Photographs of section Pe of the Cyclopean Wall

 I mentioned in a previous post that my associate, Mr. Peter Barkevics, has confirmed the location of segment Pe of the 'Cyclopean' wall near Isthmia in Greece.  The position of this segment is 37.913457° N, 22.997472° E.

Fig. 1.  Area of the Isthmus.  Blue way-mark
indicates section Pe of the 'Cyclopean' wall.

Zooming in:

Fig. 2.  Area of the 'Cyclopean' wall.  Section Pe is in the center
at the blue way-mark.

Section Pe was reported by Oscar Broneer in 1966 [1] and he provided a drawing of it:[2]

Fig. 3.  Broneer's drawing of section Pe of the 'Cyclopean' wall.

Overlaying the site re-established by Barkevics with Broneer's drawing gives this:

Fig. 3a.  Google Earth image overlaid with Broneer's sketch of Pe.  Broneer [1966] 350, fig. 2, no. 3.  Elevation of the wall at the way-mark is 60 m. a.s.l.

This wall segment is about 6 m from the edge of the modern road.

Broneer described Pe like this: 

"One continuous stretch, Pe (Fig. 2,3; Pl. 81), in the property of Sotiris Peras, measures 45.50 m. in length. Only the outer, northern face is well preserved, in places to a height of two courses, but a few stones from the inner face show that the wall here had a thickness of 3.60-4.00 m. The stones are large, some measuring 1.50-1.75 m. in length and 0.75 m. in height.  There are four towers, varying in width between 2.10 and 2.60 and projecting ca. 0.70 m. from the face of the wall. The distance from one tower to the next varies between 7.90 and 9.50 m.  There was very little earth close to the wall, and the sherds found on the surface are mostly small pieces of undatable coarse fabrics. Two undecorated pieces might be Mycenaean."[3]

Two previous photographs of Pe are known to me - one appeared in Broneer [1966] [4].  The other appeared in Morgan [1999]. [5]  To these old and now outdated photographs Mr. Barkevics has added some fifty color photos which detail the segment stone by stone.  At the bottom of this next figure we see Mr. Barkevics diagram notes of the positions where his pictures were taken and, above that, my own diagram that tries to match his photos to Broneer's drawing.

Fig. 4.  Upper drawing is Broneer [1966] 350, Fig. 2, no. 3.
Lower drawing is Google Earth overlaid with Barkevics' way markers.

Is this segment photographed by Barkevics the same as that shown in Broneer's photo?  Yes.  This next photo shows my labels for several of the stones in the Broneer photo:

Fig. 5.  Broneer [1966] Pl. 81.

This next photo by Barkevics shows the same stones with corresponding labels:

Fig. 6.  Tower 3 (from W).  View is to S.

I believe that stone beta has been moved and I may not have identified it correctly.  Stone beta may actually be the next small stone (with the question mark) to the viewer's right.  The other stones are clearly the same.

Following is a tour of the structure from the west to the east.

Fig. 7.  Photo 325.  The first two stones of the N face on the west. 
Viewer is looking S.

This photo shows the first two stones in the sequence, starting from the west.  This is photo 325 and you can see its position by looking at the left side of fig. 4 in this post.  Here are the same two stones again (note the mossy patch).

Fig. 8.  Photo 326.  West end of N face.  View facing S. 
The person is standing on the north edge of the modern road.

Fig. 9.  Photo 327.  First tower from the W.

This is the first (counting from the W) of the projections which Broneer identified as 'towers'.  Their small size and the nature of the ground strongly suggest that they are buttresses.  

The next photo shows the view from the N of this same 'tower'.

Fig. 10.  Photo 328.  Same tower from the N and looking S.

The second 'tower' from the left is shown in the next photo:

Fig. 11.  Photo 332.  Tower 2 (counting from the W).

... and another view of Tower 2:

Fig. 12.  Photo 333.  Tower 2 from a bit further back.

The next photo gives another view of Tower 3 (already shown in Fig. 6):

Fig. 13.  Photo 346.  Tower 3.  The view is to SE. 
Ten-euro note (127 x 67 mm) for scale.

Another view of Tower 3:

Fig. 14. Photo 348.  Tower 3 from N. 
View is directly S.  Compare to Fig. 5.

Fig. 15.  Photo 351.  East end of Tower 3 (from W).

Fig. 16. Photo 357.  Tower 4 (counting from the W).  View from the E.
Underbrush suppressed for clarity.

It is difficult to escape the impression that section Pe is slowly being degraded by natural forces.  Both erosion and the undergrowth (particularly pine trees) are going to dislodge more stones.  The Archaeological Service might do a great deal of good by spending a day clearing brush around this very important monument.

In future blog posts I will publish more of Barkevics photos and then try to say what we have learned about the Cyclopean wall.

Footnotes

[1] Broneer [1966] 351.

[2] Broneer [1966] 350, fig. 2, no. 3.

[3] Broneer [1966] 351

[4] Broneer [1966] Plate 81.

[5] Morgan [1999] 443, fig. 8.  Mislabelled 'Section Sp'.  The correction is due to Simpson and Hagel [2006] 130, fn. 103.

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). 1966.  Online here.

Broneer [1968] : Broneer, Oscar. 'The Cyclopean Wall on the Isthmus of Corinth, Addendum', Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (37:1), 25-35.  The American School of Classical Studies at Athens. 1968.

