Previous studies have generally settled on the idea that the converted room on the parodos is a scenery storage room (skanotheke) in the Theatres at Megalopolis and Sparta. However, the function of the stone lines, which wad discovered from the floor of the skanotheke, has been a subject of controversy: some theorize that the stone lines serve as tracks for running a wheeled wooden stage construction, and others theorize that they are an installation for wooden background scenery panels. In this context, excavations in 2007 at Messene revealed a room surrounded by walls and three grooved stone lines on the east parodos of the Theatre.
This paper carefully examines the state of the these three sites and their existing interpretations according to previous research, discusses these interpretations by comparing the sites, and proposes the most reasonable function of the stone lines. First, the previous studies of the scenery storage room and stone lines in Megalopolis and their interpretation are consolidated. Next, it is argued that the background scenery panel theory is appropriate based on comparisons with Sparta and Messene. The previous studies of the scenery storage room and stone lines in Sparta and their interpretation are then consolidated, after which it is argued that the wheeled wooden stage theory is appropriate based on mutual comparisons. Finally, the fresh survey results of the scenery storage room and stone lines in Messene are reported, a new reconstruction of a wheeled wooden stage construction is proposed, and the possibility of the existence of the movable theatrical device is remarked.
The stone line 2 with V-shaped groove set in front of the orchestra in the Megalopolis Theatre was probably used to install wooden background scenery panels, while the stone line 1 in the scenery storage room did not have grooves and is believed to have been part of the wall. Although the movable wooden stage theory presented by Bulle (Bulle 1928) proved invalid for Megalopolis, Fiechter's reconstruction (Fiechter 1935/36) served to provide concrete details and showed a reliable course of interpretation for the stone lines in Sparta and Messene.
The U-shaped grooves unearthed in the three stone lines in Sparta Theatre are entirely different from the grooved stone lines in Megalopolis. Rather, these resemble the three stone lines recently discovered in the Messene Theatre; here, Bulle's wheeled wooden stage theory (Bulle 1937) seems convincing. However, it is difficult to explain how a three-wheeled carriage on a single shaft moved in Bulle's theory. Instead, it seems more reasonable to conceive of two two-wheeled uniaxial carriages that ran atop four stone lines. It is likely that the stone lines were actually used since the grooved blocks were fixed to each other by iron clamps and the surfaces of the grooves were worn off.
Conditions of three stone lines with U-shaped groove in Messene suggest that they were also actually used. Comparing the details of the recently discovered stone lines in Messene Theatre to the remains in Sparta, it is likely that there was an additional stone line apart from the currently existing three stone lines. It is most probably that the wooden proskenion and skene in the Theatres in Sparta and Messene were independent from each other and were designed to move mounted on top of a two-wheeled uniaxial carriage about 2.0-m wide. This new interpretation more reasonably relates the wheeled wooden stage theory with the state of the stone lines both in Sparta and Messene. In any event, the discovered skanotheke and its grooved stone lines in the Messene Theatre are tangible testimonies of the existence of movable stage construction.
