Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (16.2004(2005))

MARINA EL-ALAMEIN

EGYPT

modular order in which it was raised was
undertaken at the time [Fig. 3],10 adding to
the existing body of evidence on niche set-
tings and stylized architectural orders. An
analysis of proportions could also be made
based on a comparison with the inventory
drawings of the said aedicula from House
H9- Fieldwork in House H21c in 2000,
brought the discovery of a small niche of
similar form and proportions, carved in a
single block of stone [Fig. 4]. The next year
further elements of yet another architectural
niche were discovered in Hall H21"N".
Once these were joined to elements col-
lected during early Egyptian explorations in
the late 1980s, they proved to be part of
a huge aedicula, which could now be recon-

structed. All these niches were constructed
of elements that belonged to the stylized
pseudo-Corinthian order so typical of
Marina, and all were virtually complete.
The remains of the niche from House
H10 turned out to include all the elements
of its setting. It was the first time that
explorations of the houses in Marina had
yielded such a fully and well preserved
example. Thus, the decision was made to
prepare an anastylosis of the element. In-
ventory and reconstruction studies, which
followed, helped to understand, as it
turned out later, the typical arrangement
of such niches, opening the way to the re-
construction of another two niches in a more
distant future.


Fig. 1. Remains of an aedicula from House H9. State in 1988
(Photo W.A. Daszewski)
10 R. Czerner, "Aedicula z domu H10 w Marinie El-Alamein w Egipcie. Analiza archicektoniczna, rekonstrukcja",
Architects 2(8) (2000), 3-14.

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