Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (17.2005(2007))

ALEXANDRIA

EGYPT

SECTOR AS

Clearing of the Portico stylobate in Sector
AS revealed four chamber tombs of the
Upper Necropolis (AS 144-AS 147).
Three of these had altogether five funerary
stelae of marble mounted on them. Two of
the tombstones were in very poor con-
dition, the marble crumbling and de-
teriorating. One appears unfinished,
showing merely summary dressing and
rough tracing of the letters. The re-
maining two monuments present more or
less the same selection from the Quran.
The date of death of a woman, appearing

atypically on one of the stela (reg. no.
5111), is given as 247 AH of the month of
Rabi' al-Awwal according to the Muslim
calendar, which is calculated as May/June
861 {Fig. 4] 8
Very seldom was anything found inside
the graves. Most of the objects originated
from the fill in which the graves were dug.
These were mostly fragmentary glass and
pottery vessels, including glazed Islamic
wares, frequently glass weights, glazed oil
lamps and bronze coins, as well as pieces of
bronze objects.

8 I am indebted to Ms Dorota Malarczyk of Jagiellonian University in Krakow for reading the date.