Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (14.2002(2003))

ALEXANDRIA

EGYPT

they have not been preserved in their
entirety). In all cases two adjacent sides
form a right angle and present evidence of
7-8 nails driven into the surfaces at more or
less regular intervals of about 8 cm (but
avoiding one another in the adjacent
planes), which would fit the approximate
spacing of the nails noted in the board
edges. Occasionally, the nails had been
driven right through the thickness of the
beam and in one case a nail had apparently
been driven into the top of one end. The
average size of the nail shafts is 0.3 x 0.3 cm
and 0.5 x 0.5 cm (it should be kept in mind
that the nail shafts evident in the beams are
at least 2 cm away from the head, because
that is the thickness of the board they had
been driven through. Since most of them
do not come out on the other side, it should
be assumed that the nails were no longer
than 7 cm. The opposite two surfaces of the
beams are plain, in two cases merely
rounded off at the corner, in two others the
corner edge having evidently been cut
away. The wood appears to bear traces of
a whitish substance (some kind of carpentry
adhesive?) on the flat planes with the nails,
COFFIN FROM
The other coffin came to light in grave
E 9A, a few hundred meters to the north of
the previously described one. Here, the
long boards, very fragmented unfortu-
nately, appeared to be all in position,
crushed inward by the collapsing stone-
block walls of the tomb. A careful lifting of
the pieces and analysis of their relative
position in the grave led to the conclusion
that this coffin was constructed in a some-
what different manner. The long boards, as
far as they could be securely identified,
turned out to be at least 160 cm long, from
24 to 30 cm wide, and uniformly 1 cm
thick. Apart from some iron nails in the

all along their length except for the last
10 cm or so at the end.
Unfortunately, it has proved impossible
so far to match any of the nails in the head
and foot boards, or the surviving edge of
a long board with the uprights. Even so, it
may be assumed that the vertical members
must have been fitted in the corners of the
coffin body, the end boards being nailed on
flush with the edge of the beam, the long
side boards extending beyond the edge of
the corner post to end evenly with the face
of the end board (Fig. 4). There is no
evidence of how the bottom and lid could
have been attached. The corner posts
evidently extended through the bottom of
the coffin body and formed legs upon
which the coffin stood. It cannot be
excluded that the coffin was not much
longer than the surviving long board.
Indeed, the breaking in two of one of the
presumed corner posts when considered in
the light of the position of the surviving
long board, which had been doubled under
along the tenon-joining planes, might
suggest that the board was actually the left
side of the coffin body.
GRAVE E 9A
short ends of the long boards, there was no
trace of any other form of joining element
(the long sides had a tendency to curl
under, as if a bentwood technique had been
applied).
Unlike the previously discussed coffin,
there were no uprights found in this case.
Instead there were at least four narrow
strips of wood, 1 cm thick like the rest of
the boards, but only about 6-8 cm wide
and about 20 cm long. While all the long
boards, whether from the sides, lid or
bottom of the coffin, were found lying
more or less lengthwise in the grave, these
narrow strips lay crosswise, at fairly regular

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