Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (10.1998(1999))

DEIR EL-BAHARI

EGYPT

floor for reconstruction required the clear-
ing of a compact layer of earth and rock
debris overlying the floor. The substruc-
ture of the floor was found to be made up
of haphazardly laid stone elements intro-
duced in Ptolemaic times. Single blocks
from the original floor have survived only
in the northwestern corner of the room,
but they have provided sufficient data to
reconstruct the floor level and its inclina-
tion. The dimensions and position of the
foundations of the bases of the Osiriac stat-
ues of Hatshepsut in the four corners of the
room were also recorded.® Most of the
blocks laid in Ptolemaic times, now com-
pletely disintegrated because of the humid-
ity and salt efflorescence, were cut from the
architrave of the upper courtyard colon-
nade. A big piece with the royal titles of
Tuthmosis III was identified among these
blocks. The bedrock, upon which the sanc-
tuary was erected, was about 55 cm below
the bottom edge of the blocks in the wall.
In the southeastern corner, an irregular
shaft leading to the tombs of the priests of
Montu was uncovered in the bedrock. The
loose rock debris yielded a series of blue-
glazed ushebti figurines, fragments of
painted cartonnages and inscribed caffin
planks.7) Small pieces of limestone blocks
from the walls of the hall of the bark or the
neighboring sanctuary were also discovered
here. One of these blocks with a preserved
fragment of the Horus name of Hatshepsut
was immediately replaced in the south
jamb of the hall of the cult statue. Three
steps of the stairs leading from the hall of
the bark into the sanctuary turned out to
be reused blocks, provisionally installed
during earlier reintegration works. Below

them, in the loose debris, six Roman coins
were discovered. The coins were issued in
the reign of Constantine the Great and his
sons, Constans, Constantius II and
Constantine II, in the mints of Alexandria,
Nikomedia, Constantinople and Antioch
(Fig. 2).®
There is no way to be sure whether the
coins had been left here by the Roman
legionaries from the garrison at Luxor or
the inhabitants of the monastery of St.
Phoibamon occupying this space in
Christian times.
The biggest technical problem was
caused by the need to replace blocks in the
central part of the northern wall of the
room of the bark. Originally, the section


Fig. 2. Coin of Constantine the Great issued
by the Alexandrian mint after the
death of the emperor but before AD
340 (Photo W. Jerke)

® Pawlicki, PAM IX, op. cit., p. 59; H. Winlock, Excavations at Deir el-Bahari 1911-1931 (New York 1942), p. 215.
7> PM I, part II, p. 628 ff.
8> I am indebted to Dr. A. Krzyzanowska for kindly identifying and dating the coins.
9) W. Godlewski, Deir el-Bahari V. Le monastere de St. Phoibammon (Varsovie 1978).

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