Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (6.1890-1897 (1897))

4

EXCAVATIONS IN THE THEATRE AT SIGTON.

Between B and A a noteworthy structure was brought to
light. Just in front of and below the slab of conglomerate
(about .20 in. thick), which covers the v7t6vojjos to the door-
way of the wall B, was found lying across the vnovojioi a
large block of soft yellowish native stone, which had evidently
sunk to the slanting position in which it was found owing to
the fact that it had originally been placed with its ends rest-
ing directly upon the crumbling rock on either side of the
v7t6vofj.o?. From the taenia upon the inner face of this
block (reckoning from the orchestra), it had evidently been
taken from the epistyle of some building. Its dimensions
(it appeared to have been broken at the ends) were about
1.19 to 1.25 m. x .37 m. x .39 m.3 Below it descended in
the direction of the orchestra, occupying the entire breadth
of the vir6vofA.oi (about .69 m.), a flight of five stejjs of soft
stone, their ends supported not by the native rock, which is
here too soft to admit of such construction, but by a neatly
laid facing of stone blocks, which sheathe the sides of the
v7r6vojxo5 from this point on through the soft rock and the
subsequent white clay of the orchestra. The two uppermost
steps (leaving out of account the displaced block previously
described, which from its position was evidently the original
top step of the flight) are cut out of a single block, which ex-
hibits at the upper edge of its inner face the taenia and two
regulse and a half of a Doric epistyle. Measured from with-
out, the height of the steps of this stairway varies from about
.162 m. to about .295 m., and their horizontal depth from
about .25 m. to about .295 m. The form of the steps ap-
pears in reverse from the under side of the stairway, as in the
case of wooden steps. Between the under surface of the
lowest step-block and the bottom of the v7i6vo^o?} which is
here floored with slabs of stone, a clear space about .53 m. in
height intervenes, sufficient to allow the passage of a con-
siderable quantity of water. The flooring just mentioned be-
gins at a point about .25 m. back (from the orchestra) of a
plummet dropped from the inner face of the architrave-block in
which are cut the two upper steps as above described. Directly

3It was dislodged from its position to facilitate excavation and now lies within
the vttovouos, a short distance back of the stairway.