Popular Archaeology

New discoveries are being made at the great Roman Theater of Apamea in Syria.

While the Large Theater at Ephesus (where St. Paul' s teachings caused a demonstration by the pagan worshippers of Artemis/Diana) has been excavated, the Great Roman Theater at Apamea has never been fully exposed, studied, or understood in its cultural contexts utilizing the most up-to-date archaeological techniques. This massive structure at Apamea is associated with many unresolved questions and archaeological mysteries. For example, do the current visible remains of the Apamea Theater rest over earlier structures, possibly dating back to the Hellenistic Era and Seleucus Nicator' s expansion of the Macedonian/Greek city after its founding by Alexander the Great? Significantly, very few Hellenistic buildings have survived from antiquity due to later Roman overbuilding and the quarrying of their finely finished building stones in the Christian and Islamic Periods. Thus, determining the structural evolution of the Great Theater of Apamea could be important in understanding both Hellenistic and Roman engineering techniques in the East as well as the archaeological and cultural history of this region of Greater Syria. Another question to be addressed is, how did the Great Theater relate to the overall city of Apamea with its famous philosophical schools rivaling Alexandria and Rhodes, its oracle Temple of Zeus Belos, as well as Apamea' s famous actors who are known from extant inscriptional evidence to have been some of the most talented entertainment professionals in the East? Was the Great Theater part of a ritual processional way associated with the Zeus Belos Temple and that of an as yet unknown temple of a female consort? As theatrical entertainments in the Roman world evolved from formal Greek performances to those of mime and dance, how did these changes in theatrical presentations affect the architectural elements of the stage in theaters in the Eastern Empire? The discovery and excavation of an intact stage structure would be extremely helpful in understanding these processes and entertainments. The Great Theater at Apamea presents our archaeological research team with just such an opportunity due to the fact that the support structures of the stage appear to have been preserved under the collapse of the elaborate backdrop wall (See Figure 2). How were the large crowds of over 20,000 people serviced in relation to their needs for hygiene, food, and other types of audience facilities? The areas surrounding other extant theaters both in the East and in Rome have been greatly disturbed or destroyed over time, thus our present knowledge of the support systems of Roman theaters of this size is currently very limited. This fact makes the relatively undisturbed contexts of the Apamea Theater potentially important in understanding the service industries associated with entertainment structures of this theater' s massive size, especially in the Eastern Empire.

What do the Great Theater' s extant archaeological remains tell us about the variety of the theater' s entertainments, including religious and cultural presentations, but also possibly small gladiatorial events that became popularized in theater contexts from the Hellenistic Period and into the Roman Era? In turn, what might these types of entertainments tell us about both the general public who attended such events, as well as the financial patrons of the Great Theater at Apamea? Since Apamea had previously served as the Hellenistic center for the Seleucid cavalry and elephant contingents before being conquered and turned into a major training center for Rome' s legions in the East, did the Great Theater at Apamea evolve over time to also serve the entertainment needs of military audiences as well as the local populations of the region? How might these audiences have impacted the evolution of the theater' s design and layout over time? Did the Great Theater also serve the famous philosophical schools of the city? All of these questions may be answered by a careful excavation of the site and retrieval of extant dedicatory inscriptions.

Given its size and the importance of Apamea as one of the great Syrian Tetrapolis cities of the East, did the Great Theater have the capabilities to capture and display water as its sister theaters in Antioch and Daphne are noted to have done according to extant inscriptions, primary documents, and the excavation of the Daphne Theater earlier in the twentieth century? If so, did the Great Theater at Apamea also host naumachia (naval theatrical displays) and/or the Maiumas Festival that celebrated the Spring harvest by the dunking of the temple prostitutes of Aphrodite under water -- a ceremony celebrated throughout the Classical world that symbolically renewed their virginity and thus the fertility of each community' s crops and herds? With the rise of Christianity, how were such pagan-centered edifices as theaters dedicated to Dionysus and other pagan deities and rituals altered and utilized in the Early Byzantine Period under the auspices of a new religious paradigm?

Recent excavations by the Syro-American Expedition to Apamea (2008-2010) have begun to address some of these questions. The first three seasons of excavation have resulted in new information that now causes us to think about the Great Theater of Apamea in new ways. The first season in 2008 exposed a completely intact Roman Era terracotta piping system running along the northern wall of the eastern ground entrance (the eastern aditus maximus) (See Figure 3). Significantly, this elaborate water system with carefully spaced access holes for repairs did not drain away from the theater, but rather down toward the orchestra floor. Additionally, the piping system had been repaired in the Byzantine Era, demonstrating that the theater was still being utilized in some capacity during the Christian Period.

