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The archæology of Rome, Part 7 cover

The archæology of Rome, Part 7

Chapter 24: Description of Plate III.
By John Henry Parker
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The author reports on late 19th-century excavations that revealed extensive substructures beneath the arena, showing earlier origins than commonly supposed and multiple construction phases from Scaurus and Nero to the Flavian emperors. The work describes underground features such as a movable boarded arena with corbels, animal cages with vertical lifts and trapdoors, canals and reservoirs for staged naval displays, and wide passages for scenery, and examines reused timber and stone, masonry of tufa, brick, and concrete, plus coins and graffiti as documentary evidence. It also traces repairs from earthquakes and argues the amphitheatre evolved over more than a century rather than being completed in ten years.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE III.

SUPERSTRUCTURE AND SUBSTRUCTURE.

THE COLOSSEUM IN 1812

Description of Plate III.

SUPERSTRUCTURE AND SUBSTRUCTURE.

The Interior as it appeared in 1812, when partially excavated by order of the French Government. This view, taken from an engraving of the period, helps to explain what follows, but the excavations at that time were only carried to the depth of ten feet, and the original pavement was found only (in 1874) at the depth of twenty-one feet from the foot of the podium, which is on the ordinary level of the soil. Consequently, we only have here visible the surface, with the central passage and the two canals on each side of it, and the side passage round the edge just under the podium. The square openings for the lifts for men and dogs are seen on each side of the central passage. The ruins of the brick galleries are also seen much as they remain now.

The view is taken from above, at the north end. It is singular that the engineers at that time did not see that they had excavated the tops of arches of which the lower parts were still buried, yet the same thing is clearly seen in the excellent set of drawings made for the French Government at the time, and now preserved in the British Museum. In these all the details are given with exact measurements, and yet they appear not to have seen that they had excavated the tops of a series of arches and left the rest buried.