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Excavation

  • Theatre of Apollonia
  • Pojan
  • Apollonia
  • Albania
  • Fier County
  • Bashkia Fier
  • Komuna e Dermenasit

Tools

Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • The investigations of 2008 in the ancient city of Apollonia, focused on the sratigraphical sequences in the area of orchestra and scaena. Also, small scale excavations were carried out, aiming to understand the territory around the theatre. The excavations of this season revealed several construction phases of the theatre’s scaena, which cover a wide chronology of time, from the Hellenistic to the Roman Imperial period. It seems that during the Hellenistic period the decorative elements of the scaena were of the Ionian order, as suggested by the discovery of several frieze blocks on its northern side. The excavations in the central area of the orchestra identified a rubble layer which belongs to the destruction of the scaena. The postholes identified below the rubble layer, are probably related to the scaffolding, the supporting elements of the orchestra, or other temporary wooden structures established during the theatre’s performances. The cleaning of the auditorium area showed that the incline of the cavea (26 grade) correspond to that of the koilon and to the sloping level of the parodos wall. On the northern side of the parodos a regular limestone block engraved in Greek – YΛOY YIOΣ TAPANTINOΣ ANA, perhaps an architectonic element of the geison of the frieze of scaena, was unearthed. The foundations of the proskenion were also revealed. It dates to the first phase of the construction of the theatre (3rd Century BC). The investigations of this season enabled the identification of a reconstruction of the Roman period. During this time, the orchestra was transformed into an arena for gladiators and the first seating row of the cavea seems to have been removed for constructing a high parapet wall. In addition, the reconstruction of Late Roman time, are confirmed by the use of bricks in the reconstructed wall of the scaena, and the reuse of the frieze blocks of the Ionian order (former elements of the Hellenistic scaena) as a threshold between the arena and the auditorim.

Director

  • Bashkim Lahi - Insituti i Arkeologjisë Tiranë, Departamenti i Antikitetit (Albanian Institute of Archaeology, Department of Antiquity)
  • Henner von Hesberg - Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Rom

Team

Research Body

  • Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Rom
  • Instituti Arkeologjik Tiranë (Albanian Institute of Archaeology)

Funding Body

  • Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften

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