When the Roman tourist Pausanias visited Corinth around A.D. 160, he saw many shrines and buildings high up to the south of the city, on the slopes of Acrocorinth. This booklet describes excavations at one of these, the Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone (Kore). The details of religious rites revealed are of particular interest since the cult of the two goddesses, also celebrated at Eleusis, is one of the most mysterious in antiquity, and no literary testimony exists to explain what may have happened behind the high walls. Terracotta dolls, ritual meals of pork, and miniature models of food-filled platters hint at a vigorous religious tradition associated with human and agricultural fertility.

The fifth part of the Corinth volume dedicated to the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore publishes the large-scale terracotta sculpture found in the sanctuary. Extending from the late 7th through the 4th century B.C., the sculpture consists of fragments from 132 to as many as 147 statues, from half- to nearly life-size. These are, for the most part, statues of young males, both draped and nude, although females and seated infants appear as well. Several introductory chapters discuss the types represented, the findspots and possible original placement of the sculptures, and the techniques involved in their construction. The fragments are presented in 156 well-illustrated catalogue entries. This volume greatly expands our knowledge of the history of Corinth, broadening our understanding both of cult practices at the site and of the manufacture of terracotta sculpture.

This volume continues the publication of excavations conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens in the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on Acrocorinth. It incorporates two bodies of material: Greek lamps and offering trays. The lamps include those made from the 7th through 2nd centuries B.C., together with a few Roman examples not included in Corinth XVIII.2. They served to provide light and to accompany the rites of sacrifice. The offering trays differ from the liknon-type offering trays published by A. Brumfield; they support a variety of vessels rather than types of food and had a symbolic function in the Sanctuary rituals. They are extremely common in the Sanctuary and only rarely attested elsewhere.