Simonides epigram for the Corinthian dead at the battle of Salamis, is easily verified. There are at least ten Roman baths in thecity whichclearly demonstrate thecontinuity ofgood water ~upply.~Indeed, it is still flowing from some outlets; the water from Acrocorinth which supplies the Corinth excavation house is some of the best I have ever tasted. Weknow theamount of waterwasmade possible because of conglomerate rock which allows the rain water to pass through, where it is then trapped by the underlying marl. It was a great discovery, and began to be exploited by theCorinthians at least as early as the 8th century in what is known as the Sacred Spring. Both this water source and the nearby fountain Australian Academy of the Humanities, Proceedings 23, 1998 Trendall Lecture 1998: Wealthy Corinth of Peirene allowed a steady and good water supply.' In its prime, Peirene had large reservoirs, and tunnels which ran into the Forum area, supplying buildings such as the South Stoa (Fig. 1). Its output iscalculated even today at 18 cubic metres per hour. We have alsoexcavated over 100 wells in Corinth from the 8th century to 146 BC. It is the water supply which gavecorinth the security for basic subsistence, lacking in other Greek cities of the mainland. And it is also one reason she became wealthy. That is our second epithet: Wealthy, aphneios, a term used by the epic poets but appropriate in later times as well: we remember the famous saying of the hellenistic period 'Not everyone may sail to Corinth'. The ancient writer Strabo wrote that the source of her wealth lay in her geography and the commerce that ensued from her physical l~cation.~1 would add to the importance of her geographical position the amount of arable land the city controlled - the fertile plain between Corinth and her western neighbour Sicyon. The rich land between the two cities is mentioned in Aristophanes' Birds, in Diodorus Siculus, and in Athenaeus: An enquirer of Apollo asked 'How may I get rich, son of Zeus and Leto?' The god replied, 'By acquiring what lies between Corinth and Si~yon.'~ But let us not take these statements about herprosperity on faith. Can we see that wealth expressed, just as clearly as we can see her well-watered nature? If we take Athens as a comparison, surely that city's wealthiest period was the fifth century, from theestablishment of the Delian League to the later years of the Peloponnesian war. And it is at that time we find so many visible indications of her wealth, in architecture, sculpture, and other monuments at home; and dispersal of her coinage and pottery in so many parts of the Greek world. What do we find in Corinth? Does the archaeological record show that the city was wealthier in certain periods? Did Corinth visibly express her wealth as Athens did? In order to discuss this problem, I will review several types of evidence, including burials, religious dedications, architecture, and metal work, examining each as evidence for wealthy Corinth, especially in its classical and hellenistic phases, not so well known as the earlier archaic period. Let us look first at burials. There are a few types which endure over the centuries, especially the stone sarcophagus and, in the later classical and hellenistic periods, the cist grave.' We can see definite uniformity of both type andcontents. In his study of geometric and archaicgraves, Keith Dickey shows how from ca. 750 on the Corinthians adopted funerary customs which essentially eliminated status in buriaL7 Until the middle of the 5th century, themonolithic stone sarcophagus is almost universal in Corinth for all adult and most child burials; there are a few urn burials for children. In the later Australian Academy of the Humanities, Proceedings 23, 1998 Australian Academy of the Humanities, Proceedings 23, 1998 Trendall Lecture 1998: Wealthy Corinth 5th century the pit or cist grave with tile or slab coverings begins to replace the sarcophagus - one assumes this was the result of a scarcity of workmen in the Peloponnesian War. By the 4th century, with very few exceptions, there are no sarcophagus burials. Most significant: as the burial containers change, that change is found throughout the Corinthia. The actual grave container is uniform in type; but do the burials them- selves vary in wealth? A recent discussion about geometric burials with weapons, in Athens, Argos, Knossos and other sites," brought home to me how sparse Corinth is: 1 sword, 3 spearheads and 2 possible arrowheads.' Our richest burial with armour is in fact from the early 5th century.I0 It contains a helmet, a large dinos and a strigil. The magnificent helmet has parallels at Olympia - including some in a cache of armour taken from the Corinthians and dedicated by the Argives, (from an as yet unidentified battle between these two traditional enemies)." I wonder if the person buried here was killed in that battle, he did not lose his armour to the enemy, there was no surviving male in the family to receive the helmet, and so as a rare tribute, it was buried with him. There was a lack of skeletal material in the burial, and the excavators theorized that the deceased might have been cremated right after the battle and the remains brought back. But in fact, with only one or two exceptions cremation is never found in Corinthian burials; theuniformity of inhumation throughout Corinthian burial practice is virtually total. There are some other expensive items in graves. A few geometric burials of women contain gold and silver hair spirals; but there is nothing comparable to the rich geometric graves found in other sites. In later periods a few burials contained bronze vessels and personal items, such as bronze jewelry. There are in many European museums mirrors both of caryatid and box type, which are alleged to have a Corinthian provenance. Many of them may indeed have come from Corinthian graves looted in the 19th century. One example in Manchester was found in 1886, according to the museum entry, in a grave by Peirene.I2 That is not an area with burials. But the correct identification of theFountain of Peirene was only made in 1898, 12 years after the Manchester mirror was found. Until then, the most common identifications of Peirene were two water sources, known in the village as Hadji Mustafa and the Baths of Aphrodite. Both springs are in areas rich in graves, verifying the Corinthian provenance. There are also caryatid mirrors in Athens, such as Athens 7399,13 said to be from Corinth or Sicyon; it has strong stylistic affinities with 5th century. Corinthianterracottas. Thesefindsdo not invalidate my claim that most burials arenot indicators of wealth. For even simple tile graves have yielded fine work, such as a Corinthian box mirror of the 3rd century (Fig. 2). excavated in 1963.14 Australian Academy of the Humanities, Proceedings 23, 1998 Trendall lecture 1998: Elizabeth Pembenon There is nothing special about the pottery from this burial; and the type of grave is also unexceptional, with poros slabs covering the grave cut into the earth. Recently the Greek service has found a tomb with a caryatid mirror in it. And many graves have bronze or iron strigils. Might there be a cemetery reserved for wealthier burials still un- discovered? I doubt it. Smaller and larger cemeteries have been excavated in many parts of the Corinthia. It is true that many have been looted (in antiquity and more recently); but the burial forms remain the same.

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