Study of Acoustics at

Theatre of Segesta
Submitted by:
Shubhra Nath (191110001)
Nidhi Meena (191110023)
Avani Mangal (191110048)
Shradhha Rajpoot (191110050)
3D View, present day terrains
INTRODUCTION

 The ancient theatre of Segesta

 Location: nestling in the side of
Mt. Barbaro at 305 m above sea
level, Province of Trapani, Sicily,
Italy(present day). The theatre is
placed inside the archaeological
site of Segesta, in the North of the
Acropolis.
 Time of construction: late 4th to
early 3rd centuries BCE, it is still
difficult to date the theatre with
precision. According to the stylistic
analysis and the stratigraphic study,
it seems to belong to II century B.C,
but other studies date its origins to
IV century B.C.
 Capacity: an open-air theatre of
almost 4000 seats, originally it had
29 rows of seats (the lower 21
survive) divided vertically into
seven sections by access steps.
 HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
 The origin of Segesta town is wrapped in by legend. Probably it was
built in XII century B.C. by the population of Elimi.
 According to Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War (VI
2), Egesta and nearby Eryx were founded by colonists from Troy who
came sometime in the 2nd millennium BCE and who called
themselves the Elymi and who spoke their own language - Elymian -
and later also Greek.
 Segesta established itself as the most important regional town of the
Elymi people. Flourishing in the 5th century BCE, Segesta continued
to hold important status as a trading center into Hellenistic and Roman
times.
 Segesta had an intense life made of wars, alliances, destructions and
subsequent reconstructions, until its final disappearence.
 Historically, the city is most famous for its appeal to the Athenians for
help against long-term rival Selinus and its ally Syracuse in 415 BC.
 In VI century, Fazello found the ruins of the town for the first time.
Then in 1822 the Duke of Serradifalco supervised the archaeological
excavations of the theatre.
 The theatre is supported by a
containing wall constructed of
limestone blocks. The orchestra,
scene building (once decorated Analemma
with scenes connected to the Outer Walls
Cavae
pastoral god Pan), and entrances
(paradoi) on either side have Parados West
been lost. The theatre continues
to host theatre events and Greek
dramas throughout the summer Diazoma
months.
Parodos East
 The cavea is not directly placed Cavae
on the rock of the mountain
because there are huge
containment walls 12 m high.
 On the top of the building there
are two asymmetrical entrances
Orchestra
both oriented according to the
main streets of Segesta ancient
town, in order to leave or take Parodos
seats. Restorations
Proskenion
Structural
Integration
Scena
 The cavea diameter is of about 63 m with a slope
of 26.57° and it is divided in two parts by a
corridor (diazoma): the upper one is destroyed and
the lower one, that is divided in 7 parts (kerkides)
by 6 small gradines, has 20 steps.
 Recent researches have shown also the existence
of an upper gradines area, located between the
two entrances, that belongs to XII century B.C
 The Orchestra - The orchestra is the space used by
the chorus. It is semicircular and has a diameter of
18,4 meters. There are two openings on the sides
of the semicircle, orthogonal to the central axis:
the parodoi.
 The Segesta theatre has also some
underground passages like the Syracuse
theatre that were used by the actors to pass
from one side of the stage to the other.
 The scene - There is not so much of the
scene: just a few blocks of a Doric-Ionian
building of two storeys. Two sides parts
are decorated with satyrs in high relief. It
was probably a two floors building
according to Doric and Ionic orders, like
in Dionysus theatre in Athens.
 A paved street runs along the west side of
the theatre, reaching both the orchestra
and the entrance of a natural cave.
 Impulsive Response Measurement
 The sound source (a dummy pistol) has been placed
in 4 points, A, B, C, D, of the theatre (Fig. 2). The
condenser equipped microphones have been set at a
height of 0.8 m above the respective gradient (Fig.
2). Starting from the central sector, the
microphones position changes with clockwise
rotation.
 For each microphone setups the source has been
placed first in A position, then in B, then in C and
finally in D, and three measurements have been
carried out for every source position, in order to
execute a statistical media. In total 36
measurements have been carried out.
 Reverberation Times
 During the setup I (Fig. 3), we are going to consider
impulsive response for the microphone 1 with the
source in A position (center of the orchestra).
 The relative decay has been executed by means of the
backward integration method of the square impulsive
response by Schroeder (see Fig. 7).
 Reverberation times analysis shows values of about 0.4
s (see Fig. 8).
 Acoustic Simulation

 By the studying of Vitruvius treatise, "De

Architectura", the comprehension of geometrical
methods and proportions used to plan the theatre
was made possible; with the help of surveys a
graphic reconstruction of the theatre was made
in order to use it in the predictive ray tracing
software Epidaure.
 SPL and RASTI Maps
 SPL maps analysis shows that sound field variation,
related to the presence of the spectators, depends on
the contribution due to reflections. The RASTI index
shows very good values (> 0.75) in both cases.
 Conclusions
 Segesta theatre’s acoustic qualities, resulting from simulations, are very good as well known by
the members of the audience of summer theatrical performances. The measured reverberation
times shows values of about 0.4 s. Other reverberation times with values greater than 0.4 s have
been observed, especially for low frequencies, and in the upper positions.
 REFRENCES
 https://www.worldhistory.org/Segesta/
 https://www.whitman.edu/theatre/theatretour/segesta/segesta.htm
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segesta#In_historical_accounts
 https://www.petersommer.com/blog/archaeology-history/segesta
 https://www.whitman.edu/theatre/theatretour/segesta/photos/index.html#15
 https://www.istockphoto.com/illustrations/segesta
 (PDF) A study of the acoustic qualities of the ancient theatre in Segesta (researchgate.net)