DOI article:
Myśliwiec, Karol: Tell Atrib 1993
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43746#0043
present discoveries) or sebbakh for cultivation. The pit contained
brick, stone and pottery debris. In the lower layers there were
many fragmentary limestone blocks from a building, temple or
tomb located in the vicinity of the workshops. Some are decorated
with hieroglyphic inscriptions and scenes carved in sunk relief,
with traces of polychromy including red, blue and yellow. A well
preserved rectangular slab with a relief representation of a shrine
(possibly a model of a Ptolemaic door-stela) has been found in the
same context. The group of limestone objects also comprises a
model of a shrine with an incised proportion grid on its back side
as well as a series of votive figurines and stelae. Particularly
frequent are small stelae of a type occurring all over the site in
Ptolemaic strata, decorated with a representation of a naked
goddess standing inside a simple shrine. It seems likely that one of
the local workshops grouped sculptors working primarily in
limestone.
Numerous fragments of unfinished large vessels (e.g.
basins, querns) made of hard stone (granite, quartzite etc.) testify
to the presence of workshops which presumably made use of
elements of monumental architecture from neighbouring temples
and tombs as raw material for this production. Fragments of
columns and a huge stone sarcophagus were discovered in the
lower layers of the fill and everything would suggest they are lying
close to their original positions.
The stratum lying directly under the thick layer of rubble
is dated by several coins of Ptolemy IV (second half of 3r^ century
B.C.). The rectangular rooms of a mudbrick structure in the
northern part of the area yielded many objects of exceptional
artistic quality, as well as human skeletons. One of these, com-
pletely crushed, was found lying under long limestone blocks from
41
brick, stone and pottery debris. In the lower layers there were
many fragmentary limestone blocks from a building, temple or
tomb located in the vicinity of the workshops. Some are decorated
with hieroglyphic inscriptions and scenes carved in sunk relief,
with traces of polychromy including red, blue and yellow. A well
preserved rectangular slab with a relief representation of a shrine
(possibly a model of a Ptolemaic door-stela) has been found in the
same context. The group of limestone objects also comprises a
model of a shrine with an incised proportion grid on its back side
as well as a series of votive figurines and stelae. Particularly
frequent are small stelae of a type occurring all over the site in
Ptolemaic strata, decorated with a representation of a naked
goddess standing inside a simple shrine. It seems likely that one of
the local workshops grouped sculptors working primarily in
limestone.
Numerous fragments of unfinished large vessels (e.g.
basins, querns) made of hard stone (granite, quartzite etc.) testify
to the presence of workshops which presumably made use of
elements of monumental architecture from neighbouring temples
and tombs as raw material for this production. Fragments of
columns and a huge stone sarcophagus were discovered in the
lower layers of the fill and everything would suggest they are lying
close to their original positions.
The stratum lying directly under the thick layer of rubble
is dated by several coins of Ptolemy IV (second half of 3r^ century
B.C.). The rectangular rooms of a mudbrick structure in the
northern part of the area yielded many objects of exceptional
artistic quality, as well as human skeletons. One of these, com-
pletely crushed, was found lying under long limestone blocks from
41