Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (12.2000(2001))

MARINA EL-ALAMEIN

EGYPT

skull was found resting upon a flat stone,
as if on a cushion. This mannet of
supporting the head of the deceased has
already been noted in several other tombs.
In front of Tomb 25, at a distance of
0.65 m from its facade and on a level
corresponding to the footing of the tomb,
three altars made of stones testify to
offerings being made for quite a long time.
The altar in front of the central pair of
loculi, roughly rectangular in shape and
0.43 rn high, was made of a flat limestone
slab (0.65 x 0.43 m) set upon a square base
of stones (cf. Fig. 2). The altars in front of

the north and south loculi were smaller
and made of flat stones put together to
form a roughly square shape. A second
level of altars was found superposed over
the first one, repeating the position of all of
the original altars except for the southern
one. The new altars were situated some
50 cm higher up and slightly further away
from the tomb facade. They were obviously
erected when the first set had been
engulfed by sand. The tomb must have
been in use for a long period of time,
notably from the later part of the 1st to the
3rd century AD.

STRUCTURE 26

Geophysical prospection carried out with
the Dielectric Echo System in the
necropolis area in 1999 indicated the

presence of a large rectangular structure
oriented NE-SW and provided with a sort
of "dromos" on the north.5) Best visible at


First century AD
(Drawing I. Zych, inking M. Smoia)


Fig. 4. Structure 26. View from the southwest
(Photo W.A. Daszewski)

5) Daszewski, PAM XI, op. cic., fig. 2.

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