3D animation of Colosseum explains all

This 3D animation is by far the greatest explanation of the construction, function and mechanics of the Colosseum I’ve ever seen. It’s by the YouTube channel Deconstructed which usually explains how things like car jacks and sprinklers work. The Colosseum is a whole other universe of complexity, obviously, and they still completely slaughter it, covering everything from how the seating was divided by class and entrances were used to direct crowd control to the hidden mechanics that enabled spectacles like mock naval battles and beast hunts complete with scenery.

Even if you have a grasp of how, for example, animals were raised from the hypogea under the Colosseum to the trap door and onto the arena floor, seeing it represented visually with simple, clear renderings of how the ropes, pulleys, cages and chutes worked by manpower alone is really mind-blowing, especially since a lot of the information we have about the underground workings of the arena is the result of very recent archaeological investigations.

My favorite part is the animation of how the velarium, the retractable awning that kept the audience from baking in the Roman sun, was operated. The mechanism has long been subject to scholarly speculation, but this is the first time I’ve seen it hypothesized that the tapered strips of canvas were rolled into drums that were winched open and close by one worker per awning, as opposed to a crew of 1,000 sailors unfurling the canvas by manipulating a complex rope rigging system. The video is 16:51 minutes long and I wish there was another hour of it.