Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (18.2006(2008))

NAQLUN

EGYPT

HERMITAGE 85 IN NAQLUN: MATERIALS
AND CONSTRUCTION

Szymon Maslak

Hermitage 85 discovered during the 2006
season of excavations at Naqlun in Fayum
Oasis has provided insight into the
construction materials and techniques used
in this kind of architecture in what appears
to have been the earliest phase of the semi-
anchorite community existing on the site.
Certain issues, like light inside the
hermitage and consequently the presence
and position of windows, had to be

omitted in view of the state of preservation
of the remains. The better preserved part of
the complex on the east reached 1.00 m
above the foundation level in Room 6 and
c. 1.60 m above the floor in the oratory
(Room 1); the walls on the western side
have not been preserved to the same height
(for a plan of the hermitage and some
general views of the ruins, see above,
Figs 6-9 on pp. 200-201).

WALL CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES AND MATERIAL

The walls of the hermitage can be classified
depending on the material used and
structural importance. Some of the outer
walls of room (facing the courtyards) were
built of brick, as were also certain partition
walls. The remaining walls were rock-cut,
bricks being used only as a facing. The
same is true of stone masonry walls: next to
walls constructed of stone blocks there are
also rock-cut walls faced with stone.
Finally, there are mixed, brick and stone
walls and facings, e.g. the wall in Room 2,
sections of which were built in stone, while
others were constructed of brick.
Most of the brick walls were preserved
only in the lowermost parts. They were 23-
29 cm thick, which corresponds to one
brick length. The foundation layer is
usually laid headers-on-edge, seldom
headers or stretchers. The wall bond proper
consists exclusively of alternating courses

of stretchers and headers. Thinner walls,
that is, corresponding to the width of
a brick (16-17 cm), laid as stretcher courses,
were much less frequent.
Brick facing filled no structural role.
Bricks were set directly against the rock-
cut surface, preventing it from crumbling
(the rock formation here is susceptible to
erosion), while forming a smooth ground
for the plastering. Most facings had the
thickness of one brick width and they were
laid as stretchers, in the foundation courses
and the wall proper. Thicker facings,
corresponding to one brick length with
headers in the foundation course, were
seldom encountered, as were thinner ones
(9-10 cm), made of pieces of brick and
stretchers-on-edge (possibly also small
stones?).
Walls constructed of stone occur only
in the outer rooms, especially those of

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