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Trench 1U was a 4 x 4m trench excavated in the 1997
season. As can be seen from the plan, it was located on the
eastern side of the theatre's orchestra and the aim of the
excavation was to see if the features uncovered in trench 1P
on the western side were reciprocated at the parodos, or
entranceway, on the other.
Unfortunately excavation very quickly indicated that this
area of the site had been badly disturbed. Modern activity
on the site was cleared away and in the north-west corner of
the trench the bedrock basis of the cavea seating was soon
revealed. Some plaster fragments from the covering of the
seating were still lying on the bedrock, although no
evidence of seating was to be found. The bedrock-cut edge of
the cavea was found, although all the parodos wall's stone
edging revealed on the western side of the theatre and to
the east in trench 1M had been removed from here. A mixed
deposit and a mixed range of ceramics (twentieth-century
ceramics were still being found at a depth of over one
metre) suggest that for a long time soil had been washed
down Fabrika hill and over the edge of the cavea. It also
seems to have been the site of agricultural activity both
recently and over a long period previously: about 20 cm
above the surface of the floor of the parodos (or side
entrance to the theatre) the skeleton of a large animal was
uncovered and around it much medieval pottery.
At the very bottom of the rows of the cavea, which had been
badly damaged, the only clear evidence left was white cement
which probably indicates the end of the stone wall built to
surround the orchestra in the Roman period. This wall and
cement were also found in trench 1V. There is no indication
whether the eastern parodos has a marble threshold at the
entrance to the orchestra as the western parodos did (see
trench 1P).
The western side of the trench came down directly onto the
orchestra floor. It was identical to those parts of the
orchestra uncovered elsewhere, with at least three
successive surfaces. Excavation of the parodos has shown
that it too was covered with the same materials.
Unfortunately the parodos and orchestra surfaces here are
not well preserved and only patches of them survive. Into
these surfaces have been drilled three postholes, but there
has been so much damage that it cannot be determined whether
they represent a contemporary structure or a later feature
related to the agricultural usage of the site. In the
south-west corner of the trench are the remains of a clay
drainage pipe placed into a cut in the surface of the
orchestra. Its date and use is not known at this stage.
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