Ayios Ermoyenis, Discovery of Trench 43, V. Grace 1941Virginia Randolph Grace

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Absolute dates in this later history of the tomb are fairly clear. A time well on in the 1st century BC is suggested for burials 1-3 by the strigil #15, the complicated fashion of which is precisely matched in one found by Mr. McFadden associated with two lamps of Broneer's Type XIX; these are the commonest lamps in Corinth in deposits from the first years of the Roman colony, founded in 44 BC. The lamp #8 with burial 4 does not exactly fit any of Broneer's types, but related features place it in the first half of the 1st century AD. Corresponding with the four burials are the four storage amphoras, three of which (#1, 2, and 4) are in their own series datable in the 1st century BC, while the fourth, #3, is probably later. The fall of the roof is dated by a coin of Probus (276-282 AD), in fine condition, found at the level where the xx amphoras stopped floating.

The finding place of the trefoil lamp #73 seemed to indicate (see p.8) that there was already a break between Tombs 9 and 1 before Period II of the latter. More definite evidence is available for a slightly later [handwritten: ?] date: in Tomb 1, beside the glass flasks #50-52 (burial 2 of Period II) there turned up a piece of the Rhodian jar Tomb 9, #13; and nearby, still closer under the present break, but at a higher level so that apparently it rolled in after the tombs were abandoned, lay the body of a pottery alabastron, #49, of which the lip was found in Tomb 9 (#31). It is interesting to compare the latter vase with Tomb 1, 44-46. The similarity in shape indicates that some fairly contemporary use was made of the two tombs, and the difference in material and finish illustrates a contrast in fortune, the offerings in the crowded Tomb 9 consisting almost entirely of Cyprus-made pottery of the most modest sort. Perhaps, if it was the same family which growing prosperity permitted to branch out into

1 Built Dromos to Tombs 8 and 10, part of #14. 2 It belongs to Westholm's Type 5, dated by him first half of 1st century AD (SCE III, p.531.) 3 The Rhodian jars may be compared with SS 6812 of the Agora excavations, Athens, a fragmentary amphora found in a 1st century BC cistern filling. The double-handled jar #1 is placed by its development in style from the Agora SS 8214 of the 2nd century BC, which has a much fuller body.