Excavations at the ancient theatre of sparta 1995–1998: Preliminary report

The Annual of the British School at Athens

Volumn 94, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 437-455

  Waywell, G B ^a   Wilkes, J J ^b  

^a KING'S COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 85009596363     PISSN: 00682454     EISSN: 20452403     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0068245400000678     Document Type: Article

References (65)

1. G. B. Waywell and J. J. Wilkes, BSA 90 (1995), 435-60. including contributions by N. Fradgley, A. D. Powell, J. W. Hayes. G. D. R. Sanders and S. E. C. Walker. See too G. B. Waywell, J. J. Wilkes and S. E. C. Walker, ‘The ancient theatre at Sparta’, in W. Cavanagh and S. E. C. Walker (eds), Sparta in Laconia (London, 1998), 97-111. A full account of Sparta theatre, incorporating the evidence from the 1992-8 excavations, is in course of preparation by the present writers.
2. Waywell and Wilkes (n. 1), 437-40. trenches ST 92/93 I-IX. A tenth trench laid out in the western upper cavea was abandoned because of extensive modern disturbance to the area.
3. A. M. Woodward, BSA 26 (1923-1931), 119-58: id., BSA 27 (1925-6). 175-209: id., BSA 28 (1926-7), 3- 21; id., BSA 29 (1927-8), 1.
4. Results of the analysis were published by G. M. Chandler in G. B. Waywell and J. J. Wilkes, BSA 92 (1997), 428-34.
5. Financial support for the four seasons’ work was provided by the British Academy (Humanities Research Board), the British Museum, the British School at Athens, the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and King's College London, to all of whom grateful thanks are due. We also acknowledge the generous support and assistance of Dr Theodoras Spyropoulos. Ephor of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities for Arkadia and Lakonia, and his colleagues in the Sparta office of the 5th Ephorate, particularly Stella Raftopoulou, Athanasios Themos, and Eleni Zavvou. We are indebted to the Directors of the British School, Dr M. J. Price, Professor R. A. Tomlinson, and Mr D. J. Blackman, and to the Athens Secretary, Mrs Helen Clark, for their advice and administrative help. Overall direction of the work was in the hands of GBW and JJW. Architectural recording and survey was undertaken in 1995-6 by Ms Anne Hooton (Agora Excavations, Athens: and Mr N. Sunter, and in 1997-8 by Mr N. R. Fradgley (Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England). Stone recording and analysis was directed by Dr S. E. C. Walker (Dept. of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum), and scale drawing by Sue Bird (British Museum) and GBW. Conservation work was carried out by Ms G. Garrett (1995), and Ms I. Narkiss (1998). Environmental support was provided by Dr K. N. Wilkinson (King Alfred's College, Winchester) and Ms J. Sidell (Museum of London). The following worked as assistants in excavation or recording for one or more seasons: A. Bevan, G. Dods, T. Hatzinikola. M. Kosmopoulou, C. Morse, C. Pickersgill, A. Powell, L. Preston, I. Przybylska, D. Romanou, J. Stevens, H. Thliveri, C. de Waal, and M. Williamson, Teams of local workmen employed for the heavy digging were supervised by Mr Yannis Konstandelos of Aphisiou.
6. That it was natural was verified by Dr K. Wilkinson of King Alfred's College. Winchester.
7. Woodward, BSA 27 (1925-1961), 190 pl. 27.
8. For a preliminary publication of some of these fragments, see Waywell, Wilkes, and Walker (n. 1), fig. 9. 9-17 and below PP. 454-5.
9. Winchester. fig. 9.24.
10. See below at n. 21.
11. Woodward, BSA 27 (1925-1926), 180-6 pl. 28: Waywell and Wilkes, BSA 89 (1994), 430.
12. Woodward, BSA 27 (1925-1926), 190-2, 204. pl.27.
13. below at n. 21. 190-1, and 192 n. 1 for Dörpfeld's view and Woodward's response.
14. H. Bulle, Untersuchungen an den griechischen Theatern (Abhandlungen der bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, Band 33; Munich 1928). 97-110. esp. 108 ff.
15. BSA 28 (1926-1927), 6-15.
16. H. Bulle, Das Theater zu Sparta (Munich, 1937), esp. 5-37 for the pie-Flavian theatre.
17. below at n. 21. pl.3, cf. pl. 4 c.
18. The dimensions given are average thicknesses. The heavier blocks vary between 0.47 and 0.50 m, and the lighter blocks of the north line between 0.26 and 0.31 m. Cf. below at n. 21. 7. The variations in block thickness result from irregularities in the surface levels of the underlying poros foundations.
19. C. Buckler, ‘The myth of the movable skenai’, AJA 90 (1986), 431-610.2307/506028.
20. The dimensions given are average thicknesses. 436.
21. The eastern grooved block is numbered 4 by Weyhe in Bulle (n. 16), pl. 3 (here FIG. 3), and Buckler (n. 19). 435. Its surface is just 14 mm lower than that of the grooved blocks at the west end of C-C, situated nearly 48 m distant.
22. See above, n. 15.
23. Only the most westerly of the three blocks had been uncovered and recorded by Bulle (n. 16), pl. 4c.
24. Bulle (n. 16), 7, 10. 12.
