DOI Heft:
Egypt
DOI Artikel:Medeksza, Stanisław: Marina el-Alamein: conservation and restoration work in 2006
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42092#0084
MARINA EL-ALAMEIN
EGYPT
mounting the door pivot in the east house
wall. Two other blocks of identical
petrographic and morphometric nature,
found by the south wall of Room 18,
indicated that a doorway had functioned
there also in an earlier phase. A fourth
block, discovered in the passage from Room
3 to Room 4, preserved traces of a bronze
fitting.
HOUSE H2
Clearing in Room 2 revealed a floor of stone
slabs (7.00 by 5.76 m), surrounded by walls
of broken stone, c. 0.65 m thick (doubled
on the east and west by walls of blocks on
the outside) and surviving to a height of
c. 0.70 m in places. A doorway 1.70 m wide
in the north wall has jambs made of big
blocks and is furnished with a threshold.
Fragments of black-painted plaster were
preserved on the walls and in the fill,
forming a dado around the room.
In Room 3 to the west (3.83 by 3.50 m)
and Room 4 (3.63 by 3.45 m), walls were in
all cases 0.30 m thick and in one case held
a niche 0.93 m wide and 0.40 m deep. The
doorway was 0.95 m wide with a threshold
in it and approached by a step. A block from
the fill, probably from the courtyard,
preserving plaster with painted decoration,
bore a green band c. 1.5 cm wide, flanked
by red bands (0.05 cm) on either side
(presumably part of rectangular paneling).
The finely paved Room 10 (8.50 by
7.05 m) to the west of Rooms 3 and 4 may
have been the main room of the house.
Other cleared rooms included no. 6 (2.43 by
2.36 m, floor 0.90 m above the level of
Courtyard 1), no. 9 (3.34 by 2.34 m) with
the most recent occupation dated to the
3rd-4th century AD by glass and pottery
originating from a compact layer of sand
with traces of burning. A vaulted cellar
(4.20 by 0.80 m) underlay the pavement in
Room 9, extending under Room 13 as well.
It was entered from the latter room.
The northern outer wall of the house,
0.30 m wide and standing to a height of
0.80 m, is preserved for a stretch of 9-70 m.
A blocked doorway was recorded in the
western end, partly obscured by a dried-
brick wall from a later phase (3rd century
AD), cutting across the house from north to
south. A parallel wall 1.98 m to the south
forms a narrow room (no. 14), which was
found to be 3 m long, and yet another room
(no. 11) with the west wall of broken stone
(0.66 m wide). Preserved loose fragments of
painted plaster from the will can be
restored, reconstructing the painted
decoration of the house.
Marble tiles of various kinds (12 in all,
found in Room 9) with one rounded edge,
1.5-1.8 cm thick, 3-4 cm wide, 6-12 cm
long, and with four notches, each about
1.5 cm from the edge, can be interpreted as
tiles reused as weights. The cistern yielded
two basalt blocks that were strongly porous
with isolated crystals of olivine and a piece of
magmatic rock (tonalite/diorite) with large
crystals of plagioclase, biotite and horn-
blende.
REFERENCES
Daszewski, W.A.
1995 Marina el-Alamein 1994, PAM VI [=Reports 1994}, 28-36
2002 Marina el-Alamein, Season 2001, PAM XIII [=Reports 2001], 73-86
81
EGYPT
mounting the door pivot in the east house
wall. Two other blocks of identical
petrographic and morphometric nature,
found by the south wall of Room 18,
indicated that a doorway had functioned
there also in an earlier phase. A fourth
block, discovered in the passage from Room
3 to Room 4, preserved traces of a bronze
fitting.
HOUSE H2
Clearing in Room 2 revealed a floor of stone
slabs (7.00 by 5.76 m), surrounded by walls
of broken stone, c. 0.65 m thick (doubled
on the east and west by walls of blocks on
the outside) and surviving to a height of
c. 0.70 m in places. A doorway 1.70 m wide
in the north wall has jambs made of big
blocks and is furnished with a threshold.
Fragments of black-painted plaster were
preserved on the walls and in the fill,
forming a dado around the room.
In Room 3 to the west (3.83 by 3.50 m)
and Room 4 (3.63 by 3.45 m), walls were in
all cases 0.30 m thick and in one case held
a niche 0.93 m wide and 0.40 m deep. The
doorway was 0.95 m wide with a threshold
in it and approached by a step. A block from
the fill, probably from the courtyard,
preserving plaster with painted decoration,
bore a green band c. 1.5 cm wide, flanked
by red bands (0.05 cm) on either side
(presumably part of rectangular paneling).
The finely paved Room 10 (8.50 by
7.05 m) to the west of Rooms 3 and 4 may
have been the main room of the house.
Other cleared rooms included no. 6 (2.43 by
2.36 m, floor 0.90 m above the level of
Courtyard 1), no. 9 (3.34 by 2.34 m) with
the most recent occupation dated to the
3rd-4th century AD by glass and pottery
originating from a compact layer of sand
with traces of burning. A vaulted cellar
(4.20 by 0.80 m) underlay the pavement in
Room 9, extending under Room 13 as well.
It was entered from the latter room.
The northern outer wall of the house,
0.30 m wide and standing to a height of
0.80 m, is preserved for a stretch of 9-70 m.
A blocked doorway was recorded in the
western end, partly obscured by a dried-
brick wall from a later phase (3rd century
AD), cutting across the house from north to
south. A parallel wall 1.98 m to the south
forms a narrow room (no. 14), which was
found to be 3 m long, and yet another room
(no. 11) with the west wall of broken stone
(0.66 m wide). Preserved loose fragments of
painted plaster from the will can be
restored, reconstructing the painted
decoration of the house.
Marble tiles of various kinds (12 in all,
found in Room 9) with one rounded edge,
1.5-1.8 cm thick, 3-4 cm wide, 6-12 cm
long, and with four notches, each about
1.5 cm from the edge, can be interpreted as
tiles reused as weights. The cistern yielded
two basalt blocks that were strongly porous
with isolated crystals of olivine and a piece of
magmatic rock (tonalite/diorite) with large
crystals of plagioclase, biotite and horn-
blende.
REFERENCES
Daszewski, W.A.
1995 Marina el-Alamein 1994, PAM VI [=Reports 1994}, 28-36
2002 Marina el-Alamein, Season 2001, PAM XIII [=Reports 2001], 73-86
81