Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient Greek lecture hall within a gymnasium complex in Italy, making it one of the earliest known examples of a school-like facility in the ancient world, according to researchers.
Built in the second century B.C., the Agrigento facility is believed to be among the first to combine physical health and intellectual pursuit, according to an April 9 news release from the Free University of Berlin.
Agrigento is the largest Greek settlement in Sicily, founded around 580 B.C. and inhabited for more than 1,000 years, according to the release.
Researchers said it is the only known structure of its kind discovered in the Western Mediterranean and that when it was built, no other gymnasium in the ancient world contained a lecture hall, according to the release.
The closest example of a combined gymnasium and lecture hall was built at Pergamon in modern-day Turkey between 250 and 300 years after the Agrigento site, researchers said in the release.
The auditorium, uncovered during excavations in March, appears to have been a covered theater with eight semicircular rows of ascending seats and could hold about 200 people, researchers said.
The auditorium opened into a large hall with benches and was likely used for classes or performances, according to researchers.
The unique gymnasium portion of the site had previously been excavated and featured 650-foot-long tracks and a large swimming pool, according to researchers.
Gymnasiums were an important part of ancient Greek culture, particularly for young men, and an integral part of their cities’ infrastructure, according to researchers.
Archaeologists also uncovered two inscriptions at the site, one that mentions the name of the head of the gymnasium, and the other that appears to reference renovations funded by a citizen and donated to Hermes and Heracles, according to researchers.
Very few inscriptions have been discovered at Agrigento despite its long history, according to researchers.
The excavation was led by faculty from the Free University of Berlin in partnership with the Politecnico di Bari and the Parco Archeologico Valle dei Templi di Agrigento and funded by the German Research Foundation.
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