Trench 1Q - PQ Extension
Erin Crumlin

Views to West (below) and East (above)

Above is the imported marble threshold block at the entry to the orchestra (also visible at the bottom of the picture on the left). At either end of it are the remains of the Roman boundary wall to the orchestra, inserted to allow the production of acquatic spectacles. As can be seen, it reduced the size of the entrance-opening. There is also differential wear on the plaster floor of the passage from use after this date. The floor was finished so as to imitate marble blocks. Towards the top of the left-hand picture is a Late Roman blocking wall, and to this side of it, the pit mentioned in the discussion below. The support-wall for the embankment of the cavea is on the right. It continues in Trench 1J. These trenches were opened in 1997 to further define the relationship between the cavea and orchestra in the western part of the theatre. The Hellenistic phase contains the east-west plaster-faced analemma wall cut into bedrock. Abutting this in the east is a north-south wall of weathered stones which seems to represent the boundary wall from the Roman period.

Following the abandonment of the theatre, probably in the late 4th to 5th century, this part of the theatre was modified by makeshift walls made out of theatre-seats and pieces of entablature. This squatter phase was ended by a sudden event (probably an earthquake) which sealed a small donkey under twenty centimetres of stony deposit. This deposit was covered by fill and sealed by a surface which contained Late Roman plain and cooking ware. On this surface a moulded terracotta votive vessel was found. Probably associated with this Late Roman level was a large grain pit dug down through the hard stony deposit and into the bedrock (1.05 m diam and 1.25 m deep, just visible at the bottom of the picture above). This pit contained some medieval glazed pottery and was obviously re-used during a later, medieval phase. A large medieval fill, ca. 60-70 cm deep, covered the Late Roman deposit. It was composed of pottery, animal bones, and medium-sized stones in a loose clay matrix. It also contained iron slag, plaster fragments and worked and unworked marble, tesserae, broken roof-tiles and fragments of terracotta pipe. Only scant temporary deposits (burnt patches and pits) were associated with this prodigious fill deposit.