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Dr. Josef Wegner, Penn Museum curator who is based in Philadelphia, recently uncovered a groundbreaking discovery: an unknown pharaoh’s tomb, dating back 3,600 years. (Credit: Josef Wegner for the Penn Museum)
The lecture hall of an “impressive high school” from an ancient Greek settlement was recently uncovered in Italy – with the discovery highlighting the similarities between ancient and modern schooling.
The Free University of Berlin announced the find in a press release on April 9. The excavation took place in Agrigento, Italy, on the southwestern coast of Sicily.
Agrigento was founded in 580 B.C. as the largest Greek colony in Sicily. The settlement boasted both a high school and a grammar school – yet the lecture hall of the complex was only unearthed this past March.
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University officials described the hall as “a small covered theater that could accommodate around 200 people on eight rising, semicircular rows of seats,” said a statement translated from German to English.
It went on, “When the grammar school was built in the 2nd century B.C., no other currently known grammar school in the ancient world offered such a lecture hall. It was only 250 to 300 years later that the large high school in Pergamon (Turkey) received a theater-like auditorium.”
An aerial image of Agrigento, which features, in German captions, “rooms for sports and lessons,” a lecture hall, a “large space” and a swimming pool. (Thomas Lappi – Monika Trümper, © Free University of Berlin, Institute for Classical Archaeology)
The hall was primarily used for intellectual activities such as lessons, as well as educational demonstrations and competitions.
Schools in antiquity placed an emphasis on healthy minds and healthy bodies — and teachers ensured that young men were physically and intellectually ready for adult life.
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“From the 4th century BC, [Greek] cities built large complexes with running tracks, bathing facilities and rooms where young men could train and learn,” the press release said.
So far, the school in Agrigento is the only ancient structure in the western Mediterranean that offered a large swimming pool and 200-meter-long running tracks, according to officials.
An archaeologist is seen surveying the site of the Agrigento gymnasium. (S. Kay / Free University of Berlin)
Excavators also found a semi-circular section of the lecture hall, where “teachers and students once performed in front of an audience.”
“[T]wo large blocks with a Greek inscription were found, the letters of which were engraved in the white-plastered soft limestone and highlighted with red paint,” the press release noted.
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Archaeologists also came across an inscription indicating that the gymnasium was financed by a citizen who dedicated the structure to Greek gods.
“Mention is made of a gymnasiarch, the head of the gymnasium, and the renewal of the roof of the apodyterium (changing room), which a generous citizen financed from his own resources and dedicated to the gods of the gymnasium, Hermes and Heracles,” the statement read.
Inscriptions on seats in the gymnasium of Agrigento were found in previous excavations. (M. Trümper / Free University of Berlin)
The inscription is highly unusual, experts say, and helps to “provide insights into the social life of the city.”
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“The letter form suggests that the inscription was engraved in the late 1st century B.C., when Agrigento had long been under Roman rule.” the statement said.
Agrigento was founded in 580 B.C. as the largest Greek colony in Sicily. (iStock)
“Nevertheless, the Greek language, Greek offices and traditions continued to be maintained, and the Greek high school continued to be used and maintained as a central training center for young people.”
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The site will be excavated again in 2026, according to the Free University of Berlin.
Archaeologists are hoping to “uncover more sports and teaching spaces north of the auditorium and find more inscriptions that will reconstruct life in the ancient high school of Agrigento.”
