Since 1988 a research team from the Mediterranean Section of the
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania has been involved in making a computerized archit
ectural and topographical survey of the Roman colony of Corinth. Known as the Corinth Computer Project, the field work has been carried out under the auspices of the Corinth Excavations of the American School
of Classical Studies at Athens, Dr. Charles K. Williams II, Director. Although the excavations at Corinth by the American School have been underway for more than a century, aspects
of the study of the layout of the Roman colony have remained incomplete due to the size and complexity of the site as well as its complicated history. A great deal of information about the Roman city, as well as many accurate plans, existed before the wor
k of the Corinth Computer Project began. The original objectives were to study the nature of the city planning process during the Roman period at Corinth; to gain a more precise idea of the order of accuracy of the Roman surveyor; and to create a highly
accurate computer generated map of the ancient city whereby one could discriminate between and study the successive chronological phases of the city's development.
It is important to acknowledge that during the course of the fifteen
years of the project to date, the nature of the research has evolved from
a fairly straightforward consideration of the location and orientation of the
excavated roadways of the Roman colony, to a more complex topographical and
architectural consideration of various elements of the colony, including the
rural as well as the urban aspects of planning and settlement. The project now
utilizes a number of methodologies, simultaneously, in the overall study of
the ancient city. One aspect of the project is a regional landscape study of
a portion of the Corinthia, with the city of Roman Corinth as the focus. Another
aspect of the project is the effort to include information from the city of
Corinth from chronological periods other than Roman, specifically Archaic and
Classical Greek, Hellenistic, Late Roman, Byzantine, Frankish, Venetian, seventeenth
through twentieth centuries. By means of low level and high altitude air
photography, as well as satellite images and some balloon photographs, the limits
of the project have been greatly expanded into areas that had not been considered
in the original research design. A brief
history of the Corinth Computer Project is included to further illustrate
the evolution of research and laboratory techniques. In the fall of 1998 a graduate
level seminar, City and Landscape of Roman Corinth, was taught at the University
of Pennsylvania. Students were assigned individual buildings and structures
of the forum as their research projects.
Go here to view a Quick Time® movie of the forum
as it is today.
©2006-07 David
Gilman Romano. If you have questions or comments concerning the Corinth
Computer Project please email us at
dromano@sas.upenn.edu or submit an online
Webdesign by: Nicholas L. Stapp This page was last updated on August 29, 2006.
