DOI issue:
Egypt
DOI article:Majcherek, Grzegorz: Kom el-Dikka: excavation and preservation work preliminary report, 2004/2005
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42091#0036
ALEXANDRIA
EGYPT
to a height of 4-5 courses (approx. 1.60-
1.85 m). The doors were structured in the
required locations according to the original
archaeological evidence. Since the wall was
designed also to serve as a sustaining wall
for the planned escarpment along the
cisterns, it was decided to block the doors
in order to create a continuous barrier and
to enhance its structural strength. The
doors were blocked with smaller stones in
an attempt to separate the original
structure of the house from modern
additions necessitated by the planned site
exhibition [Fig. 11}. An additional wall
dividing rooms F9 and F10, structured in
pillar technique, was also thoroughly
rebuilt.
The restoration of a double wall
separating houses FA and FB turned out to
be particularly demanding. During the
initial exploration, it was ascertained that
both these walls had sustained heavy
damage, having almost totally dis-
integrated due to hasty dismantling
carried out in the medieval period.
Robbing pits had been filled with large
blocks, all dislocated and wedged together.
These were carefully extracted, lifted and
prepared for the ensuing restoration. To
secure the stability of the rebuilt wall and
to avoid subsidence, it was decided to lay
new strip foundations (c. 0.30 m thick).
These were made of plain concrete laid
some 0.80 m below the original floor level.
Both walls were rebuilt up to 4-5 courses
of ashlars. Damp-proof insulation (tarpaper
coated with bitumen) was introduced
approx. 0.15 m above ground level.
An adjacent fragment of the facade of
house FB appeared to have been largely
dismantled sometime in Late Antiquity,
when a large brick-made lime kiln was
built directly on top of the wall. The
decision to preserve the kiln necessitated
the building of a retaining wall to support
its construction, now dangerously
overhanging house FB. The sustaining
wall was built of small assorted stones to
create a visual distinction between two
chronologically different structures.
EGYPT
to a height of 4-5 courses (approx. 1.60-
1.85 m). The doors were structured in the
required locations according to the original
archaeological evidence. Since the wall was
designed also to serve as a sustaining wall
for the planned escarpment along the
cisterns, it was decided to block the doors
in order to create a continuous barrier and
to enhance its structural strength. The
doors were blocked with smaller stones in
an attempt to separate the original
structure of the house from modern
additions necessitated by the planned site
exhibition [Fig. 11}. An additional wall
dividing rooms F9 and F10, structured in
pillar technique, was also thoroughly
rebuilt.
The restoration of a double wall
separating houses FA and FB turned out to
be particularly demanding. During the
initial exploration, it was ascertained that
both these walls had sustained heavy
damage, having almost totally dis-
integrated due to hasty dismantling
carried out in the medieval period.
Robbing pits had been filled with large
blocks, all dislocated and wedged together.
These were carefully extracted, lifted and
prepared for the ensuing restoration. To
secure the stability of the rebuilt wall and
to avoid subsidence, it was decided to lay
new strip foundations (c. 0.30 m thick).
These were made of plain concrete laid
some 0.80 m below the original floor level.
Both walls were rebuilt up to 4-5 courses
of ashlars. Damp-proof insulation (tarpaper
coated with bitumen) was introduced
approx. 0.15 m above ground level.
An adjacent fragment of the facade of
house FB appeared to have been largely
dismantled sometime in Late Antiquity,
when a large brick-made lime kiln was
built directly on top of the wall. The
decision to preserve the kiln necessitated
the building of a retaining wall to support
its construction, now dangerously
overhanging house FB. The sustaining
wall was built of small assorted stones to
create a visual distinction between two
chronologically different structures.