The building was surrounded by a kisu of Nebuchadnezzar bricks which reaches down as far as 3.6 metres above zero, and which must therefore belong to one of the later rebuildings. A water conduit constructed on the south side (W in the plan), similar to that in the Ninib temple, was walled up by the kisu.
XLVIII
THE GREEK THEATRE
Close to the inner city walls on the east there lies a group of mounds which on account of their reddish colour are called “Homera” by the Arabs (Fig. [249]). Of these we have examined a northern, a central, and a southern mound, somewhat carefully, and find that from top to bottom they all are artificial heaps of broken burnt brick. Of their origin we will speak later (p. [308] et seq.).
The southern of these mounds has been utilised as a foundation for the auditorium of a theatre. In the débris of the building there was found the Greek dedicatory inscription on an alabaster slab (Fig. [248]), according to which one “Dioscurides (built) the theatre and a stage.”
Fig. 248.—Inscription from Greek theatre.
The building (Fig. [253]) is constructed principally of crude brick, and only in some special places, such as the pillars and the bases of the pillars, brick rubble is used, laid with gypsum mortar (Fig. [250]).
For the upper part of the auditorium the artificial mound was not sufficiently high, and therefore a retaining wall of mud brick supported the upper seats, which have now disappeared. On the three broad projections of the retaining wall on the north stairways were apparently constructed. Of the seats only the 5 lower ranges, which must have been up to the first diazoma, now remain; they consist of mud bricks on which are laid uniform courses of brick rubble. Every seat of 5 courses high has a footstool 2 courses high in front of it. Nine narrow stairs, with steps only 2 courses high, separate the kerkides from each other. The central stairway, with steps 3 courses high, is broader than the others, and led to a compartment which occupied an entire wedge from the orchestra to the diazoma, the proëdreia, intended for distinguished personages, probably the priests of Dionysos. The auditorium, the orchestra with its parodoi, and the stage at some later period, which it is not necessary to estimate as very remote from the first one, were raised by about 1 metre, which caused the rows of seats and apparently also the proscenium to intrude by about 60 to 90 centimetres into the orchestra.
Fig. 249.—Plan of the mounds, Homera.