GORTYN - 2011

Pythion: The Theatre. J. Bonetto (Padua/SAIA) reports on the seventh season of investigation, focused in the east part of the skene. The perimeter walls were built of stone blocks bedded in mortar; the structure was founded at the same elevation as the nearby Temple of Apollo. A terra sigillata cup base found in one of the levels accumulated in the open space bore the potter’s stamp of L. Rasinius Pisanus (active ca. 50–120 AD). This confirms the date of the theatre’s construction in the first half of the second century AD.

In the central part of the skene, a group of 34 bronze coins found above a threshold date to the third quarter of the fourth century AD, which accords with the hypothesis that the extensive destruction observed was caused by the massive earthquake of 365 AD. Nearby, a late occupation level contained five articulated metal rods with rings at their ends which are interpreted as horse bits: a possible manger further indicates that the area was used as a stable. The east entrance of the theatre had already yielded in 2004 a manger and the skeletons of two horses killed in the collapse: it had a similar type of floor to the area uncovered in 2011. A significant part of the former theatre may therefore have been turned over to this purpose.