Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (14.2002(2003))

MARINA EL-ALAMEIN

W. 1.79 - 1.55 - 1.75m). Both must have
been continuously roofed once. The lower
end of the staircase consisted of a landing
closed with a wooden door (0.93 m wide
and 1.93 m high) separating the staircase
from the court. The original door was not
preserved but the holes for the wooden door
jambs were cut in the rock. The threshold
was 0.30 m above the court.
The open-air court (3-90 x 3.70 m) was
some 4.80 m high, including the preserved

lower course of blocks of the curtain wall.
The overhanging roof in the courtyard
protruded 0.80-1.00 mi on the north side
and 0.75-0.80 m on the south side. The
opening over the courtyard was thus ap-
proximately 2 m (N-S) and 1.50 m (E-W).
A rock-cut altar, almost square in plan (0.60
x 0.65 m; 0.80-0.88 high), dominated the
center of the courtyard, right underneath
the roof opening (Figs. 3, 4). Opposite the
staircase, in the middle of the south wall,


Fig. 3■ Tomb 29. Altar in the courtyard
and entrance staircase,
view from the south
(Photo W.A. Daszewski)


Fig. 4. Tomb 29- Entrance to the burial
chamber, altar in the courtyard in
the foreground, view from the north
(Photo W.A. Daszewski)

3) Loculus 1 in the east wall (W: 0,76, H: 0.81, L: 1.91) contained four bodies in fairly correct anatomical position with heads
resting on flat stones and the bones of two earlier burials removed to the southeast corner. South-wall loculi from east to west:
no. 2 (W: 0.67, H: 0.87, L: 2.0-2.5) with an adult and child; no. 3 (W: 0.81, H: 0.87-0.94, L: 1.95) with two adults, resting
with heads in opposite directions, one to the north and the other to the south, in a wooden coffin; no. 4 (W: 0.75, H: 0.90, L: 2.0)
with two adults, the original burial having been pushed aside towards the east wall and the second one lying on the west side
among fragments of wooden planks (bier). West wall loculi: southernmost no. 5 (W: 0.7, H: 0.87, L: 2.05) with a single male
skeleton; no. 6 (W: 0.82, H: 0. 92, L: 2.0) with one burial amidst traces of a wooden bier or coffin and a rectangular mummy
label of bone, the inscription totally faded ; no. 7, cut sideways (W: 1.16, H: 0.80, L: 0.40), holding a child burial, the head
pointing north.

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