Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (17.2005(2007))

MAREA

EGYPT

STRATIGRAPHY

The first task of the mission was to clear
three robber pits dug in our absence fol-
lowing the last season: in the centre of the
chapel (pit C), in the northern aisle (pit B),
and behind the eastern wall of the church
(pit A), across the road leading to the lake.
This proved to be an opportune way of
checking the stratigraphy inside the
basilica.
The most relevant information was
supplied by pit C, which was excavated
down to culturally sterile layers. The nearly

square pit (2.20 x 2.40 m) had been cut into
the floor of the chapel; it was dug to a depth
of 2.00 m [Fig. 1]. A wall of stone blocks,
oriented N-S, undoubtedly a relic of an
earlier structure, passed down the middle.
A pile of human bones, contemporary with
this wall, was uncovered in the western pit
wall; the bones turned out to be a virtually
complete skeleton belonging to a tall man
(lacking only the finger bones),2 obviously
secondarily interred above a crushed am-
phora of the 2nd-3rd century.3 The other


Fig. 1. Pit C cut into the floor of the chapel
(Photo D. Dziedzic)

2 Kindly identified by anthropologist R. Mahler based on photo documentation.
3 The pottery was identified and dated by Dr. G. Majcherek.

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