Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (11.1999(2000))

ALEXANDRIA

EGYPT

2 m. Much to our surprise, no doorways
whatsoever were found, thus excluding any
direct communication between these two
wings.
The excavation was continued north
of the triclinium, in the area of the sup-
posed courtyard. At a distance of some
5.80 m from the entrance to the former,
a much weathered limestone column
(Dia. 0.70 m) was found, standing some
0.80 m away from the wall. The upper
part of the column, which rises almost
2 m above the floor level, was damaged
by a later burial of the Lower Necropolis.
At this stage of the research, it is difficult
to be certain whether it marked the
entrance to another large room (no. 11) or
was the corner of a peristyled courtyard.
The floor in the room was paved with
multicolored pieces of marble tiles. A
fragmentary stucco statue was found in
the courtyard next to the western wall
and close to a small pedestal unearthed in
1994.
Almost all of the loci excavated this
season were filled with a large accumula-
tion of architectural debris. Careful explo-
ration of the uncovered remains brought
to light numerous fragments of limestone
cornices and capitals, stuccowork and
other elements that hint at the architec-
tural decoration of the building (Fig. 6).
Some of the fallen blocks retained their
original painted plastering. The cornices
are decorated with dentils or with alter-
nately flat-grooved and hollow square
modillions.

Such cornice types of distinct
Alexandrian tradition continue from
Ptolemaic to Roman times and are usually
dated to the 1st century BC-lst century
AD.5)
The building chronology is still far
from being precise. Finds trapped under
the debris provided little, if any evidence;
only a dozen or so stray sherds were record-
ed, usually belonging to the 3rd-century
horizon. The final abandonment of the
building may be dated tentatively to the
end of the 3rd century AD. In the next
century, the ruins were leveled and the
Theater and Portico constructed in their
place.
Despite neither overall dimensions nor
detailed plan being available, some cau-
tious suggestions can be made regarding
the building. Until now the peristyle
house has been widely believed to be the
most common feature of the domestic
architecture in Alexandria, although this
view was based mainly on the analyses of
scarce ancient sources and funerary archi-
tecture. On the other hand, a typical peri-
style arrangement of the courtyard is
rather rare in Egyptian domestic architec-
ture of this period. The few known build-
ings erected on such a plan come from
Tell Atrib and Marina el-Alamein6). The
much more widespread and common oikos
or pseudo-peristyle layouts have many
parallels, also in Alexandria, e.g. the
tombs of Mustapha Pasha and other Early
Roman houses uncovered at Kom el-
Dikka.7:)

5) P. Pensabene, Elementi architetonici di Alessandria e di altri siti egiziani (Rome 1993).
® K. Michatowski, "Les fouilles polonaises a Tell Atrib", ASAE LVIII (1958), 235-240; W. A. Daszewski, "Temoignage
de l'urbanisme de la cote mediterraneenne de l'Egypte hellenistique et romaine a la lumiere des fouilles de Marina el-
Alamein", BSFE 132 (1995), 11-29, figs. 8-9; S. Medeksza, PAM X, Reports 1998 (1999), 51-62.
7> G. Majcherek, PAM VII, Reports 1995 (1996), 13-22; G. Majcherek, "Notes on Alexandrian habitat: Roman and
Byzantine houses from Kom el-Dikka", TOflOI, vol. 5/1 (1995), 133-150

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