Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (15.2003(2004))

NAQLUN

EGYPT

and room D.8 fall within the range: 22-24
x 10-12 x 4-6 cm.®
Baked bricks were used only to reinforce
the bottom parts of doorjambs. Single
bricks of this kind occasionally replaced
mud bricks in the wall structure, but this
had no impact on the overall quality of the
THE MORTAR
A gray mud mortar with chopped straw
added as temper was used to bond the
bricks; in the walls of room AE.l and the
mausoleum, the temper consisted of chop-
ped straw and gravel. Only the baked brick
construction between G.5 and G.6 was
bonded and coated with a so-called cement
mortar, that is, a very hard lime mortar of
grayish color.8>
As far as plaster is concerned, it was not
preserved merely on the mostly burned
walls of the complex AA.30.1-3.91 Else-
where plaster is prevalent. Three kinds can
be distinguished based on the material:
plaster made of desert clay, mud plaster and
lime plaster.
The first kind always contained a very
fine vegetal temper. Dominating among
them was a fine plaster of yellowish-cream

building. Thus, the two courses of baked
headers (25 x 11-12 x 7.5-8 cm)7* set on
edge and separated by a layer of mortar,
found between rooms G.5 and G.6
(Building G) were truly exceptional. They
looked very much like a solid foundation
under a wall (?), of which no trace remains.
AND PLASTER
color,10) but darker ones, orange-pink and
brownish-yellow, were also encountered.111
Mud plaster was also applied frequently,
each time mixed with either fine or thickly
chopped straw. The color ranges from light
gray,121 through dark gray (same color as
the bricks)131 to dark grayish-green and
brownish.141
Traces of lime plaster were recorded on
the walls of some of the rooms of
Building G. The north wall of room G.8
was covered with a so-called cement plaster
with fine gravel added. The presence of
a very fine, cream-white lime plaster
without temper, smoothly finished like
gypsum, was noted on the north wall of
Building G (the outer wall on the street
side) and on the south wall of the niche
under the stairs in room G.2.

6) Gray (mud) bricks of identical size (24 x 12x6; 22-23 x 9-12 x 5 cm) were used in the 9th century to build the walls
of House X in Tebtynis, cf. M.-O. Rousset, S. Marchand, “Secteur nord de Tebtynis (Fayyoum). Mission de 1999 ”, Anlsl 34
(2000), 416, 422; M.-O. Rousset, S. Marchand, D. Foy, “Secteur nord de Tebtynis (Fayyoum). Mission de 2000”, Anlsl 35
(2001), 436.
7) The presence of baked bricks of identical size (24.5-25 x 11-12 x 7.5 cm) was also noted in the remains of a construction
related to water use in House X in Tebtynis, from a phase dated to the end of the 6th century, cf. Rousset, Marchand, Foy,
“Mission 2000”, op. cit, 418.
8) Identical mortar was used for the floor in room G.5.
9) Godlewski, PAM XIII, op. cit, 163, 166.
10) In Building G: west wall of room G.2, west wall of room G.5, south wall of room D.5, outer wall on the west side of
corridor G.l, all the walls of rooms G.6 and G.3.
11) The former on the north, east and south walls of the mausoleum, the latter in room G.7.
12) North wall of room G.2.
13) In Building G: the underplaster on the north wall of room G.2 and the south wall of room G.3; the plaster on the outer
wall on the west side of corridor G.l and the plaster on the east wall of room G.5.
14) The former: room G.4 in Building G; the latter: east wall of room AE.l.

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