Turkey: Kaunos ancient theatre had rotating stage

[Dover]

Kaunos ancient theater had rotating stage, say archaeologists
Thursday, July 20, 2006

ANKARA - Turkish Daily News


The ancient theater in Kaunos, located in Muğla's Dalyan district, had a rotating stage, archaeologists working on the site announced on Wednesday.

Professor Cengiz Işık, head of the excavations in Kaunos, said they have made numerous discoveries, which he says includes firsts in archaeology.

“Our latest discovery is that it incorporated a rotating stage system,” Işık told the Anatolia news agency.

“Kaunos does not have the usual ancient structures built out of colossal white marble columns, but has very special features that can be called firsts in archaeology. One of them is the theater. The two-meter high rotating stage was triangular in shape with different decor on each side. As the setting changed throughout the play's plot, a mechanism rotated the stage,” Işık explained.

“Ancient playwrights mentioned this system in historical documents but we did not have any archaeological evidence of this system until now,” he said...cont'd

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=49361

[madeline_con]

1. very cool. thanks

[jobycom]

2. Yes!

[MADem]

3. Theater in the round!! ER....triangle!!!! NT

[demnan]

4. Greek theater was mighty clever

The Greeks seemed so modern and open in their outlook. More so than the Romans, or the Europeans who came after them until the Renaissance.