A subsequent test trench in a damaged section of the orchestra floor also proved that the current Roman Era limestone and marble flooring had been laid over a previous limestone bedrock surface that contained carved out runnels that ran parallel with the lower seating of the theater (See Figure 4). This has given renewed plausibility to the theory that a Hellenistic Era theater lies under the present Roman Era structure. Interestingly, we now also know that the Roman Era stone floor had been placed over a concrete support subsurface reinforced with broken terracotta tiles in a manner discussed by the Roman author Vitruvius. Vitruvius associated such support substructures with the water proofing of flooring surfaces, again giving evidence for the possibility that the Great Theater at Apamea was modified to hold water. Renewed excavations of the lower stage in 2009-2010 also revealed Roman Era terracotta piping systems running toward the center of the stage. These Roman Era pipes had been subsequently overbuilt with a very substantial Byzantine qanat (water channel) indicating that some of the water carrying systems of the theater were preserved into the Christian Era (See Figure 5). All of the above seemingly indicate that the Great Roman Theater at Apamea did contain and display water in some fashion. As the major city of a region heavily associated with agricultural production, the Great Theater at Apamea may have hosted the Maiumas festival, just as her sister theaters on the coastal plains did at Antioch. Today, only the Birktein Complex at Jerash, Jordan is known by an extant inscription to have been a Maiumas Festival Center. The location of the theater at Antioch is unknown. Thus, we see the importance of the Great Roman Theater at Apamea in understanding the ritual uses of water containment theaters in the Eastern Provinces during the Late Hellenistic and Roman Eras. Additionally, did the increasing presence of Roman legions at Apamea during the second and third centuries C.E. also impact the demands for naumachia displays and gladiatorial combats as part of the entertainments offered by the later incarnations of the Great Theater at Apamea?

One of the other interesting features of the Great Theater at Apamea is its large well-designed back central entrance. This entrance consists of a carefully engineered series of stairs that descend through a processional access that narrows as it approaches the major seating areas of the upper theater. This access was structurally designed to safely slow down audience flow as patrons approached the seating regions of the upper and middle theater via a major street access at the top of the theater' s southern side. A large support hole for a possible turnstile was also discovered at the very bottom of the back central entrance stairs that would have enhanced the corridor' s functions with relation to crowd control. The back central entrance could also be locked down by a series of massive sets of doors set within at least two platform levels of the stairs. The existence of such a large and carefully designed back central access is unusual in Greater Syria in theaters, but appears in theaters outside of Rome at Volterra and Ostia--buildings that have known water containment and distribution features. The design of the back central entrance at Apamea may also be due to the dual influences of earlier Hellenistic theaters in Asia Minor, as well as the presence of Roman Legions from outside of Greater Syria who were stationed at Apamea after its capture from the Seleucid Empire. For example, back central entrances are known especially in small theaters that were not water containment theaters in Britain and in Gaul. Significantly, we know by inscriptional evidence that not only the I, II, and III Legio Parthica were stationed at Apamea, but also the cavalry units of the Ulpia Contariorum and Flavia Britannica, and possibly the Danubian equites were cycled through Apamea for training in order to be utilized in Rome' s constant struggles against Persian forces in the East. Rome' s legions and their engineers often participated in regional construction projects when not actively engaged in military maneuvers. An ongoing study of the carved graffito and quarry marks discovered in the exposed regions of the theater may give further clues to answering the question of whether or not Roman military personnel participated in the building and evolution of various phases of the Great Theater at Apamea.

