DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44946#0086
52
II. A. I. Ammonitis.
all the seats that are not buried in debris have been removed. It was possible for
me to find only short sections of four seats, at the extreme end on the south, and
here I was also able to secure the measurements of the praecintio. It is plain that
this building, though badly ruined, in 1881, when Captain Conder gathered the materials
for his plan1 of the odeum, was not in the demolished condition in which we found
it twenty-three years later·, for there are details in his description that are not to be
found today. Captain Conder published only a plan on a very small scale without
any details in the cavea; but his description gives a number of accurate measurements.
With these as a check I am able to present the accompanying plan (Ill. 34), for which
I cannot lay claim to accuracy in details, and a cross-section which is based largely
upon conjecture.
Plan. It is not possible, from the minuteness of its scale, to ascertain the precise
measurements of Captain Conder’s plan of the odeum, where they are not definitely
mentioned in the text; but so far as they are obtainable with the aid of the scale of
feet given, they are substantially the same as those which I took. The whole structure,
from the front wall to the exterior curve of the cavea, measures 35 m., or, according
to Captain Conder’s plan, a little over 100 feet; the extreme width of the cavea is
40 in.; in Conder’s plan, about 125 feet; the stage building, at the middle, through
both walls and the vaulted passage measures 7.48 m., in the other plan 25 feet. The
old plan gives but three portals in the west wall, and makes this wall shorter than
the width of the cavea; Captain Conder apparently did not observe that this wall
terminates at either end in a door-jamb with the springers of a relieving arch over it;
one of these jambs is shown in the photograph3 published by Captain Conder, the
other may be seen in Ill. 35. These doors were of the same dimensions as the others,
and, when they are restored, the length of the west wall will be equal to the width
of the cavea. Captain Conder shows towers projecting inward at either end of the scaena
wall; he states in the text that one of these towers measures 11 feet east and west, and
25 feet north and south. By this he must have meant that the north side adjoining
the scaena wall measures 11 feet, and that the east wall was 25 feet long outside;
for the south wall of the tower, now standing, is nearly 5 m. long. The earlier plan
moreover places the centre of the semicircles of the cavea upon a line connecting the
angles of these towers; but such a centre will not give a radius long enough to touch
the rear curve of the cavea, which we agree is 35 m. from the west wall, without
increasing the width of the cavea which we know to be 40 m. The measurement
from the wall of the praecinctio at one end, to the corresponding point opposite is
24.15 m. In my plan I have therefore moved the centre backward 4 m. and I have
constructed the semicircles of the cavea within the prescribed dimensions. This arran-
gement gives a space 4 meters wide for the paradoi. Down under the debris on the
north side I measured a vault 4 meters wide, east and west, and a series of carved
voussoirs of an arch that must have had a span of at least 3.70 m. I believe that
the vault was the vault of the parados and that the arch-stones belonged to the arch
which opened from it toward the orchestra. Captain Conder found seven rows of seats
above the praecinctio; there could never have been more, if there were any passage
at the top of the cavea: I found only four rows of seats, and no remains of seats
Χζζ/'ΐ/Π' of Eastern Palestine^ p. 36.
2 Survey of Eastern Palestine^ opp. p. 40.
II. A. I. Ammonitis.
all the seats that are not buried in debris have been removed. It was possible for
me to find only short sections of four seats, at the extreme end on the south, and
here I was also able to secure the measurements of the praecintio. It is plain that
this building, though badly ruined, in 1881, when Captain Conder gathered the materials
for his plan1 of the odeum, was not in the demolished condition in which we found
it twenty-three years later·, for there are details in his description that are not to be
found today. Captain Conder published only a plan on a very small scale without
any details in the cavea; but his description gives a number of accurate measurements.
With these as a check I am able to present the accompanying plan (Ill. 34), for which
I cannot lay claim to accuracy in details, and a cross-section which is based largely
upon conjecture.
Plan. It is not possible, from the minuteness of its scale, to ascertain the precise
measurements of Captain Conder’s plan of the odeum, where they are not definitely
mentioned in the text; but so far as they are obtainable with the aid of the scale of
feet given, they are substantially the same as those which I took. The whole structure,
from the front wall to the exterior curve of the cavea, measures 35 m., or, according
to Captain Conder’s plan, a little over 100 feet; the extreme width of the cavea is
40 in.; in Conder’s plan, about 125 feet; the stage building, at the middle, through
both walls and the vaulted passage measures 7.48 m., in the other plan 25 feet. The
old plan gives but three portals in the west wall, and makes this wall shorter than
the width of the cavea; Captain Conder apparently did not observe that this wall
terminates at either end in a door-jamb with the springers of a relieving arch over it;
one of these jambs is shown in the photograph3 published by Captain Conder, the
other may be seen in Ill. 35. These doors were of the same dimensions as the others,
and, when they are restored, the length of the west wall will be equal to the width
of the cavea. Captain Conder shows towers projecting inward at either end of the scaena
wall; he states in the text that one of these towers measures 11 feet east and west, and
25 feet north and south. By this he must have meant that the north side adjoining
the scaena wall measures 11 feet, and that the east wall was 25 feet long outside;
for the south wall of the tower, now standing, is nearly 5 m. long. The earlier plan
moreover places the centre of the semicircles of the cavea upon a line connecting the
angles of these towers; but such a centre will not give a radius long enough to touch
the rear curve of the cavea, which we agree is 35 m. from the west wall, without
increasing the width of the cavea which we know to be 40 m. The measurement
from the wall of the praecinctio at one end, to the corresponding point opposite is
24.15 m. In my plan I have therefore moved the centre backward 4 m. and I have
constructed the semicircles of the cavea within the prescribed dimensions. This arran-
gement gives a space 4 meters wide for the paradoi. Down under the debris on the
north side I measured a vault 4 meters wide, east and west, and a series of carved
voussoirs of an arch that must have had a span of at least 3.70 m. I believe that
the vault was the vault of the parados and that the arch-stones belonged to the arch
which opened from it toward the orchestra. Captain Conder found seven rows of seats
above the praecinctio; there could never have been more, if there were any passage
at the top of the cavea: I found only four rows of seats, and no remains of seats
Χζζ/'ΐ/Π' of Eastern Palestine^ p. 36.
2 Survey of Eastern Palestine^ opp. p. 40.