Ancient Theatre of Mieza: A Hellenistic and Roman Theatre in Greece
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Greece
- Primary era
- Classical
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Classical
- Civilizations
- Kingdom of Macedon, Roman
- Site type
- Entertainment
- Remains
- Theatre
On this page9 sections
History
The Ancient Theatre of Mieza is an ancient theatre in Greece, located near Kopanos in the Belovina area of Mieza, an ancient Macedonian city in the historical region of Bottiaia. Its surviving form reflects Hellenistic and early Roman periods, and the theatre remained in use until the 4th century AD.
Hellenistic and Roman phases
The theatre belonged to the Bottiaean city of Mieza. Archaeological work in 2007 and 2008 distinguished three construction phases. The earliest belonged to the Hellenistic period, which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great and preceded Roman imperial rule in the eastern Mediterranean. After the middle of the 2nd century BC, a later theatre was built with a differently arranged auditorium and a stone stage building.
The first excavators assigned the monument to the early Roman period because of its combination of Hellenistic and Roman features and the Roman pottery found during excavation. Coins from Pella, Thessaloniki, and Macedonian issues struck during the reigns of Philip V and Perseus place the later theatre after the middle of the 2nd century BC. The lack of Roman coins suggests that its construction did not take place much later.
Damage, continued use, and later reuse
A violent event, probably in the 2nd century AD, brought down part of the auditorium and stage. The retaining walls beside the entrances were rebuilt on the natural rock rather than along their earlier lines, and part of the stage was repaired. Coins and pottery from the upper destruction layers show that performances continued until the 4th century AD.
After the theatre ceased to function, the site was used as a stone quarry and cemetery. It was discovered in 1992 during construction of an underground irrigation network. Most excavation took place between 1993 and 1995 under Viktoria Allamani and Vaso Misaelidou, with additional exploratory trenches opened in 1998.
Conservation and restoration
A conservation and restoration study began in 1997 under Giorgos Karadedos of the Polytechnic School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. A revised study was prepared in 2005 and approved in 2006. Restoration followed in 2007 and 2008, with further work carried out from 2011 to 2014. The interventions stabilized and supplemented parts of the seating and stage building while preserving the surviving ancient fabric.
Remains
The theatre occupies the slope of a low hill overlooking the plain and faces east. It is a relatively large provincial theatre built partly with substantial quantities of reused material. Its estimated capacity was approximately 1,500 to 2,000 spectators. The main elements are the sloping auditorium, the semicircular orchestra, the stage building, and the side passages with their retaining walls.
Auditorium
Most of the auditorium, or koilon, the seated area of an ancient theatre, was cut into soft natural poros stone. Stone seats were set on the carved rock surface, and most stones from the first seven rows survive. Rock-cuttings indicate that the auditorium had at least 19 seating tiers.
In its later arrangement, four stairways divided the seating into five wedge-shaped sections. The earlier Hellenistic auditorium was larger, with eight stairways and nine sections. If the stairways associated with the retaining walls of the side passages are included, the earlier arrangement had ten stairways. During this phase, the retaining walls followed straight lines instead of being set at an angle.
Orchestra and side passages
The orchestra, the performance space in front of the stage, is semicircular and extends slightly farther toward the stage. It measures 22 metres in diameter.
The retaining walls beside the side passages originally followed the line of the seats and ran parallel to the wall of the proskenion, the architectural front of the stage building. After their collapse in the Roman period, they were rebuilt at an acute angle to the seats on the natural rock. This arrangement appears to have reduced the pressure from the earth behind the walls.
Stage building
The stage building comprised a main structure and a proskenion. A projecting side room, or paraskenion, stood at each end. Only the southern paraskenion and small sections of walls in the southern part of the stage survive at foundation level. Most of the remaining stones were quarried and reused during later periods.
Although much of the stage building was dismantled, excavation revealed enough evidence to reconstruct its ground plan. The rooms were divided into three parts along the north-south axis and two parts along the east-west axis. The southwestern corner of another building was found behind the stage, belonging to the same construction phase as the main stage building.
Surviving fabric and restoration
The theatre combines geometric principles associated with Greek and Roman theatres as described by Vitruvius with Hellenistic and Roman constructional, typological, and morphological features. Restoration added new poros stone to the seats up to the seventh tier and to the stage building at foundation level. Several replacement blocks were carved, while some of the 148 surviving ancient stones were cleaned and severely eroded stones were repaired with mortar.
