DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44946#0084
50
II. A. i. Ammonitis.
this wall are foundations with a semicircle corresponding exactly to the other, and with
a straight line behind it, a passage three meters wide, and an outer wall, 1.10 m.
thick, which forms the boundary of a modern court-yard. Beyond the semicircle, i. e.,
toward the west, is an open space, and on the other side of this, more foundations,
and other modern houses. These remains are scant enough, but they apparently give
us a basis for the restoration of the scaena in the form of a solid wall 4.30 m. thick,
with an opening in the middle flanked by half niches, with semicircular niches on either
side beyond the half niches, and with a passage in the rear. We may perhaps carry
the restoration a little further by recognising a side portal of the scaena in the break
in the west side, though it does not appear to be matched on the opposite side. This,
however, may be due to the condition of the ruin. The plan of the parascenia must
remain a matter of conjecture until systematic excavations shall have been undertaken
here. Eastward from the foundations of the scaena are heaps of rubbish, and westward
are modern houses. I am of the opinion that two of the modern houses shown on
the plan, and in Ill. 32, make use of the wall of the stage buildings, but the house-
walls are so completely coated with mud plaster that it is quite impossible to ascertain
whether they are ancient or not. The extreme north wall of the stage buildings
appears, from the ruins, to have been prolonged to the outer ends of the cavea, as I
have shown in the small tentative restoration. Outside of the rear wall of the stage
buildings, and at a distance of about seven meters from it, there appears to have been
a colonnade of Corinthian columns. Eight of these columns are still standing, with
architraves above them, opposite the western end of the cavea. The row of columns
extends a little beyond the line of the west side of the cavea to a double column, the
stump of which protrudes from the soil. From this point a second colonnade was
carried northward, not quite at right angles with the first colonnade. The second
colonnade consists now of only four columns without capitals; it is of smaller scale
than the other: the larger columns are .70 m. in diameter, and the intercolumniations
are nearly 3 m.; while the smaller columns have a diameter of only .60 m., and inter-
columniations of 2.32 m. The greater colonnade undoubtedly extended entirely across
the width of the theatre, and the smaller one may have corresponded to a similar
colonnade at the east end of the theatre, the three enclosing one end and two sides
of a public square in front of the great theatre, flanked on the east by the odeum,
and, possibly, on the west by some other building which has completely disappeared.
M. de Laborde published a sketch1 of the theatre as it was in 1827, anti gives a
short description of its ruins; Captain Conder gives an incomplete plan~ on a small
scale, and describes the ruins at some length as he found them in 1881. Among the
earlier illustrations of the theatre are those published by Merrill3, and Thomson 4 5 who
visited "Amman between 1875 and 1880. A more recent photograph is that published
by Professor Briinnow in his great work u on the Province of Arabia.
Odeum. The small theatre, or odeum, faces west upon the open space in front
of the great theatre. Its southwest angle is about 5 m. east, and 14 m. north of the
northeast angle of the theatre. It was built up entirely from the ground level and
' Voyage de la Syrie, 1837, p. 99 sq. Pl. LXXXII. 2 Survey of Eastern Palestine^ 1889, p. 36.
3 East of Jordan^ Selah Merrill, 1881, p. 399 sq.
4 The Land and the Boof W. M. Thomson, 1881—86, p. 613 sq.
5 Provincia Arabia^ R. E. Briinnow, II, p. 220.
II. A. i. Ammonitis.
this wall are foundations with a semicircle corresponding exactly to the other, and with
a straight line behind it, a passage three meters wide, and an outer wall, 1.10 m.
thick, which forms the boundary of a modern court-yard. Beyond the semicircle, i. e.,
toward the west, is an open space, and on the other side of this, more foundations,
and other modern houses. These remains are scant enough, but they apparently give
us a basis for the restoration of the scaena in the form of a solid wall 4.30 m. thick,
with an opening in the middle flanked by half niches, with semicircular niches on either
side beyond the half niches, and with a passage in the rear. We may perhaps carry
the restoration a little further by recognising a side portal of the scaena in the break
in the west side, though it does not appear to be matched on the opposite side. This,
however, may be due to the condition of the ruin. The plan of the parascenia must
remain a matter of conjecture until systematic excavations shall have been undertaken
here. Eastward from the foundations of the scaena are heaps of rubbish, and westward
are modern houses. I am of the opinion that two of the modern houses shown on
the plan, and in Ill. 32, make use of the wall of the stage buildings, but the house-
walls are so completely coated with mud plaster that it is quite impossible to ascertain
whether they are ancient or not. The extreme north wall of the stage buildings
appears, from the ruins, to have been prolonged to the outer ends of the cavea, as I
have shown in the small tentative restoration. Outside of the rear wall of the stage
buildings, and at a distance of about seven meters from it, there appears to have been
a colonnade of Corinthian columns. Eight of these columns are still standing, with
architraves above them, opposite the western end of the cavea. The row of columns
extends a little beyond the line of the west side of the cavea to a double column, the
stump of which protrudes from the soil. From this point a second colonnade was
carried northward, not quite at right angles with the first colonnade. The second
colonnade consists now of only four columns without capitals; it is of smaller scale
than the other: the larger columns are .70 m. in diameter, and the intercolumniations
are nearly 3 m.; while the smaller columns have a diameter of only .60 m., and inter-
columniations of 2.32 m. The greater colonnade undoubtedly extended entirely across
the width of the theatre, and the smaller one may have corresponded to a similar
colonnade at the east end of the theatre, the three enclosing one end and two sides
of a public square in front of the great theatre, flanked on the east by the odeum,
and, possibly, on the west by some other building which has completely disappeared.
M. de Laborde published a sketch1 of the theatre as it was in 1827, anti gives a
short description of its ruins; Captain Conder gives an incomplete plan~ on a small
scale, and describes the ruins at some length as he found them in 1881. Among the
earlier illustrations of the theatre are those published by Merrill3, and Thomson 4 5 who
visited "Amman between 1875 and 1880. A more recent photograph is that published
by Professor Briinnow in his great work u on the Province of Arabia.
Odeum. The small theatre, or odeum, faces west upon the open space in front
of the great theatre. Its southwest angle is about 5 m. east, and 14 m. north of the
northeast angle of the theatre. It was built up entirely from the ground level and
' Voyage de la Syrie, 1837, p. 99 sq. Pl. LXXXII. 2 Survey of Eastern Palestine^ 1889, p. 36.
3 East of Jordan^ Selah Merrill, 1881, p. 399 sq.
4 The Land and the Boof W. M. Thomson, 1881—86, p. 613 sq.
5 Provincia Arabia^ R. E. Briinnow, II, p. 220.