E-Lecture: The Perachora Peninsula Archaeological Project 2020
Susan Lupack (Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University, Sidney)
The Perachora Peninsula Archaeological Project held its first season of intensive surface survey over January and February 2020. The project is a synergasia co-directed by Panagiota Kasimi (Director of the Antiquities of the Corinthia), and Susan Lupack (Macquarie University), under the aegis of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens.
In our first season we focused on the area above the Sanctuary of Hera called the Upper Plain. The nature of this area, with its houses and extensive waterworks, has been disputed: Payne, the site’s initial excavator, saw it as a substantial town, while Tomlinson, who worked three decades later, in the 1960s, referred to it as “a scatter of houses.” One of our main aims is to clarify the nature of the settlement in the Upper Plain during the sanctuary’s use from the 8th to the 2nd century B.C. We also aim to discover the full diachronic use of the area. Mycenaean and Early Helladic sherds were found in the excavation, and a Roman house was built in the sanctuary site, but very little attention has been paid to these time periods. In this paper I will illustrate how we set out to accomplish our aims and share some of our preliminary findings.