Since the beginning of the excavations in Ancient Corinth by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens in 1896, a multi-period, intricate stratigraphy of the urban landscape of this site has been unravelled. This century-long history of excavations in Ancient Corinth has been previously disseminated by six editions of the site guide published by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Previous editions were curated by the ASCSA director Rhys Carpenter in 1928 and in 1933; the scholar Charles Morgan in 1936; Oscar Broneer in 1947 and 1951, whose 1951 edition was revisited by Robert Scranton in 1954; and, finally, Corinth director Henry Robinson in 1960.

This paper aims to provide an overview of the diverse investigations and research questions that have been addressed in the field of Byzantine archaeology in the Peloponnese since the last report on Byzantine archaeology, published in 2013. Since then, considerable amounts of new data have been brought to light and a significant number of new publications have appeared, revealing renewed development in this field of studies; this will be addressed here, with a focus on the Early Byzantine period.

Pietra ollare is the Italian nomenclature for a grouping of different lithotypes of basic and ultrabasic metamorphic rocks, related to green schist facies, and used in the production of ollae (Latin for ‘cooking pots’). The label pietra ollare is not related to a petrographic stone type classification, but rather encompasses, in archaeological literature, a variety of commodities made in a range of stone types, from soft grey soapstone to pale green coloured lithotypes that are medium to fine in grain, such as serpentinine, chlorite and amphibole schists rocks.