Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (13.2001(2002))

MAREA

EGYPT

information about the course of this
channel. Another channel (Q2) runs
westward for about 5 m and then turns off
northward (Q3).
The fill accumulated at the northern
end of channel Q1 yielded 20 oil lamps
(a few from the same mould!) and another
15 came from the area around the northern
end of Q3. These are highly typical
Byzantine lamps with rays or relief circles,
or grapevine clusters on the shoulders,
dated principally to the years AD 550-650
(Fig- W6)
The northern outer wall of the bath,
constructed of bricks reinforced with stone
blocks, was also traced this year. It has
turned out to be a continuous wall, running

beyond the structure of the bath both to the
east and to the west. On the northern side,
it is joined at right angles by four stone
walls, which divide the space there into
four units, possibly shops adjoining the
bath. In the biggest of these units, Bl,
a clay pipe was found, presumably once
used for draining wastewater into a sewage
channel, which remains to be discovered. In
the southeastern corner a shelf made of
stones was revealed and above it a small
semicircular niche (0.5 m wide, 0.6 m
high, 0.4 m deep). A drain (Q8) runs below
the units (Cl, D1 and El), cut off on the
west by one of the perpendicular walls; it
collected wastewater from pools D, E and F,
drained through small narrow channels.


Fig. 11. Oil lamps found inside channel Q1
(Photo T. Kalarus)

6) D. M. Bailey, Catalogue of the Lamps in the British Museum. III. Roman Provincial Lamps (London 1988), 269,
Q 2228, pi. 53, 144, fig. 141; 274, Q 2266, pi. 55.

56