Roman Amphitheater Research Articles

Preserving the Greco-Roman Heritage of Alexandria by Reviving Ancient Theatrical Performances at the Roman Amphitheater of Kom El Dekka

Preserving the Greco-Roman Heritage of Alexandria by Reviving Ancient Theatrical Performances at the Roman Amphitheater of Kom El Dekka

Organization of Musical Life in Modern Italy

The process of organizing musical life in modern Italy is analyzed through the prism of new management approaches aimed at the deployment of Italian musical projects in the general sociocultural space. The issues of management and marketing in today's musical life, which are a significant component in the creation of musical projects, are outlined. The main principles of new types of marketing in the context of the promotion of musical projects in Italy are characterized - event, empirical and territorial. The functioning of the national brand project — the Arena di Verona Opera Festival, the hundredth season of which took place in 2023 on the stage of the Roman Amphitheater Arena, is highlighted. The role of the "Arena di Verona" Foundation in the organization of the opera festival has been determined. Creative advertising measures are considered, thanks to which the project is popularized as an artistic phenomenon among the public. It was found that Italian festival marketing in modern musical life functions thanks to the cooperation of state, financial institutions, private business sector, associations and foundations. The specifics of the promotion of Italian music projects are revealed, which includes analysis, planning, implementation of a massscale event with the help of creativity in advertising, constant technological updating. The dependence of the success of musical projects on the exclusive decisions of the organizers, innovative technologies used in scenery, lighting, stage design, etc. is substantiated. The high artistic component of Italian music projects, which attract more fans, always take place in a certain place and time, strengthen the brand of the territory and make the region attractive both for the local population and for tourists, has been identified. It has been proven that the main goal of organizing musical life in modern Italy, working for a high professional result, is to show the world the historical and artistic sights of Italian cities and preserve Italian musical projects as a national cultural brand for future generations.

Insight Discovery of the Roman Amphitheater of Durres: Reconstruction of the Acoustic Features to Its Original Shape

The discovery of Roman amphitheaters continues to excite the minds of archaeologists. Within the framework of various excavation campaigns, the architectural requalification of the amphitheater of Durres has been investigated, but no acoustic analyses have yet been carried out. This paper deals with the acoustic reconstruction of the Roman amphitheater of Durres in its original form. A campaign of acoustic measurements was carried out in accordance with ISO 3382 in order to understand the existing conditions, which are very detrimental to any type of live performance. After an accurate analysis of the geometric composition of the building, acoustic simulations were performed to determine the original acoustic response of the building. A comparison of the measured and simulated results, with and without an audience, was made in terms of the main acoustic parameters, while the acoustic map showing the spatial distribution of speech clarity at 1 kHz was added as an alternative way of representing the data. The outcomes show that the results related to the original shape are closer to the optimal values than the existing conditions.

A sound from the arena: acoustic reconstruction of a Roman amphitheater located in Avella, south of Italy

In the ancient Rome the shows entertained by gladiators were very numerous, due to the always growing request from the spectators. After the disuse of the amphitheaters, a wide number of philosophers, writers and poets have been experienced to say what happened in these arenas. Nowadays this type of shows represents continuous source of inspiration for different books and movies (e.g. The gladiator, Spartacus). The amphitheaters are characterized by having an elliptical plan layout, which allow to enlarge the capacity of seats other than improving the sight from the steps of the cavea. The most famous Roman amphitheater is the Colosseum with its biggest dimensions that only the capital city of the empire could have, followed by others of smaller volume size. The development of Christianism decreed the immorality of these shows while the barbaric invasions contributed to convert these places into military barracks, if they were not selected to be demolished. This paper deals with the acoustic study of the amphitheater of Avella, which has been found only a few decades ago by archaeological excavations. The geometrical characteristics are typical of other amphitheaters built in Campania during the Imperial age. An acoustic survey has been undertaken in order to understand the main acoustic parameters in accordance with ISO 3382-1, given the functionality of this place in hosting musical shows during the summer seasons. Based on historical sources and discoveries, a virtual model has been realized to represent the architectural features of how the amphitheater would be looked like originally. The model has been used for acoustic simulations by applying the absorption and scattering coefficients of the finish materials, and the results have been assessed to highlight the different acoustic perception between the existing conditions and the original shape.

