'Section Ro' of the Cyclopean Wall

 Oscar Broneer, in an article of 1966, reports a section of 'cyclopean wall' which he calls 'Ro'.  He says:

"Section Ro (Fig. 2, 4), on the property of Panagiota Roussi, ca. 120 m. to the west of St, is only 8.40 m. long, but this retains the interesting feature of a tower like projection, 2.80 m. wide and jutting out 0.63 m. from the face. This miniature tower, the stones of which project into the interior, is the first of several found in the wall. The setback on the north face of section St may have been made to serve the same purpose as these small towers. The few pottery sherds found in contact  with section Ro were undatable."[1]

In addition to this Broneer provides a drawing of this segment:[2]

Segment Ro, Broneer [1966] 350, Fig. 2, no. 4.

The drawing provides an orientation line from which we may deduce that the line of the wall is on an azimuth of ~102.25° (or ESE).  The question is 'where is Ro'?  In my opinion no one presently knows.  Broneer says it is 'on the property of Panagiota Roussi'.  In doing this he perpetuates a practice that cannot be sufficiently condemned - the naming of archaeological sites after the names of the people who own the property (looking at you, Emilia Kanta).  In the nearly 70 years since this segment was discovered 'Panagiota Roussi' has, presumably, been translated into a brighter and more glorious sphere and it's anyone's guess who owns the property now.  I suppose that this practice is thought of as a kind of 'site security' but it is really a practice of scholarly deviousness.  Obscuring the locations of sites in scholarly writings is not necessary for site security.  To see that just regard the work of Yannis Lolos, the eminent archaeologist of the Corinthia.  In his Land of Sikyon he not only gives exact lat/long pairs for every one of his many discoveries, he often gives the exact coordinates of each corner of the field in which the discovery was made.  Taking an example at random from Lolos [2011] we have HS-139, a set of ashlars for which all four coordinate pairs for the corners of the field in which it was discovered are given.[3]

As a result of the irresponsible practice of not giving adequate location information it now appears that no one knows where segment Ro actually is.[4]

Do we know anything at all about where Ro is?  Sort of.

We are told that Ro is about 120 m. to the west of segment St.  Where is St?  Well, St, according to Broneer [1966] is located next to the W side of the main road that travels to Kenchreai.[5]  If that's true then St would be about here: 37.913586 N, 23.003973 E.  Broneer goes on to say: "In the northeast corner, close to the modern road, some of the interior fill of small stones was exposed, ... " [6].  The northeast corner of the site could not be close to the modern road unless the bulk of St was on the western side of the road.  Fine.  Let's place it there momentarily and work forward to Segment Ro which, we'll remember, was 120 m. (about) to the W of St.  Where would that put Ro?  Let's look at the map:

In this photo we're looking roughly SW at the main road between Isthmia and Kenchreai.  North is to the lower right.  Segment St is  placed near the main road on the W side per Broneer.  A circle of 120 m radius is drawn centered on St.  Using that circle as a guide we see that segment Ro is somewhere on top of the ridge near where the Hexamilion wall begins its turn to the S.  Putting Ro here gets it in line for the next segment, Pe, which is some 600 m. further along.

An expert on the Hexamilion wall, Timothy Gregory, gives us a detailed look at the entire extent of that wall and, just where we're guessed a placement for Ro is the same place where the Hexamilion wall turns towards the S.  Gregory describes this area at the turning of the Hexamilion like this: "Just past 0+6,500 m. the Hexamilion reaches the end of the plateau and turns sharply to the south. At this point another tower (S-13) formed a lookout over the level ground to the east and north (Pl. 12:c). In this area, from 0+6,300 m. to beyond 0+6,500 m., the Hexamilion follows a line suggested by Oscar Broneer for a section of his Cyclopean wall across the Isthmus. According to Broneer, the wall ran along the north edge of the plateau, until the turning at Tower S-13, at which point the Cyclopean wall continued its course eastward on a nearly direct line to the Saronic Gulf. Section Ro of Broneer's wall seems to be located at the bottom of the hill on this line. The wall may be the one that Leake saw ..., as he speaks of two walls descending towards the sea, apparently from this point (S-13). ..."[7]  Emphasis is mine.

Gregory then discusses the possibility that the Hexamilion wall itself branched into two walls at this point (one going south and one east) and, if so, that " ... would explain the situation described by Leake in 1806. There can, however, be no question that in its original phase there was only one wall and that it turned southward at Tower S-13."[8]

If we follow Gregory and assume that Ro is on the foot of the ridge then that pushes St to the eastern side of the main highway.  Here I show a hypothetical position for Ro at the foot of the ridge.  The circle is 120 m in radius and is centered on our hypothetical Ro.  Do you see where it puts St?

Yes.   It puts St on the other or eastern side of the main road which contradicts Broneer.

So, if we follow Broneer, Ro is at the top of the ridge.  If we follow Gregory then Ro is at the foot of the ridge.  And this is what gives rise to my suspicion that the location of this little segment of wall is simply not now known to anyone.

Is there a potential solution that brings all these observations together?  Maybe.  It depends on whether we're willing to accept the old frontage road as the former main road that joins Kenchreae to Isthmia.  Here's what that would look like:

Broneer's diagram suggests that the orientation of the wall at Ro (wherever it is) is on an azimuth of 102.25 degrees.  I added 180 degrees to that and drew a reverse azimuth of 282.25 degrees from Sk (which position is known).  That is the green line on the map.

Now we can proceed if we are able to accept that the frontage road (brownish line labelled 'Old Main Road?') is the main road as it was in 1957 when these segments were discovered.  (The purple line is the modern road.) If so then we can place St roughly just to the west of the Old Road at the paddle labelled 'Hyp. St'.  The red circle there is 25 m in diameter which is the length for St given in Broneer.  On that green paddle I centered a circle of 120 m. radius (the yellow circle).  Where that circle intersects the green azimuth line on the W I placed the paddle for Ro.  It is labelled 'Hyp. Ro'.  That placement of Ro seems to agree with Gregory's idea that Ro might be at the bottom of the ridge.  And just at that point there begins a spur which rises to the top of Mytika ridge at the watchtower that Gregory has labelled 'S-13'.  At or near this hypothetical location for Ro the line of the wall would have to turn slightly to the W in order to mount this spur.

These constructions are hypothetical but, for now, I am using the corresponding positions for Ro and St in my Atlas:

Ro: C7760  37.913490° N, 23.003881° E

St:  C7759  37.913254° N, 23.005230° E

Footnotes

[1] Broneer [1966] 349-351.

[2] Broneer [1966] 350, Fig. 2, no. 4.

[3] Lolos [2011] 507, no. HS-139.

[4] And see this.

[5] Broneer [1966] 349.

[6] Ibid. 349.

[7] Gregory [1993] 49.

[8] Idem.

Bibliography

Broneer [1966] : Broneer, Oscar.  "The Cyclopean Wall on the Isthmus of Corinth and Its Bearing on Late Bronze Age Chronology",  Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (35:4), 346-362.  1966.  Online <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/147564">here</a>.

Gregory [1993] : Timothy, Gregory E., Isthmia V, The Hexamilion and the Fortress. American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton, New Jersey, 1993.  ISBN: 0-87661-935-9.

Lolos [2011]: Lolos, Yannis, A., Land of Sikyon: Archaeology and History of a Greek City-State, Hesperia supplements, 39.   Princeton:  American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 2011, ISBN 9780876615393.