{"id":20446,"date":"2020-12-28T19:07:50","date_gmt":"2020-12-28T18:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/colosseo.it\/?post_type=opere&#038;p=20446"},"modified":"2020-12-28T19:07:50","modified_gmt":"2020-12-28T18:07:50","slug":"elevators-and-platforms-or-the-machinery-behind-the-show","status":"publish","type":"opere","link":"https:\/\/colosseo.it\/en\/opere\/elevators-and-platforms-or-the-machinery-behind-the-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Elevators and platforms, or the machinery behind the show"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Preparations for the day\u2019s entertainment took place in the Colosseum\u2019s underground levels and all of the necessary <strong>technical apparatuses<\/strong>, hidden from public view, were kept beneath the arena floor, filled with trap doors <strong>through which people, animals and props could emerge suddenly to surprise spectators<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The Colosseum\u2019s subterranean levels were originally built in wood for the 80 AD inauguration, but the emperor Domitian later upgraded them to sturdy masonry. <strong>They stretched underground for roughly half a hectare: a large central corridor was flanked by 14 lateral passages, of which 6 were straight, 2 semi-elliptical and 2 curvilinear.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Throughout the various phases of the Colosseum\u2019s life and certainly up until its last documented event in 523 AD, <strong>hoists, platforms and elevators<\/strong> were installed in its underground levels on several occasions. Through a system of trap doors and moveable platforms, this machinery was able to access the arena floor, which stood circa 6 meters above the subterranean corridors.<\/p>\n<p>In the Flavian period, <strong>28 windlasses to lift the same number of freight elevators<\/strong> are documented, all positioned along the <strong>curved corridor B<\/strong> and used to hoist caged animals to the surface. In order to activate all 28 elevators simultaneously, a team of <strong>224 people<\/strong> was necessary. Meanwhile, <strong>20 mobile platforms were located in the central corridor, necessary to lift up the props used for wild animal hunts and executions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Later on, in the Severan period, the existing system in corridor B was replaced with a <strong>new system in the straight corridors, made up of 60 \u201csmall lifts\u201d<\/strong> used to hoist up both people and animals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":17905,"template":"","collezioni":[86],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/colosseo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opere\/20446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/colosseo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opere"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/colosseo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/opere"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/colosseo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opere\/20446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20447,"href":"https:\/\/colosseo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opere\/20446\/revisions\/20447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colosseo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/colosseo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"collezioni","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colosseo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collezioni?post=20446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}