Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (11.1999(2000))

MARINA EL-ALAMEIN

EGYPT

white cement. The pointing mortar, which
was also used for consolidating the tops of
the walls, was basically of the same compo-
sition.
The objective generally is not to recre-
ate ancient building techniques, but to
protect the surviving architectural ele-
ments from further corrosion and disinte-
gration. The corroded parts of walls,
columns and decorated elements have to be
dismantled, the joints and the surfaces of
particular blocks cleaned. The walls are
then built up and consolidated. The top
surface is shaped appropriately to provide
for water runoff in the direction of both
wall faces.
The pointing work especially has to be
done with extreme care in order to protect
the mortar in the walls from being washed
out, leading to further corrosion and disin-

tegration. The pointing is depressed by
c. 0.5 cm from the wall face in order to
give the proper light-and-shade effects an J
to permit the restored parts of walls to be
easily discernible from original ones.
The plaster on the walls is particularly
susceptible to erosion. This is chiefly due
to the ancient technique, which comprised
a layer of mud mortar spread deeply into
the joints between stone blocks, followed
by one to three layers of lime plaster with
increasingly finer sand fraction, the last,
often mixed with gypsum, serving as the
ground for the wall paintings. Wherever
the plaster appeared to be in good condi-
tion, the team made it a point not to uncov-
er more of the wall surface than can be pro-
tected in the course of the season. Missing
plaster is not restored for both technical
and aesthetic reasons.


Fig. 2. General view from the northwest of houses H 10 (foreground) and H 9 and H 9a, at the
close of the 1999 season (Photo S. Medeksza)

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