Virtual acoustic reconstruction of the Roman amphitheater of Avella in Italy

In ancient Rome, gladiator fights were very popular. The places where these shows took place were called amphitheaters, due to the particular shape of the elliptical building. Amphitheaters were widespread, and in each city, one or more of these buildings was present. This paper describes the virtual reconstruction of the acoustics of the amphitheater Avella, close to Naples, Italy. This amphitheater was discovered a few decades ago and was only partially rebuilt. Today, it is used for musical performances during the summer season mainly. The plan of the building is elliptical, and the dimensions of the arena are 35 m for the minor axis and 65 m for the major axis. Acoustic measurements were performed in the current state with an impulsive sound source and the acoustic parameters were obtained according to the ISO 3382 standard. Subsequently, from the dimensions of the current state and in analogy with the architecture of other amphitheaters existing today, a virtual reconstruction of the original shape was performed. The virtual model was developed with the architectural acoustics software Ramsete in order to obtain the acoustic characteristics of the amphitheater as it was in Roman times. In particular, the spatial distribution of the acoustic characteristics on the steps where the audience was seated is described and discussed.

Surface wave tomography using dense 3D data around the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy

A dense single-node 3D seismic survey has been carried out around the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua (Italy), in order to give new insights about the archaeological setting of the area. The survey made use of nearly 1500 vertical nodes deployed over two rectangular grids. 38 shot positions were fired all around the two receiver patches. The fundamental mode Rayleigh wave signal is here analysed: traveltimes are directly inferred from the signal phases, and phase velocity maps are obtained using Eikonal tomography. Also surface wave amplitudes are used, to produce autospectrum gradient maps. The joint analysis of phase velocity and autospectrum gradient allowed the identification of several buried features, among which possible remains of radial walls of the adjacent Roman amphitheater, structures belonging to a medieval convent, and the root area of an eradicated tree. Finally, depth inversion of 1D dispersion curves allowed the reconstruction of a quasi-3D shear-wave velocity model.

Visitors’ Experience at Historical Sites in the City of Amman: A Case Study

Historical sites are a deep cultural heritage element that expresses the city's identity and its ancient life. Most cities have a long-civilized history, and the aspects of modern cities rely on it. However, some historical sites remained clear within the components of modern cities, so they became distinctive landmarks and points of attraction for local visitors and tourists, even becoming essential places for recreation and changing the routine of contemporary life. The moving from a historical site to the elements of a modern city needs a deliberate natural planning gradation. The landscape and gardens were the most appropriate for this transition in some places, acting as a natural separator between these two time periods and attractive places for visitors. This research presents the importance and impact of historical and archaeological sites on the inhabitants of the modern city, the behaviors and experiences of visitors as they move from busy city life and modern-day technology to ancient, nostalgic places. And how the parks and surrounding areas of the archaeological site helped integrate modern civil society with the image of the old city. Through a case study in Amman / Jordan, "The Roman Amphitheater and Amman citadel, a special questionnaire was conducted to find out the visitors' opinions, feelings, and behaviors of infamous sites in Amman. As a result of the study and questionnaire and specific questions, the historical sites have a significant emotional, psychological, and even spatial position for visitors to cities. They prefer them to the rest of the town.

Documenting the Structure and Adaptive Reuse of Roman Amphitheatres through the CIDOC CRMba Model

This article addresses an important aspect of the built heritage documentation, which concerns encoding information about a building in a formal way, making it available for reuse by the research community. Formal ontologies allow structuring and integrating information from heterogeneous sources without loss of semantic information. In the field of Cultural Heritage (CH), the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM) ontology is well known and widely accepted as it provides definitions and a formal structure to describe the implicit and explicit concepts and relationships used in the CH documentation. One of its extensions, the CRMba model, has been specifically designed to document information on a built structure and its components. In this work, we have applied the CRMba model to the documentation of Roman architectures, in particular, Roman amphitheatres, demonstrating how the semantic model allows encoding information about the structure of the building and its evolution over time and space, stressing on the concepts of “empty spaces” and “functional spaces” defined by form, and focusing on the relationship between form and function. The aim of the work is to explore the potentiality of the model and to provide, through a series of examples supported by graphs, standard encoding procedures to be reused by scholars dealing with similar case studies.

