Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (17.2005(2007))

NAQLUN

EGYPT

ROOFS AND VAULTS

Building G had a flat roof. Fragments of
roofing beams have been preserved in the
fill of rooms G.9 and G.4. The beams were
made of palm wood, partly dressed, the
orientation of laying being E-W.14 Bundles
of reed about 150 cm long rested directly
on the beams and were tied with palm-
fiber ropes. No palm-leaf ribs (jarids) were
observed in the fill and it should be pre-
sumed that none were used in the structure
of the roof in these cases.15
Some rooms yielded such quantities of
reeds that it is unlikely to imagine that all

were used as roofing. Perhaps this was fuel
stored on a flat roof.16 To judge by reed im-
pressions noted on pieces of mortar from the
fill, a layer of mud mortar was plastered
directly on top of the reeds, followed by
mud bricks laid flat on top. The mortar
together with the layer of bricks was 7-8 cm
thick.
The sole surviving roof in Building G is
the construction under the steps in room
G.10. Obliquely inclined mud bricks in the
vaulting course lean toward the west wall of
the staircase against which they are supported.

FLOORS

Pugging of tamped grayish-brown earth
was frequent in Building G, especially in
the enlarged part of the complex, that is, in
rooms G.8 and G.10. Sequences of floors
were discovered here, laid successively to
match the rising walking level. Some of
these floors could be identical with the
surfaces of streets E.l and N.l before their
inclusion into Building G. A variant of
this kind of floor is a mud surface
reinforced with mud-brick debris, e.g.
floor in the western part of room G.8 and
by the passage to the north of room G.8a.
Floors made of gray mud with straw chaff
as temper, leveled with care and passing
smoothly into wall plastering (as demon-
strated by the rounded surfaces in the room

corners), appear to be more frequent in the
older part of the complex. The best
preserved examples come from room G.4,
but for some reason the southern and
southwestern parts of this room were
covered with similar, but much more
carelessly executed pugging. In the
adjacent room G.9 on the south, the floor
has been preserved only in the southern
part. Larger fragments of tamped mud
floors have also been preserved in the
corridors G.1-G.3-G.5. Small stretches of
the floor were preserved along the walls in
rooms G.2 and G.7. Execution technique
is well illustrated by the remnants of floor
seen in section in the northern part of
Room G.10: gray mud with chaff plastered

14 15-20 x 20-23 cm in section; preserved length between 1.10 and 1.93 m. Actual length can be reconstructed based on
room width at least as 3.40-4.10 m (beam of similar size, i.e., 407 x 25 x 7 cm, unquestionably from the roofing, was
excavated in House X at Tebtynis and dated to the second hall of the 9th century, cf. M.-O. Rousset, S. Marchand,
"Secteur nord de Tebtynis (Fayyoum). Mission de 1999", Anlsl 34 (2000), 424).
15 Cf. B.P. Grenfell, A.S. Hunt, D.G. Hogarth, Fayum Towns and their Papyri (London 1900), 23-24; E. Husselman,
Karanis. Excavations of the University of Michigan in Egypt 1928-1935. Topography and Architecture (Ann Arbor
1979), 37.
16 Cf. Godlewski, Derda, Gorecki, op. cit., 212-214. There are other purposes for which bundles of reeds could be used,
cf. Husselman, op. cit., 37, PI. 28a.

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