Kardara [1971] : Kardara, Chrisoula. 'The Isthmian Wall; (A Retaining Wall for a Road)', Athens Annals of Archaeology (4:1), 85-89. 1971.  Online here.

Morgan [1999] :  Morgan, Catherine. Isthmia VIII; The Late Bronze Age Settlement and Early Iron Age Sanctuary. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton, New Jersey. 1999.

Simpson and Hagel [2006]:  Simpson, R. Hope and D.K. Hagel. Mycenaean Fortifications, Highways, Dams and Canals. SIMA vol. 133. Paul Åströms Förlag. Sävedalen, Sweden. 2006.

Section St of the 'Cyclopean' Wall is found

 Peter Barkevics, has re-established the location of segment St of the 'Cyclopean Wall'. [1]  It is at 37.913404° N, 23.004431° W.  Formerly this was on an olive grove owned by the Statiris family.[2]  After being described by Broneer et al, some years ago, it was acquired by its present owners.  The wall is positioned in the front yard of a bed and breakfast.  Some stones appear to be occluded by building in the back of the property.  This section of the wall is 237 meters from segment Sk on a bearing, from Sk, of 282.79°.

The owner allowed Pete to photograph freely but would only allow two reduced-size images to be reproduced on this blog.

North face of St looking W

North face of St looking E

All photographs are the property of Peter Barkevics and all rights are reserved.

In this next photo we see the B&B property as it looks in Google Earth:

Here is a copy of the drawing that Broneer made of St.[3]

In this final photo I superimpose Broneer's drawing over a GoogleEarth image of the B&B in question.

Here I have fit the drawing to the stones as best I could. It seems clear that the north face runs E-W through the center of the lawn. The south face is partly covered by the driveway and, in the back, by the building of a shed.

Peter Barkevics has interesting observations about the current condition of this wall. He writes:

"The current owner, ..., says there have been several floods of water from Mytika area after heavy rain in past years. A culvert has been built between the houses above his and it discharges over his courtyard. The discharge has eroded some of the area and the wall was affected. ... All I can say is that a quick survey of the site by the archaeological service would be a good idea. It's only a day's work for a survey team ... "

I want to thank Peter for his untiring work in finding and documenting these wall fragments.  They are important for understanding Greece's Late Helladic history. Shamefully they have so far been given, not analytical, but mythologizing treatment.

Footnotes

[1] First described by Broneer and Kardara. For section St see Morgan [1999] 440, no. 2, 'Section St (Statiris Property)'. Also Broneer [1966] 349 and fn. 8.

[2] Broneer [1966] 349.

[3] Broneer [1966] 350, fig. 2, no. 5.

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). 1966. Online here.

Kardara [1971] : Kardara, Chrisoula. 'The Isthmian Wall; (A Retaining Wall for a Road)', Athens Annals of Archaeology (4:1), 85-89. 1971.  Online here.

Morgan [1999] :  Morgan, Catherine. Isthmia VIII; The Late Bronze Age Settlement and Early Iron Age Sanctuary . The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton, New Jersey. 1999.

Section Pe of the Cyclopean Wall is found

 The segment Pe (C7761) of the Cyclopean Wall has now been confirmed to be located at 37.913457° N, 22.997472° E. My associate in Greece, Mr. Peter Barkevics has now confirmed its location and provided a large collection of photographs. The elevation of this segment is 65 m a.s.l. It is located just below the road and about 18 m. (59 ft.) below the edge of the Mytika plateau and about 20 m (65 ft.) above the valley floor.

In this view we are facing the Saronic Gulf to the SE. The modern road runs almost perfectly E to W. The distance from the edge of the road to the blue paddle labeled ‘C7761 Section Pe’ is almost exactly 6 m. Here the wall has been sketched in with an orange outline; it has been superimposed on the drawing by Broneer [1966]. [1] The circle in 45 m. in diameter.

Drawing from Broneer [1966]

The segment is, of course, in a neglected state; heavily overgrown and concealed by brush. The characteristic ‘towers’ identified by Broneer make the identity of this wall unmistakable. Moreover the position agrees with the map in Frey and Broneer [2016]. [2]

I include some of Pete's great photos and I will publish more soon.

Here is a  photo (taken from the W) of the W edge of the second tower from the left in the Broneer drawing:

Here is a photo of the west corner of Tower 3 (from the W):

There are some dangers to be aware of.  The next photo shows an old excavation (?) trench which is just a little way to the E of Pe:

I will add more of Peter's photos to this blog post (so check back) as soon as they are post-processed and labeled.

For right now we should all thank Peter Barkevics who not only went out, found, and  photographed this wall.  He also identified the Frey and Gregory article which showed the right position of Pe.  

If it had been up to me we all would still be looking at the edge of the Mytika plateau.

Footnotes

[1] Broneer [1966] 350, Fig. 2, no. 3.  Comments in red are mine.

[2] Frey and Gregory [2016] 438, Fig. 1.

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 here.

Frey and Gregory [2016] : Frey, Jon M. and Timothy E. Gregory, 'Old Excavations, New Interpretations: The 2008–2013 Seasons of The Ohio State University Excavations at Isthmia', Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (85:3) 437-490. 2016. Online here.