Le 22 octobre 2025 après-midi, la deuxième session du 33e colloque d'archéologie théorique romaine (TRAC-TIDA), qui aura lieu en ligne du 22 au 24 octobre, sera consacrée au théâtre.
Site de l'événement, avec lien pour inscription (15£) : https://www.trac.org.uk/trac-tida-2025/
Programme détaillé : https://www.trac.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TRAC-TiDA2025Abstracts_Final_161025.pdf
Session II. New Approaches to Roman Theatre Archaeology
Organiser: Jessica Clarke (UCL / British School at Rome)
Wednesday • 14:10–17:15 (Room B)
Session abstract
The session aims to explore the archaeology of Roman theatre from new diachronic and cross-cultural
perspectives. Too often studied through a Rome-centric and literary lens, theatre in the ancient world offers a
diverse and complex archaeological record that demands fresh theoretical and comparative approaches.
The session invites papers that examine any aspect of theatre archaeology between the Greek Classical period
and the late Roman period in the Mediterranean and beyond, including northern/eastern Europe and Britain. This
could include the architecture and decoration of theatre buildings or the material culture of theatre – such as the
iconography of theatre performances, masks, and actors.
The focus of the papers should be on tracing developments over time and space, identifying moments of
continuity or change in the archaeological record of theatre. This could encompass the emergence of regional
theatre designs, changes in construction techniques, or shifts in the use and meaning of performance space.
Alternatively, papers might focus on the development of theatre iconography and possible regional variations in
theatrical imagery or the media through which it was presented. How did theatre architecture and visual culture
differ between cities and regions? What do these variations reveal about changing local identities, political
dynamics, or social priorities over time?
The key aim of the session is to move beyond teleological models that assume Rome was the driving force
behind cultural change in the Mediterranean – a narrative which has dominated scholarly discussions of post-
Hellenistic theatre archaeology. Instead, the intention is to highlight the agency of local communities across a wide
geographic and temporal frame, and their role in shaping and developing various theatrical forms. In so doing, the
session hopes to find fresh theoretical approaches to the archaeology of Roman
theatre, reframing it not as a monolithic tradition but a vibrant, pluralistic, and morphic phenomenon with a
complex developmental history.
The theatre of Nea Paphos: contextualising theatre in Roman Cyprus, Craig Barker (University of Sydney)
The University of Sydney’s Paphos Theatre Archaeological Project has been excavating and researching the
theatre of ancient Nea Paphos in Cyprus for three decades under the auspices of the Department of Antiquities of
Cyprus. During this time the project has uncovered a theatre that served as a venue for performance and spectacle
for more than six centuries between the third century BCE and the fourth century CE. Structurally the building’s
architecture evolved considerably over time, with each new phase often predicated by seismic activity. Analysis of
the architectural development shows a theatre that was initially heavily influenced by Alexandrian architectural
styles and constructed from local limestone, followed then by Roman modelling in a style that is overall consistent
with Sear’s Eastern type. The addition of marble façading to the multi-storeyed stage-building, with Imperial
sculptural adornments and painted parodoi during the Antonine phase, demonstrates a cohesive aesthetic. In its
final phases the theatre was converted into an arena that later still could have been filled with water for aquatic
spectacles.
The Paphos building was the earliest permanent, and longest used, theatre constructed in Cyprus. It provides
an interesting counterpoint to the other known Roman theatres on the island. What we can see in the architecture
of the theatre of Paphos is a provincial theatre, yet it is also fully engaged with broader architectural trends occurring
elsewhere – each new phase of the theatre included contemporary designs and architectural features. The shifts
also reflected changing audience tastes and expectations as the theatre evolved from a place of performance to a
place of spectacle. The Paphos theatre was also firmly rooted to its urban community, with considerable public
infrastructure built around it during the second century CE. It is a building at once both Roman and also Cypriot in
its design, construction and usage.
Water management in Roman theatres and their development in the Iberian Peninsula, Julian Aponte Henao (University of Granada)
The following paper analyses the Hispania theatres from the perspective of water management and hydraulic
structures, understanding water management in terms of both supply and evacuation processes. On the other hand,
hydraulic structures point to the use of sewers, drainage canals, lead pipes, fountains, cisterns, etc., to carry out the
stated processes. First, there is an analysis on a pivotal classical source such as Vitruvius and his work on Roman
architecture from the Late Republic. A text that briefly discusses water disposal at roman theatres with a detailed
description of materials and structures used. Then, the paper takes into consideration structural and ornamental
hydraulic elements from the most notorious theatres at Rome (Pompey’s, Marcellus and Balbus), as well as the
influence of landscape in the theatres’ layout. The idea is to give an account of whether Hispania followed the trends
from the Italian theatres, developed its own style (like in Gallia), or adapted the role models to its own context. The
conclusion is that a mix of both the first and the latter hypothesis , along with the local elites’ role was most likely
the scenario that shaped the theatres development during the late republic, and specially , the imperial period.