The above information gleaned from the first three years of excavations has also encompassed a careful study of the differences in limestone block sizes, finishes, and their placements throughout the theater as they are exposed through excavation. Indeed, every fallen building block is measured, drawn, photographed, numbered, and data-based according to type, as well as being plotted into an overall grid plan of the site with laser transit technology. This allows us to document both the horizontal and vertical positions of every stone in the theater. All in-situ walls and structures are also measured and drawn. This comprehensive study, along with the test soundings in the orchestra floor, have allowed us to propose a new building sequence for the theater itself. This proposed building sequence will be tested in subsequent excavation seasons. Differences in ashlar building blocks with relation to size, masonry finishing, sequential wall placements, etc. are now documented between the eastern entrance and the back central entrance of the theater. Given the study noted above we now know that even within the eastern ground entrance, there are substantial differences between the north wall of the entrance and the south wall, as well as between the lower coursings of the north wall and subsequent changes to the upper wall on the same side of the corridor. Professor Jean Charles Balty has previously proposed that the Great Theater of Apamea was built during the reign of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. However, given our excavation and the careful study of all of the elements noted above, we now propose that the Great Theater at Apamea was constructed in four major phases. The first phase may have begun during the Seleucid Hellenistic Period probably during the reign of Seleucus Nicator. This theater would have utilized bedrock limestone as the surface of its orchestra floor and would have consisted of a theater constructed in the Greek style against its supporting hill with a horse-shoe shaped orchestra opening to the north. The stage would have been a one level structure separated from the orchestra floor. After the Battle of Actium and the defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII by Octavian/Augustus in 31 B.C.E., Augustus began a number of ambitious building programs in the East. As Apamea and her sister cities of the Tetrapolis had been previously associated with Mark Antony and Cleopatra, it would have been especially important for Augustus to have focused on overbuilding previous Hellenistic theaters at Antioch, Apamea, Seleucia, and Latakia in order to put a Roman stamp on these conquered cities, but also to have given local communities economic and cultural incentives to welcome Roman governance. Of these cities, only the theater at Apamea is extant today, thus enhancing its importance for excavation and study. We believe that the earlier Hellenistic theater in the Greek style was modified during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius to become a theater built in the Roman Western style with its lower seating changed and a stage complex attached to the regions of the orchestra in typical Roman fashion. Following a cataclysmic regional earthquake in 115 C.E., the theater was again repaired, modified, and expanded probably under the emperors Trajan and Hadrian. Trajan had been residing at Antioch in 115 C.E. when the massive earthquake had struck, and the emperor had nearly lost his life in the disaster. Trajan' s personal experiences with the destruction endured by the populations and cities of the region probably explains his active participation in the rebuilding of the East after 115 C.E., as well as the subsequent interests of his successor, Hadrian in the Hellenistic architecture of Greater Syria where Hadrian had also served as governor. A final expansion of the Great Theater of Apamea may have occurred in the late second or early third centuries C.E. with the addition of the upper seating that rests on Roman vaulting and includes the back central entrance mentioned above. During our transit survey of the theater, reutilized column drums were noted in the substructures of the vaults in this region of the theater, thus indicating that they were constructed at a different time period than the middle and lower seating regions of the building. Additionally, these historical eras in the East were characterized by increasing tensions between Rome and both Parthian and later Sassanian Persian incursions in the East, thus increased concentrations of Roman legions are noted at Apamea by inscription. These concentrations of Roman military elements at the cavalry training facilities at Apamea may have been important in subsequent alterations of the theater' s upper seating and the back central entrance. During our laser transit of the overall theater, we discovered that the back central entrance does not align with the center of the current stage, but drifts 2-3 degrees to the northeast, thus possibly indicating that it was added to the theater after the base support structures of the present stage. Excavations of the first 10 meters of the lower stage closest to the eastern ground entrance also indicate alterations of the stage front itself. Initially, we ran into a section of the stage where the earth that was removed contained many more scorpions than usual. This seemed puzzling at first. We then discovered that the front of the stage was altered in the Byzantine Period to include a large qanat/water channel. The scorpion concentration was due to the increases in moisture still caused by the existence of the qanat. We propose that this water channel was constructed to replace the water carrying functions of the earlier Roman terracotta piping system that runs directly under the qanat. The Roman pipes may have been damaged due to the numerous earthquakes that are noted in Greater Syria during the early Christian Era. The water containment features of the theater were thus still valued by the populace as is demonstrated by the numerous examples of pottery fragments of water carrying vessels found in association with the discovery of the qanat. These clues and the discovery of the Roman piping system along the north wall of the eastern ground entrance point to the possible existence of water cisterns under the northeastern terrace of the theater itself that were still functional into the Christian Era.

Many questions and mysteries concerning the Great Roman Theater still need to be answered through ongoing excavation and study, and our proposed dating sequence for the theater needs to be confirmed through further study and retrieval of archaeological data. Due to the present political situation in Syria our research team has been doing a comparative theater study in Turkey, Italy, Sicily, Greece, and Britain. This survey is especially focused in an attempt to understand the differing types of water catchment and display functions that theaters played in the Hellenistic and Roman Eras, and to compare and contrast them to the Great Theater at Apamea. Such a study will result in a new categorization of theaters in the ancient world based on function and water feature designs. Such research will also provide a much-needed expansion, update and correction of previous studies.

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites

Related News:

• Archeological Sites in Ancient City of Apamea Vandalized and Pillaged
• Six Roman Tombs Uncovered in Central Syria
• Burial chamber dating back to Hellenistic period unearthed in Apamea
• Byzantine coins and water tank unearthed in archaeological city of Apamea
• Syrian Archaeologists: Rare 3rd Century Frescos Undergoing Restoration at Hama Museum
• Syrian Archaeologists: Unique Mosaic Dating Back to 1st Century AD Found in Apamea
• Temple dating back to Hellenistic and Roman eras unearthed in Syria
• Belgian archaeologists unearthed clay pieces and bathtubs in Syria