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Iaitas (modern Monte Iato, Sicily)
Iaitas (modern Monte Iato). It’s old (late 4th century BCE) and embedded into the top of a mountain (they all are). It’s accessible only by foot, straight up a 2 km gravel path and infested by swarms of tiny black, beastie flies (that bite), and is rarely visited by tourists (see points 2, 3, and 4). My colleague and I drove the 15 km dirt road from our hotel to the site’s parking lot. We followed the road-side signs toward Corleone (yes, that one) and turned when directed towards “zona archeologica Monte Jato,” parked our car and began our 2 km ascent by foot. As luck would have it, an archaeologist from the University of Innsbruck happened by and gave us a lift to the ruins. This might have saved our lives – did I mention this is Sicily and the sun was shining?
Ancient Iaitas (which has also gone by the name of Iato, Ietas, Iaeta, Jetae, Giato and Jato) may not be the most impressive or temple-rich archaeological site in Sicily, but it must rank as the most spectacularly positioned and the most panoramic. Perched vertiginously atop its own mountain at a height of 850m above sea level, Iato’s immense vistas fan out in all directions taking in Lake Poma and the Gulf of Castellammare to the north and vast swathes of the Sicilian countryside to the south, east, and west.
Ancient Iaitas was inhabited from the end of the 9th century BCE to the beginning of the 13th century CE. Originally an Elymian settlement, like Segesta, it gradually became more and more Hellenistic from the 7th century BCE. It later developed into a thriving Roman outpost before falling into decline for several hundred years. In the 10th century CE, it flourished once again as the last refuge of the Muslim population until Frederick II sacked and destroyed the town in 1246, thus ending Iaitas’ two millennia of existence.
A major feature of the abandoned city is the weathered remnants of a Greek theatre from the 4th century BCE with modifications by Roman inhabitants during their occupation of the city. The lower part of the cavea is well preserved: diameter of 67.9 meters with an ima cavea of 15 rows subdivided by 7 cunei (wedge shaped seating sections. A praecinctio (curved walkway) separates the lower (ima) cavea from the upper (summa) cavea which is composed of 17 seating rows in 7 cunei. The theatre seated approximately 4,400 people.
The orchestra is paved in beaten earth is 21.5 meters wide and is surrounded by a passageway with 4 steps leading up from the parados. The first 3 rows of seats surrounding the orchestra are prohedria (seats of honor); the 3rd row has continuous, raised backs. No drainage system surrounds the orchestra.
The original stage (11.5 meters wide and 3 meters wide) is flanked by paraskenia (projecting building on either side of the stage house). The stage was altered in the Roman era to 12.76 by 6.75 meters and extended into the orchestra.
The scene building was 23 m long and 3.25 m wide. It had 3 doorways (a center door and one in each of the flanking paraskenia. It was most likely two stories high and had a tiled roof.
From my 2019 travelogue - T. Hines
The Hellenistic Theatre at Iaitas (modern San Giuseppe Jato, Iato, (Sicilian: San Giuseppi)
Since 1971, the Classical Archeology Department of the Institute of Archeology at the University of Zurich has been excavating on Monte Iato (Province of Palermo) in Sicily. The excavation site is located about thirty kilometers by car southwest of Palermo, above the towns of San Cipirello and San Giuseppe Iato. Due to the long duration of settlement, Monte Iato is one of the most interesting sites in western Sicily. The investigated city was called IAITAS in the Greek and IETAS in the Latin form. In the Middle Ages the name was GIATO.
In the beginning there was an early history settlement. Greek influence gradually became effective in this indigenous context. The first Greek imported items reached Monte Iato towards the end of the 7th century. v. In the second half of the 3rd century v. The settlement was rebuilt in the style of a Greek city with a city fortification, a street system, public buildings such as a theater and an agora, as well as magnificent residential buildings. The city continued to live on a more modest level during the Roman Empire.
The settlement took on a new upswing in the late 10th century AD after the Arab invasion, which gradually brought new population elements into the country. The inhabitants of Giato were mostly Muslims during this period and remained so under the rule of the Christian Normans and under the Staufer emperors Henry VI. and Frederick II. Since 1182, the settlement, together with a large surrounding area, belonged to the monastery of Santa Maria La Nuova in Monreale. As the last center of Muslim resistance in Sicily against Christian Emperor Frederick II, the city was finally destroyed in 1246 after a long siege and the survivors were deported to Puglia.
Antike Kunst: Association of Friends of Ancient Art | CH-4051 Basel / Switzerland. 2020. https://www.antikekunst.org/publikationen/die-grabungsberichte/monte-iato-it/. accessed 2/4/2020.
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Iaitas Theatre Specifications: Cavea: D 67.9m, facing south, exceeds semicircle; analemmata parallel to sent building; ima cavea: 14 rows of seats (0.39 x 0.74 m) I 7 cunei; seating capacity 5000.
Substructures: built partly on artificial fill.
Parodoi: in final phase, walls built parallel to short side of scene building running up to analemmata walls, to enclose L shaped paradoi (probably unfiished attempt to roof them over); accessible through doorways adjacent to back of scene building.
Orchestra: D 21.5 m, paved in beaten earth, surrounded by passageway (W 1 m) with 4 steps leading up to it from parodos; and proheria of 3 row of seats (inner D 14.8 m); third row haw continuous raised back; both second and third rows have griffins’s foot terminations; reclining lion on low wall flanking ends of seats of honour; no drain around orchestra.
Stage: L 22.5 meters, W 3.25 m; tiled roof decorated with antefixes; 3 doorways, one in middle of scene building; one in each of parskenia; 2 types of paving found, one white, other in red cocciopesto, ?Scene building had 2 stories.
Porticus post scaenam: portico (L 23 m, W 4.75 m) added behind scene building.
Decoration: two limestone statues (H 2m), Maenad and satyr, both acting as Atlantes (?from west and east paraskenia); fragment of limestone Ionix order with frieze and sculptural decorations; parts of Doric half-column of tufa, df. Tyndaris and Segesta; stucco Doric frieze probably from facade of scene building.
Remains: Well-preserved ruins of lowest part of caves and lower parts of walls of scene building.
Sear, Frank. Roman Theatres: An Architectural Study. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
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- Copyright © 2019 Thomas G. Hines, Department of Theatre, Whitman College. All Rights Reserved. The Ancient Theatre Archive is a non-profit, educational project, located at Whitman College, USA. Research and Publication Partially Funded Through Grants from Whitman College, The United States Institute for Theatre Technology, The Benson Foundation, and The National Endowment for the Humanities.
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