Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (17.2005(2007))

ALEXANDRIA

EGYPT

at 10.40 m a.s.l. and five other graves from
the earlier period at 10.15 m a.s.l. An Arab
stela in marble (reg. no. 5097) was
discovered in situ by tomb G 201, belong-
ing to the younger phase of the Middle
Necropolis.
Tombs of the Lower Necropolis were
cleared inside auditorium G in sector G.
They lay immediately above the floor of the
lecture hall, at 8.50 m a.s.l.. Altogether,
eight graves were explored (G 300-G 307)
[Fig. 31- The construction of these tombs is
fairly primitive: large limestone blocks
forming the walls, the top covered with
limestone slabs. The chamber was
frequently cut into the underlying ancient
ruins and only covered with limestone slabs.
Even simpler pit graves and pit graves with

covering of limestone slabs characterized the
Lower Necropolis. These graves typically
had no superstructures of any kind.
Two of the graves from the cluster of
graves inside locus ( = lecture hall) G were
simple pits in the ground without a pre-
served stone casing (G 301 and G 303),
one grave was excavated into a bench of
the auditorium (G 305) and five others
had been cut into the Late Antique
pavement and covered with slabs. Two
(G 305 and G 306) were children's
graves. Adult burials followed a standard
size: 1.60 by 0.88 m, while the children's
graves measured 1.30 by 0.45 m each.
The condition of bones, both in the
grave pits and in the stone tombs, was
comparably poor.7


Fig. 4. Stela (reg. no. 5111) giving the deceased woman's date of death as 24l AH/AD 861
(Photo E. Kulicka)

7 For previous anthropological study of human remains from the Moslem cemeteries on Kom el-Dikka, see E. Prominska,
Investigations of the Population of Muslim Alexandria (Warszawa 1972).

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