25. Buckler (n. 19), 433-6.
26. IG v 1, 691. Woodward, BSA 30 1928-1930, 201-2, 209 : Bulle (n. 16), 38-9: Waywell, Wilkes, and Walker (n. 1), fig. 9.26.
27. Above, n. 15.
28. H. Tillyard, BSA 13 (1906-1907). 191-6: Woodward, BSA 30 (1928-1930). 226-31. For a late 1st-c. BC dating for Kallikrates, see G. Steinhauer, BSA 93 (1998), 429.
29. BSA 28 (1926-1927). 8-9, 12.
30. Above. pl. 3.
31. Waywell and Wilkes, BSA 89 (1994), 423.
32. Above. 397. 424.
33. BSA 12 (1905-1906), 394-406.
34. Above, n. 7.
35. Bulle (n. 16), 10 11.
36. Bulle. pl. 3. designated as Sk.2.
37. Bulle. 13.
38. BSA 27 (1925-1926), 199-200 fig. 7. Bulle. Bulle. (n. 37) suggests the pithoi may have contained water.
39. The lowest point of the foundations for the north wall is itself some 5 cm above the surface level of the poros bedding blocks. The heights of the wall courses from bottom to top average out as: 0.20, 0.21, 0.235, 0.235, 0.16, and 0.11. Cf. Bulle (n. 16), 15.
40. BSA 28 (1926-1927), 15.
41. BSA 90 (1995), 443. See Bulle (n. 16), 16, who stresses the contemporaneity of the scenery store and the theatre cavea.
42. The term scaena ductilis la ‘draw perfectly describes the arrangement prescribed by the trackways at Sparta, but it is differently defind on Verg. Georg iii. 24. as a series of painted scene panels whose layers could be drawn apart to reveal interior views. This is the interpretation followed and discussed by R. C. Beacham, The Roman Theatre and its Audience London, 1995, 169-76.
43. cf. Bulle (n. 16), 6-7. Widths vary between 0.58 and 0.745, and lengths mostly fall within 1.25-1.59 m.
44. Cf. n. 21.
45. In their present situation they are too high, by c. 0.50 m, to have been bedding for the track blocks, an apparent discrepancy which was cited as significant evidence by C. Buckler in her argument against the existence of a movable stage. See above, p. 442 with n. 21.
46. Bulle (n.16), 8.
47. See above, nn. 24-5.
48. Cf. Bulle (n. 16), 18-23.
49. their present situation they are too high. 8. 18.
50. From the evidence of the secondary wear marks, Bulle (their present situation they are too high. 9) calculated the size of the wheel flanges as 8 cm wide and 4 cm deep.
51. How the construction moved remains a matter for speculation. Most likely manpower would have sufficed, once initial momentum had been obtained by leverage of some sort, although one might envisage the need for some sort of barking system. Cf. Bulle, From the evidence of the secondary wear marks. 23, with n. 2.
52. Vitruvius. De Architectura, v. 5-7. For discussion of wooden theatres, see Beacham (n. 42), 56-85: and How the construction moved remains a matter for speculation. 160-83 for mechanical devices and stage machinery. Bulle (n. 16), 20 suggests influence also from Hellenistic siege engines.
53. For moving stages of three to four storeys height (pegmata), cf. Vitruvius. 180-1. citing Josephus, BJ vii. 139-47, describing the moving stages with remarkable tableaux vivants of the sack of Jerusalem which featured in the triumph of Titus in AD 71.
54. Large-scale moving devices were not uncommon in antiquity both inside and outside the theatre. Of the evidence surveyed by Bulle (n. 16), 68-80. the most interesting non-theatrical comparison tor the moving stage at Sparta is the extensive and partly grooved diolkos trackway across the isthmus of Corinth, which was capable of moving large ships. See most recently on this. G. Raepsaet, BCH 117 (1993), 233-6110.3406/bch.1993.1679 : and W. Werner, The international Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 26, 2 (1997), 98-119. with earlier literatur.
55. Bulle (n. 16), 10-18.
56. BSA 28 (1926-1927), 11, pl. 3; cf. Bulle (n. 16), 16, who gives the depths from east to west as: 0.80, 0.85, and 0.20-0.40 m. He also notes that the tops of the east and central slots come c. 4 m and 4.3 m above the ground-level of the nymphaeum.
57. Bulle (n. 16), 17.
58. BSA 30 (1928-1930), 159.
59. Waywell, Wilkes and Walker (n. 1).
60. Large-scale moving devices were not uncommon in antiquity both inside and outside the theatre.; cf. Waywell and Wilkes, BSA 90 (1995), 443.
61. Vitruvius, De Architectura, iv. 3 for the Doric order, citing a ratio of 7 lower diameters for the column height, and c. 8.5 lower diameters for the order to cornier-level.
62. R. L. Scranton, i, 3 (1951), 61-2. 66, fig. 43.
63. M. Bieber, The History oj the Greek and Roman Theater (Princeton, 1961). 108-28; the use of the Doric order to support the stage frontage is noteworthy also at Aphrodisias theatre, which is roughly contemporary with the first phase of Sparta theatre AMBIGUOUS (1219 citations).
64. E. A. Gardner and W. Loring, Excavations at Megalopolis 1890-1891 (London, 1892). 23 50, 69-100; E. Fiechter, Das Theater in Megalopolis (Stuttgart, 1931); H. Bullc (n. 16), 23-27;C. Buckler (n. 19), 431-3 AMBIGUOUS (15539 citations).
65. P. Cartledge and A. Spawforth, Hellenistic and Roman Sparta: A Tale of Two Cities (London, 1989), 97-104.