New Actualities for Mediterranean Ancient Theatres: the Athena Project lesson.
Carlo Bianchini, Alfonso Ippolito, Carlo Inglese
Abstract Ancient Theatres are in many ways one of the most extraordinary legacies that past civilizations have left us: from a cultural standpoint, because of the importance that these monuments had in the social life of each community; from the environmental standpoint, because of the enormous skill that went into controlling the structures’ territorial and urban impact; and finally, from a ‘technological’ and functional standpoint, because of the excellence of their distribution patterns and acoustics, hard to equal even today. No less extraordinary is how well this architectural type is distributed around the entire Mediterranean basin, or the number of theatres that regularly host performances and shows. Prospectively, though, the survival of Ancient Theatres oscillates between a contemporary reuse that keeps their functions alive along with their overall relevance (but in the long run will lead to decay) and an uncompromising conservation that by eliminating all manmade pressures would indeed be effective in preserving the structure but would nevertheless condemn it to an inexorable death, culturally, socially and economically. A third factor, the widespread lack of awareness among the communities (local, but not only), has increasingly demonstrated its relevance in the process, pushing a number of activities to address not only the “knowledge” phase but also the issues related with communication and dissemination of content and information beyond the traditional cluster of experts. In this framework we shall present the activities developed by the Ancient Theatres Enhancement for New Actualities (Athena) Project funded by the EU within the Euromed Heritage IV Program. A project addressing six famous sites on both shores of the Mediterranean (Mérida, Petra, Jerash, Carthage, Cherchell and Siracusa) providing a special focus both on the documentation, the reading and finally some innovative ways to involve also the general public through user-friendly instruments and outputs.
