Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (16.2004(2005))

MARINA EL-ALAMEIN

EGYPT

average of 0.20 m in the immediate
vicinity of the walls of the tomb. Two early
lamps (first half of 1st century AD) and
a small glass bottle plus a fragment of early
lst-century glass pillar-moulded bowl
were discovered immediately in front of
the loculus in the western extension. In
front of the eastern facade, the earliest layer
of 'altar-stones' and broken pottery, mainly
bottom parts of wine amphorae produced
in the Mareotic region (AE3), extended all
along the front of the tomb. The rubble
contained also some fragments of imported
vessels originating from Cilicia and/or
Cyprus ("pinched amphorae") and Crete.
Several sherds of omnipresent Cypriot
Sigillata (Hayes form 40) were also re-
corded. A second level of 'altars' appeared

at a distance of c. 1.18 m east of the facade,
more or less opposite the northernmost
loculus of the main part of the tomb and
the first loculus in the northern extension,
about 0.33 m above the bedrock in this
part. Two concentrations of burnt stones
were located, arranged between upright
slabs. The northern one measured ap-
proximately 0.30 by 0.40 m and was
ringed with unburned limestone rocks, the
southern one covered an area about 0.70 by
0.50 m. A fragment of oil lamp with
rosette pattern on the discus was found
with the northern 'altar'. A third set of
'altar' stones, 0.50 by 0.40 m, joined the
second one just in front of the upright slab.
The latest level of 'altar' stones rested next
to the upright slab; traces of burning can


Pig. 6. The discovery of the statue among blocks from the presumed naos superstructure of Tomb 30
(Photo I. Zych)

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