Pergamon Theater
The Greek theater of Pergamon is located on the steep western slope of the castle hill. The first traces of a fortified theater with a wooden stage at this point can be found in the early 5th century BC. To date. The auditorium, the so-called koilon, which dominates the complex today, was laid out in the late 5th century. It offered space for 10,000 spectators, who had access to their seats via the theater terrace. The terrace design itself with its halls and the temple of Dionysus at its northern end was made in the first half of the 2nd century BC. Built in BC. At that time the theater still had a wooden skene and a wooden proskenion . In the later 2nd century BC In addition to other changes, a first stone stage made of andesite was erected in the 3rd century BC , but the stage building itself behind it was still a wooden structure that could be assembled and dismantled if necessary. Only at the change from the 2nd to the 1st century BC The stage building was replaced by a marble frame. A last remodeling took place in the 2nd century AD.
construction
The theater is located on the western slope of Pergamon Castle Hill. Due to the hillside location, the auditorium managed almost without supporting walls, so that the theater only had to be stabilized at the ends.
The narrowness caused by the given terrain allowed a full development, as is to be expected for a Greek theater, for the construction phase of the early 2nd century BC. Not to. It was not possible to design the auditorium beyond a semicircle, and for the orchestra a semicircle that perfected the audience had to be dispensed with. The 15 to 17 meters wide and around 250 meters long terrace in front of the audience formed the entrance for the Temple of Dionysus in the north of the terrace and for the theater itself.
The auditorium consists of 78 rows of seats, which are divided into three unequal parts by two belt aisles, so-called diazomata . The rows of seats are made of soft andesite and are badly weathered. The assumption that the bottom first row of seats was removed later, so that the beginning of the rows of seats is higher today than in the original complex, does not seem to be confirmed.
The rows of seats are interrupted by niches at two points in the central axis of the auditorium. The lower niche intersecting three rows of seats shows the remains of a statue base that was added later. The second niche, comprising seven rows, lies directly above the first belt corridor, is 9.87 meters wide and was later lined with marble. The niches date from the construction phase in the early 2nd century BC. Chr.
The Skenen building was built entirely in the tradition of the early theater as a movable stage made of wood. The fact that this wooden construction in Pergamon was retained for a relatively long time into the late Hellenistic period was due to the special situation with the narrow terrace, which was completely blocked when the stage was erected. A stone stage building would have blocked the theater terrace permanently. A wooden structure was developed that could be set up and dismantled during each season. The indentations that were carved into the rock and called quivers to accommodate the beams are numerous and can be assigned to different construction phases. For the square inlet holes that are still visible today, there were cap stones with which a smooth, continuous terrace could be created again after the stage house was dismantled.
Dating
The Pergamene theater essentially has three construction phases. The first phase includes the auditorium made of andesite and the movable skene. The building is in the 5th century BC. Dated. However, in this context, Bohn also points out that the movable skene could have existed much earlier and the audience could have found a place on the natural rock, as was the case, for example, with the Dionysus Theater in Athens. The wooden stage was finally introduced in the later 2nd century BC. Replaced by a stone one from which an entablature with an inscription has been preserved. Based on this inscription, the stone stage can be dated to the end of the royal era and thus the beginning of the Roman province of Asia . In the early 1st century BC Finally, the Skene itself was built as a stone structure. Subsequent modifications and changes to the area date from the time of Emperor Hadrian , from the late Roman- Byzantine period. Finally, in Byzantine times, there were lime kilns on the site that turned the marble collected from the ancient city of Pergamon into lime.
literature
- Richard Bohn : The theater terrace . De Gruyter, Berlin 1896, pp. 15-16 ( Antiquities of Pergamon . Vol. 4).
- Erwin Ohlemutz : The cults and sanctuaries of the gods in Pergamon . Würzburg 1940, pp. 99-122.
- Armin von Gerkan : The Skene of the Theater of Pergamon . In: Kurt Bittel (Ed.): Pergamon. Collected essays . De Gruyter, Berlin 1972, pp. 49-63 ( Pergamenische Forschungen . Vol. 1).
- Wolfgang Radt : Pergamon. History and buildings of an ancient metropolis. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1999.
- Ingrid Helm-Rommel: The theater on the castle hill of Pergamon . Dissertation Karlsruhe 2009 ( online )
Web links
Coordinates: 39 ° 7 '54.4 " N , 27 ° 11' 0.3" E