Minero-petrographic characterization of stone materials used for the roman amphitheater of Eporedia (Ivrea, To): A scientific-dissemination proposal in the Cultural Heritage

Ivrea, the ancient Eporedia founded around 100–101 B.C. by the Romans, is a town where stone has always been the most widely used building material, characterizing the architectural identity of the city. In particular, an ancient Roman amphitheater built in stone materials is still preserved. A minero-petrographic study was carried out to identify the different stone materials and their provenance areas used in the masonry of the amphitheater. The origin of rock samples resulted essentially from local or nearby geological units, except for the Bardiglio marble (from Aosta Valley) recognized and found in the portions located towards the center of the arena. Among the local materials, the most used stones were gabbronorites and diorites of the Ivrea Verbano Mafic Complex, which crops out in the city of Ivrea itself. Other rocks used were granites and meta-granophyres from the Canavese Zone; diorites, gabbronorites and websterites from the Ivrea Verbano mafic Complex; acid granulites from the II Dioritic-Kinzigitic Zone; micaschists from the Eclogitic Micaschist Complex of the Sesia Zone; calcschists from the Piemonte Zone; orthogneiss from Dent Blanche klippen; Bardiglio Marble from the External Piemonte Zone. The walls of the amphitheater therefore represents an open air petrographic collection, representative of the Alpine orogeny. For this reason, a multimedia study of this monument, was carried out with the purpose of creating a GIS-Based geo-archaeological tour to increase the value of the heritage stone outcropping in the territory of Ivrea and the lower Aosta Valley.

Mystery of Sunken Antiquities and its Effect in Promoting Tourism in Egypt: Case Study Alexandria Governorate-

Alexandria is characterized by many tourist attractions such as Qaitbay Castle, The library of Alexandria, the Sawari Column, the Burial chambers of Kom Al-Shoqafa, the Roman Amphitheater, the Temple of El-Ras El-soda, in addition to the sites of sunken antiquities...etc. that lead to the revitalization of the tourist movement in the city. In general, the beaches of Alexandria, particularly Abu Qir Bay and the Eastern Port area, are filled with treasures of sunken antiquities that have been sunk by natural phenomena for 15 centuries, particularly earthquakes that have thrown many of Alexandria’s buildings, palaces, and castles into the sea. Sunken Antiquities in Alexandria are located in eight sites which are the area of Qaitbay, the eastern port and outside the eastern port to Sidi Bishr Beach, the Area of Abu Qir Bay, the site of Nelson Island, and the location of the western port. The main data collection method involved in-depth, semi-structured interviews with government officials and expert divers at main diving centers in Alexandria, and second phase involved three focus groups with tourism companies’ managers. The paper recommends that the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in cooperation with The Center for Sunken Marine Antiquities in Alexandria should disseminate the archaeological awareness of marine antiquities and how to preserve them in schools, through the presentation of movies about sunken antiquities, and models simulations.

Acoustic design of a new shell to be placed in the Roman amphitheater located in Santa Maria Capua Vetere

The Roman amphitheatre is one of the architectural building types to be part of the cultural heritage. The development of the elliptical plan layout could give these places a capacity of up to 50,000 seats, being these sites mainly remembered for the shows and fights between gladiators and wild fears. Nowadays some of them are already preserved by hosting musical concerts and artistic performances, but many others, given the state of their ruins, are open to pleasant visits for tourists and amateurs but having no functional activities. This paper is going to illustrate the acoustic characteristics of the amphitheatre located in Santa Maria Capua Vetere nearby Naples. After an extensive acoustic and architectural measurement campaign, in the first instance, the authors present the analysis of the actual conditions as the monument is in its current state. Furthermore, a digital model has been realized in order to understand how the arena could be functioning with a musical performance. An acoustic shell located in the centre of the arena and composed of mountable reflecting panels is one of the options proposed by the authors to give life to this such a wonderful and historical place.

