Theater Marcellus

Our next problem is on the Theatre Marcellus. The problem is

The Public Broadcasting company (PBS_, creator of the popular series "History Detectives" has sponsored its four investigators on a month-long archaeological architectural and cultural history workshop in Rome.. PBS is considering expanding its scope from investigating the provenance of American artifacts to analyzing and investigating objects from other cultures. The investigators' areas of expertise range from architecture and construction, engineering, to history and the arts. The Rome Conference will provide the group with much needed background to enable them to apply their investigative skills to researching artifacts and reconstructing historical evident in other cultures.

While the group was completing its studies in Rome,they learn that sanitation crews sapazzini have unearthed a puzzling find in the subterranean depths under that Via Del Teatro Di Marcello. This find was so unusual that the news was splattered across the front page ofCorriere della Sera. Ancient artifacts are frequently found during the most common excavations in and around Rome. Even the most learned Italian archaeologists, however, could not explain the significance or the provenance of the strange box or its contents. Inside the stone sarcophagus was an unusual combination of artifacts—so unusual that no local experts could agree on any aspect of the find. For when the lid was pried from the top of the sarcophagus, they found the following: a large brass bowl-like object, some shreds of disintegrating cloth, several chunks of different types of stone-like material, some post-Roman era coins, and a decaying Latin scroll ending with Vi...vi…s.

The History Detectives could not help but be drawn into the puzzling story. Did they not unravel similar, though much simpler, mysteries in the United States? Then they realized that this inexplicable discovery might prove to be the validation for expanding the scope of their investigations beyond the United States. If they could break the mystery—it they could not only identify the objects, but trace their provenance, perhaps they could also sell PBS on the idea of a much-expanded television program.

But…What were these objects? Why were they buried as they were? Would they be able to trace where they came from? And finally…What would they have to do to convince PBS to produce a new version of their program?

We looked into this PBS show already and it's almost like an antique roadshow except they go out to find the antiques. I emailed the man who's on the show and works and lives in Cincinnati to see if we could interview him but I haven't heard back yet.

Since we realize that this objects are hypothetical it gave me more creative freedom to make up a story about the objects (while still considering their purposes) for instance they could be the burial remains of Marcellus - who was supposedly buried in a monument to him but perhaps his wife or someone stole his remains and put them back in the theater that was named after him. Or maybe their just stage props for a show on the murder of Julius Caesar. A poor slave could have escaped and lived in the basement of the theater. There he used the bronze bowl to kill rodents and bugs as his food. The cloth was his only form of clothing and the sarcophagus is what he was buried in when a stage hand found his cold dead body one night and decided to give him a respectful burial, however he never removed the slave because he would consider it disrespectful to take the man out of his freedom back to the those who enslaved him.

Those are all just random ideas but our group is going to do more research on the theater, who went to it, the plays that took place, the items used in the culture of the people at the time period, how they cooked, how they dressed. We'll be looking for the what, why and so what of things to create our story as historical investigators. Then we're going to create a spoof episode of the TV show to show to "PBS" on why they should start investigating internationally as well.