Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (17.2005(2007))

MAREA

EGYPT

a common element of the decoration of
the Abu Mena basilica.6 7
The biggest accomplishment of the
season was the provisional distinguishing of
subsequent occupation levels inside the
church and the position of chancel posts. In
previous seasons, two marble posts and
numerous fragments of screens from a bar-
rier surrounding the altar were excavated in
the fill of the kiln and in its vicinity. As
mentioned above, the layers of mud brick,
encountered both in this part of the basilica,
and in pit C, testify to the existence of
a structure immediately prior to the last
phase of the church, when the highest floor
was laid. A fragment of this pavement, in
the form of impressed mortar and water-
proof plaster that constituted a bedding for
marble tiles, was left for the sake of evidence
in the southern part of the explored part of
the nave [Fig. 7]. A wall contemporary to
this floor enclosed the area (9-80 x 9-20 m)
around the altar that had once stood there.
Its eastern part (disturbed in the center) and
two lateral wings are preserved {cf. Fig. 2}.
The cancelli were fixed to this wall, as made
evident by the rectangular impressions of
pillars of various dimensions and orientation
that can be observed on its surface. Con-
sidering the change in the placement of gro-
oves for mounting screens observed on a pil-
lar found last year,8 it can be inferred that
they were moved when the wall was rebuilt.
The east wall has two circular, sym-
metrically spaced openings for fitting
smallcolumns.
A fragment of a shaft of one of these
columns, 0.22 m in diameter, was found in
2003 in the debris filling the kiln.

An earlier occupation level was dis-
tinguished in the southern and the
northern parts of the explored section of
the nave. A pavement of stone slabs was
found under a bedding of crushed rock and
clay, 0.40-0.50 m thick, recorded beneath
the preserved evidence of the latest floor.
Immediately above it is a small wall with
three square openings for fixing small
pillars. Perhaps this was an inner passage-
way, with a threshold on the south side of
which there is a layer of plaster painted
black. In the northern part, the following
objects contemporaneous with this level
were found: a thick floor of lime mortar
with traces of waterproof plaster, un-


Fig. 5. Polygonal column base from the nave
of the basilica (Photo H. Szymahska)

6 P. Grossmann, Abu Mina I. Die Gruftkirche und die Gruft (Mainz 1989), 61, Fig. 9.
7 On the basis of observations made when excavating the basilica, one can conclude that in this time and location the use
of opus signinum was widespread and frequently not motivated by technological reasons.
8 Cf. PAM XV, Reports 2004 (2005), 50 and Fig. 8.

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