Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (14.2002(2003))

MAREA

EGYPT

a fragment of Coptic jar with painted image
of the face of an angel, the head of a ter-
racotta female figurine and a coin of the 6th
century. A primitive furnace of rectangular
outline had leaned against the east wall of
the courtyard, its walls erected of bricks in
a mud mortar. All these structures evidently

did not appear before the final aban-
donment of the bath. In the eastern part of
area F3, in the east trench wall and in the
baulk, two separate floor levels were
recorded, the upper one 40 cm below the
surface and the lower one another 30 cm
lower down.

SAQIYAH AND WELL

The other feature explored this season was
situated about 4.75 m to the north of the
bath and can safely be identified as a well
operated by a saqiyah (cf. Fig. 1). The well
(G6) was 5 m deep, rectangular in plan
(1.00 by 3-40 m), built of stone blocks and
buttressed from the inside by two
horizontal stone crossbeams one above the
other (Fig. 7). The water in the well came
from a spring discovered in its north-
western corner, supplied from under-
ground sources. In the north wall of the
well there was a rectangular outflow hole
opening onto a channel, which ran for 9 m
to a brick-vaulted semicircular cistern
(Fig. 8). At a distance of 3.80 m from the
outflow hole there was a shaft reaching the
channel from the surface, its sides cut by
characteristic footholds for scaling it. It
was presumably operated as an inspection
shaft. The bottom of both the well and the
cistern was strewn with potsherds from the
6th-7th centuries, the majority of these
representing saqiyah-pots. The well oc-
cupied a spot in the western part of
a walled circle of an outer diameter of 8 m,
raised of stone blocks (averaging 30 x 55 x
40 cm in size) bonded in mortar and partly
robbed out. Masonry marks in the form of
red crosses were painted on some of the

blocks. This structure was buttressed in
stone - two buttresses on the north, one on
the west side and another one on the east.
South of the well and level with its rim


Fig. 9- The substructure under the saqiyah
(Photo T. Kalarus)

2) Cf. L. Menassa, P. Laferriere, “La saqia. Technique et vocabulaire de la roue a eau egyptienne”, BdE LXVII (Le Caire 1974),
passim. Few ancient wells with saqiyah installations have been found in Egypt. A saqiyah dating to the 5th or 6th century was
explored at the Byzantine monastery of Abu Mena and another dating to the 1st or 2nd century was uncovered at Hermopolis
Magna in Middle Egypt. At Kom-el-Dikka in Alexandria a team from the Polish Centre of Archaeology uncovered a cistern
that assured the water supply of the 4th century Roman baths; this cistern was serviced by two saqiyah installations.

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