Sunday, February 11, 2024

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

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