BURSA, TURKEY—According to a Türkiye Today report, a cremation tomb dated to the first century A.D. has been discovered among the 5,000 seats of a theater in the ancient city of Apollonia ad Rhyndacum, which is located in northwestern Turkey. The tomb was made up of a mudbrick chest covered by a gabled roof of terracotta tiles. “What was a tomb doing in a theater area when the city had its own necropolis?” asked Derya Şahin of Bursa Uludag University. “The grave must be a special one. It must carry some meaning, perhaps a trace of sacredness or heroism,” she reasoned. So far, the members of the excavation team have uncovered and reconstructed 42 of the theater’s seating steps. They think the theater had two levels separated by a walkway about three feet wide. An inscription suggests that the theater was completed in the early second century A.D. To read about the wide range of cultural activities that took place in Anatolian theaters, go to “Let the Games Begin.”
