DOI article:
Majcherek, Grzegorz: Excavations in Alexandria in 1989-90
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26389#0023
of the plan could be traced only approximately in wall negatives. The walls that have
survived are in their majority founded upon entirely new foundations, which often have
nothing to do with the earlier structures. The reason for the alteration of the old
building plan, dated by coins and pottery to the turn of the 3ri3 and 4^ century A.D.,
must lie in the degree of destruction sustained by the Early Roman structures.* 3 The
Late Roman occupation layer Is separated from the earlier layers by a thick stratum
containing ashes, fragments of polychrome plastering and architectural elements.
Reused fragments of architectural decoration were also found in the foundations (rooms
nos. 2, 3, 10) and include such items as drums of engaged Doric columns covered with
stucco.3 At the close of our work, the entire street fac,ade of House G had been cleared,
but its extent into the insula remained undetermined. On the remaining sides, both on
the nor th and south, the building was separated from neighbouring edifices by narrow
alleys (some 1.5-1.7 m wide) perpendicular to street R^.
The main walls of the house were built in a technique typical of the period and
apparently derived from opus africanunr, pillars constructed of large blocks, with
spaces in between filled with small irregular stones in an ashy mortar. The western part
of House G comprised four rooms, each provided with a separate entrance, the
northernmost of which (G-8) had been explored already in 1989. The adjacent room (G-
10) is the largest so far uncovered. Only the front wall with its thick lime plaster
coating has been preserved. The debris overlying the latest clay floor contained
numerous coloured marble pieces of opus sectile pavement, which doubtless must have
come from the destroyed upper storey. The finds from the occupation level: sherds of
Egyptian Red Slip ware (A and B), Cypriot Red Slip and amphorae of Egyptian origin as
3The destruction of the eastern quarters of Alexandria is
usually connected with the ransacking of the city by the
Palmyrenians. Cf. A. Adrian!, Repertorio d'Arte dell'Egitto
Greco-Romano, Serie C, I — 111, Palermo 1963-66, pp. 209, 211.
3In general appearance these elements resemble the relics of
a Doric style structure discovered beneath the nearby building
of the National Insurance Company, cf. H. Riad, Vestiges d'un
edifice Pto1emaique, BSAA1, 42 (1967).
21
survived are in their majority founded upon entirely new foundations, which often have
nothing to do with the earlier structures. The reason for the alteration of the old
building plan, dated by coins and pottery to the turn of the 3ri3 and 4^ century A.D.,
must lie in the degree of destruction sustained by the Early Roman structures.* 3 The
Late Roman occupation layer Is separated from the earlier layers by a thick stratum
containing ashes, fragments of polychrome plastering and architectural elements.
Reused fragments of architectural decoration were also found in the foundations (rooms
nos. 2, 3, 10) and include such items as drums of engaged Doric columns covered with
stucco.3 At the close of our work, the entire street fac,ade of House G had been cleared,
but its extent into the insula remained undetermined. On the remaining sides, both on
the nor th and south, the building was separated from neighbouring edifices by narrow
alleys (some 1.5-1.7 m wide) perpendicular to street R^.
The main walls of the house were built in a technique typical of the period and
apparently derived from opus africanunr, pillars constructed of large blocks, with
spaces in between filled with small irregular stones in an ashy mortar. The western part
of House G comprised four rooms, each provided with a separate entrance, the
northernmost of which (G-8) had been explored already in 1989. The adjacent room (G-
10) is the largest so far uncovered. Only the front wall with its thick lime plaster
coating has been preserved. The debris overlying the latest clay floor contained
numerous coloured marble pieces of opus sectile pavement, which doubtless must have
come from the destroyed upper storey. The finds from the occupation level: sherds of
Egyptian Red Slip ware (A and B), Cypriot Red Slip and amphorae of Egyptian origin as
3The destruction of the eastern quarters of Alexandria is
usually connected with the ransacking of the city by the
Palmyrenians. Cf. A. Adrian!, Repertorio d'Arte dell'Egitto
Greco-Romano, Serie C, I — 111, Palermo 1963-66, pp. 209, 211.
3In general appearance these elements resemble the relics of
a Doric style structure discovered beneath the nearby building
of the National Insurance Company, cf. H. Riad, Vestiges d'un
edifice Pto1emaique, BSAA1, 42 (1967).
21