Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (18.2006(2008))

MARINA EL-ALAMEIN

EGYPT

building still concealed under layers of
sand here. A dating find is a coin of
Constantine the Great, one of a com-
memorative issue struck in AD 330-341,
on the occasion of building the new capital
in Constantinople [Fig. 4}. It and two
other unidentified coins came from a patch
of ashes and burning found between the
tumble of blocks, hence it can be assumed
with fair certainty that it reflects late
occupation of the town square and its
surroundings.


Fig. 4■ Constantine's commemorative coin (AD
330-341), obverse and reverse (Photo
A. Obiuski, courtesy MASP ARCE/EAP)

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY AND BACKLILL

A mixed random-selective method of
sampling was adopted for surveying of the
bottom of the bulldozed cuts. The thick
undergrowth was cleared first and the cuts
surveyed on foot. The topographical
approach, meant to provide fuller
information on the layout of individual
structures and the overall urban pattern,
was coupled with selected testing to
determine the stratigraphy and chronology
of the features being investigated.
Trenches, each starting out as 10 by 10 m
squares, were marked out wherever the
remains visible on the ground gave
promise of architecture being preserved
just under the surface. Wall tops were then
cleared on the current ground level. This
often carried the need to follow walls
outside the trench borders, thus 'inflating'
squares in various directions. Extensions
were desisted when the remains of walls
broke off. In areas revealing no ancient
remains on the surface, squares were put
down at random, in order to test as much
of the survey area as possible. Overall,
eleven trenches were tested, covering some
20% of the area potentially to be
backfilled.

The first layer removed from the entire
surface of each trench was arbitrary,
averaging 20 cm in depth. This usually
gave an idea of the extant architecture
below. Decisions were then made to follow
walls by digging narrow trenches
alongside the faces, sufficiently deep to
make certain that the broken-stone
structures were indeed walls and not
tumble. As a rule, the fill in the centers of
particular units and inside the various
features was not removed, the conditions of
the survey leaving no time for such effort.
Wall corners, doorways, important features
like cisterns, sections through public
passages etc. were chosen for spot
stratigraphical testing. These test pits were
dug down to the last stone in the walls
(nowhere was a pit continued beyond that
point).
The backfilling and landscaping
operation took into account the results of
the survey. In the case of the western of the
'cuts', the presence of a large exedra of
unknown function and attribution, its
location on the main E-W axis of the town,
and the nearby presence of marble columns
and bases — on the dump but logically