All the world’s a stage: architecture and ordines in the Roman theatre of Bracara Augusta (Hispania Tarraconensis), Diego Machado & Manuela Martins (University of Minho)
The Roman theatre of Bracara Augusta (modern Braga, Portugal), capital of a conventus in the province of
Hispania Tarraconensis, offers a rare opportunity to investigate how urban monuments materialised and mediated
civic hierarchies in a provincial context. Recent archaeological research, supported by the restitution of its
planimetry despite ongoing excavations, has significantly refined our understanding of its architectural form and
urban setting. Roman theatres were more than venues for entertainment: their spatial configuration actively
structured social interaction, rendering visible the distinctions between the ordines of civic society. This principle is
enshrined in surviving legal texts—principally from Italy—which codify seating arrangements according to social
rank. In Bracara Augusta, the division of the caveae, the design of circulation systems, and the articulation of access
routes were determined at the moment of architectural conception, thereby embedding mechanisms of social
performance into the very fabric of the building.
This paper applies a theoretically informed approach to the theatre’s architectural analysis, situating it within
broader debates on the relationship between built space, social order, and identity formation in the Roman world.
By integrating archaeological evidence with comparative examples and legal prescriptions, it explores how the
theatre functioned as a stage—not only for performances, but for the enactment and reaffirmation of civic
hierarchy. In doing so, the study contributes to discussions on the agency of architecture in shaping communal
experiences and reinforces the significance of entertainment venues as arenas for the negotiation and reproduction
of Roman social structures in provincial cities.
Beyond Naumachia: Water's Function in Theatres of the Roman Decapolis, Clare Rasmussen (Bryn Mawr College)
When water appears in discussions of Roman theatres, the conversation usually flows toward the spectacular,
such as the famous Colosseum naumachiae and Late Roman /Byzantine kolymbethra pantomimes (tetimimi). While
many theatres across the empire display water features, this architectural similarity has often been taken to imply
a shared purpose, overlooking the environmental and cultural contexts that shaped regional performance and
spectacle preferences.
For an alternative model, this paper reveals three examples of unique hydraulic installations in the theatres of
Amman, Jerash, and Gadara, located in the Transjordanian Decapolis, which have previously received little scholarly
attention. Built and modified in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, these venues could never have hosted deep -water
performances, as their orchestras were not watertight. Additionally, sustaining large-scale aquatic spectacles would
be highly impractical given the water -scarce landscape. Instead, they suggest a subtler use of water on stage, one
more contextualized to the climate and culture of the region. These three theatres exhibit instances in which water
was supplied to waterspouts and fountains located in their proscaenia and orchestras. These features imply more
nuanced functions, perhaps as a theatrical prop or sensory effect, an ornamental backdrop, a practical means of
cleansing the orchestra between events, or even a combination of these functions. These installations contributed
to the theatre’s visual experience and upkeep, demonstrating the versatility of water in Roman theatres and
distinct regional variation in performance culture. Importantly, these three case studies invite a reassessment of
hydraulic spectacle, revealing that the interplay between infrastructure, aesthetics, and audience experience could
take diverse forms across the empire.
Computational Approaches to Regionalism in Gallo-Roman Theatre Design, John Sigmier (University of Toronto)
This paper presents a case study in the use of quantitative analysis as an alternative to qualitative typology for
the identification of regional patterns in Roman theatre architecture. Gallo-Roman theatres—a group of buildings
constructed between the first century BCE and the fourth century CE in Rome’s northwestern provinces—are
difficult to typologize because they depart from the canonical Roman theatre model in myriad ways. Traditionally,
architectural historians have relied on measurement and description to characterize these buildings, a method that
succeeds in illustrating the idiosyncrasies of individual theatres but that presents limitations for drawing
comparisons across a large architectural corpus. Geometric morphometrics, a quantitative approach that represents
shapes as coordinate scatters, and generalized additive modelling, a statistical approach to identifying patterns in
space, together present a computational alternative that addresses some of these limitations. I use geometric
morphometrics software to digitize the designs of 54 theatres from the Roman Northwest whose ground plans
survive archaeologically and run a series of statistical tests on the digitized plans to first identify patterns of design
variation within the dataset and then determine whether the variation was regionally inflected.
The results highlight several architectural clusters that correspond geographically to major watersheds in the
region. I argue that these clusters were the results of local communities of architectural practice that developed
around waterways as communicative arteries. The application of a morphometric approach in this case study allows
for a more granular comparative analysis of architectural variation across a wider corpus of buildings than would
have been possible using qualitative methods alone and offers new insights into how communities in the Roman
provinces generated local theatre forms far removed from those of the imperial capital.