TRANSFORMAREA SPAȚIULUI ARHITECTURAL – ÎNTRE PROVOCARE ȘI LIMITĂ

A superficial perspective on architecture may induce the impression that it consists in the analysis of a long series of “containers”, conceived to shelter activities, technically named "programmes". This inaccurate interpretation is distanced from the inner sense of “frozen music”, as defined by Goethe. Seen as an engine of civilizations across history, architecture acts as a phenomenon, answering to a dynamics defined both in a social scale and in a family or individual scale. We are using today pedantic terms, such as “conversion”, “resilience” or the English term "adaptive re-use", with the impression that these are conquests of our present thinking. But this process has been followed as well when Roman amphitheatres have been transformed into living areas or when Greek and Roman temples sheltered Christian basilicas, every epoch proving its own conception on the pragmatism of re-using a pre-existing building fund.

Historic Sports Architecture in the COVID-19 Pandemic Time (UNESCO World Heritage Sites)

In Europe, for more than three millennia, the development of individual disciplines has been accompanied by the evolution of sports facilities. It covers the period from the Ancient Olympic Games to modern sports architecture. The sports architecture heritage, as a magnet for cultural tourism, is evident. Millions of tourists visiting the famous sites are the proof how important these places are for our identity and tradition of European civilization. The most important historic sports facilities are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List: ancient Greek and Roman amphithe-atres, thermal baths, antique arenas. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the tourism sector hard. It is essential to reformulate present rules of the historic sports facilities visits and to consider the future directions of cultural tourism re-development at the UNESCO Heritage Sites. Recently there has been a revival of interests in sports heritage and many tourists want to explore famous landmarks of the past. Despite the pandemic time restrictions, it is also possible at present. However, new actions and policies are required to meet sanitary requirements and recommenda-tions, and rebuild consumer confidence.

Staging Martyrdom in the Roman Amphitheater of Gortyna in Crete

This article addresses how narratives of Christian martyrdom can influence archaeological interpretations, using evidence for the earliest ecclesiastical foundations in the amphitheater of Gortyna as a test case. The analysis focuses on evidence for the structural transformation of Gortyna's amphitheater from its earliest consecration to the present day and weighs this architectural sequence against the hagiographical accounts of the Ten Martyrs of Crete. The specific case study seeks to establish the earliest architectural expression of their veneration and, in doing so, presents different readings of the material. It is hoped that the combined approach presented here, drawing on both textual and architectural evidence, will provide a more nuanced framework for viewing the earliest Christian architecture in Gortyna's amphitheater.

Use of Remote Sensing, Geophysical Techniques and Archaeological Excavations to Define the Roman Amphitheater of Torreparedones (Córdoba, Spain)

Non-destructive techniques are widely used to explore and detect burial remains in archaeological sites. In this study, we present two sets of sensors, aerial and geophysics, that we have combined to analyze a 2 ha sector of ground in the Torreparedones Archaeological Park located in Cordoba, Spain. Aerial platforms were used in a first step to identify a Roman amphitheater located near the Roman city. To ensure greater reliability and to rule out geological causes, a geophysical survey was subsequently carried out. Magnetic gradiometer, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) methods were also used to confirm the existence of this structure, define the geometry and, to the greatest possible extent, determine the degree of preservation of this construction. The adverse conditions for data acquisition was one of the main constraints, since the area of interest was an almond plantation which conditioned geophysical profiles. In addition, due to the low dielectric and magnetic contrast between the structures and the embedding material, meticulous data processing was required. In order to obtain further evidence of this amphitheater and to corroborate the aerial images and the geophysical models, an archaeological excavation was carried out. The results confirmed the cross-validation with the predicted non-destructive models. Therefore, this work can serve as an example to be used prior to conservation actions to investigate the suburbs and landscapes near similar roman cities in Spain.

