Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (18.2006(2008))

ALEXANDRIA

EGYPT

APPENDIX I
NEWLY DISCOVERED LATRINE ON
KOM EL-DIKKA (2005/2006 SEASON)

Marek Wozniak

Fieldwork in 2005/2006, designed to
prepare the area for a reconstruction of the
robbed out outer wall of the bath (in Area
FE), brought to light in the eastern trench
wall a surprisingly well preserved sewage
channel from a big latrine.
The trench was located on the site of
a medieval robbers' pit which had destroyed
almost completely a longitudinal section of
the east bath wall, running to the north
facade of the block of cisterns. Extending
work in the trench to the east uncovered
badly damaged remains of a floor paved
with severely cracked limestone slabs.
Evident traces of feces on the pavement and
the situation of the floor to the west of the
sewage channel identified the remains as the
inside of a latrine. The location of this unit
on the plan of this sector suggests the
builder's intent to place the latrine near one
of the main communication passages inside
the Late Roman Bath complex, running
from a monumental gate opening on Street
R4 in the east to the actual entrance to the
baths and the gate at the western end which
opened into the Theater Portico. This
evident topographical link with the bath
complex implies a date for the newly
uncovered remains in connection with the
baths as a whole, and more specifically
with the first phase of bath operation, that

is, the end of the 4th and the early 5th
century AD.
Further excavations traced the sewage
channel also along the mostly unpreserved
northern and southern walls of the facility
[Figs 1, 2}. The width of this channel in the
upper part was 0.50 m, but lower down it
was made narrower by about 10 cm because
of the projecting wall footing. The depth,
based on measurements of the completely
preserved inside wall of the channel in the
western part of the room, was determined as
2.50 m from the level of the pavement. The
other walls of the channel were completely
robbed out, but an analysis of the preserved
parts of the inside walls (the foundation
walls of the carrying walls served as the
outer ones) revealed that they were
constructed of two rows of solid limestone
blocks. The pavement extended over the
inside row, nearer to the center of the room,
while the other row presumably supported
the blocks which had a narrow trough cut in
them for supplying the water for soaking
the toilet sponges. One of these blocks,
preserved in very good condition, was
discovered inside the southern sewage
channel [Fig. 3}· As was to be expected, the
channels were not paved, allowing the
liquid component of feces to soak even 2 m
through the ground. This manner of

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