Sur la détermination du périmètre de l'ovale à huit centres

This note aims to present the history of the main researches carried out to represent an ellipse by means of an eight-centered oval and to complete them by giving a geometrical demonstration of the formulas expressing the coordinates of the centers, the radii and the central angles of these arcs of circles making up this oval. These formulas will make it possible to determine its perimeter and thus to approximate the value of that of the ellipse. This result could be useful for archaeologists, who will test the hypothesis according to which some Roman amphitheatres, such as the Coliseum, were built from eight-centered ovals.

Anfiteatros romanos en la Bética: reflexiones sobre su geometría, diseño y traza

Baetica’s Roman amphitheatres have not been examined in depth; we know a small sample of those which really existed. Of the five known, the Berja’s one belongs to a small village; that of Carmona can be a military amphitheater, and the three biggest, Italica, Ecija and Cordoba, are large buildings with similar characteristics in the design and built in a short time span. They are based on a four-point oval with a Pythagorean triangle relation between the focal points. The long axis focal points are 120 Roman feet away while the focal points in the short axis are the arena width, 160 Roman feet. The number of bays in the facade is the result of multiplying the radius, the semiaxes average, by 40 and dividing all by the cavea width, 40R/C. This can be applied to most of the great imperial amphitheatres except the Colosseum and Capua whose arches are obtained from 50R/C. The facade height, from the arena level, was 44/7 by the intercolumniation width.

Quaestiones geometriae in the Amphitheatre of Tarragona

Abstract The Roman amphitheatre in Tarragona was built in the first half of the second century AD. We present a study of its formal layout based upon classical discussions of the construction of Roman amphitheatres through determination of the geometrical forms involved in their layout, ellipsis and ovum . The discussion considers the elevation of conical sections with the ellipse compared to the lowered forms derived from the circle with the oval – figures which are formally often confused. The question considered in this study – a determination of the elevation of the amphitheatre in Tarragona – is based upon a purely geometric analysis; we explicitly avoid considering the instruments required to construct the curve that creates the shape of the amphitheatre. A land survey of the area around the arena enabled us to establish the dimensions of its main axes, the curve described by the original remains of the podium, and the start of the seating tiers. Because the arena apparently has an elliptical layout, our approach to the problem involved determining the four- and eight-centred ovals that provided the best approximation for the only ellipse that fits into the axes that we determined, and we derive statistical confirmation from the deviations of the various figures from the physical reality of the building.

LecceAR: An Augmented Reality App

This paper discusses a case study on the use of augmented reality (AR) within the context of cultural heritage. We implemented an iOS app for markerless AR that will be exhibited at the MUST museum in Lecce, Italy. The app shows a rich 3D reconstruction of the Roman amphitheater, which is nowadays only partially visible. The use of state-of-the-art algorithms in computer graphics and computer vision allows the viewing and the exploration of the ancient theater in real-time.

Geometric analysis of the original stands of roman amphitheater in Tarragona: Method and results

Abstract Despite being a well-known monument, the Roman amphitheatre of Tarragona, which is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, was only fully studied in the late 1980s. The study was therefore subject to the archaeological research limitations and specific characteristics of that time, as can be seen in the quality of the site's planimetry. The general planimetry was basically available for relevant sections at a scale of 1:100 with sufficient accuracy. However, according to current scientific parameters, this planimetry is clearly inadequate, and cannot be used rigorously to obtain comprehensive architectural knowledge. The technical limitations of the time, and the innate difficulties presented by the monument, meant that only a few sections were obtained, specifically two, with a low level of detail. This has led to misinterpretations, and consequently to dubious or erroneous conclusions. Therefore, the need for complete metric documentation is evident, as this will enable us to correctly analyse the monument. We have obtained metric documentation by carrying out a topographic survey using digital photogrammetry, which provides us with more information than merely measurements. We can use the three-dimensional model that was generated to analyse the sections of the stands and draw conclusions about their geometry.