Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (6.1994(1995))

The construction period of the Church is well defined by the
rich deposit of 6^ century ceramics found outside the northern
outer wall on the level corresponding to the foundation footing.
The most emblematic pieces are fragmentary one-wicked Aladdin
lamps, a White Ware thin-walled censer lid with some intricate
moulded decorations and a complete seven-wicked Aladdin lamp.
These lamps are convincingly linked to the 6^ century horizon in
Nubia.
The church on Alow E was lavishly plastered inside and out
with a fine quality lime mortar. The lime was slaked on the spot.
Two rectangular compartments were built for the purpose in the
naos against the eastern walls of the western corner rooms.
At an unspecified period after the 8^ century the eastern
wall of the Church was doubled by a buttress ending at the
southern end with a solid masonry hemicycle. At the northern end
it terminates in a subrectangular storeroom comunicating with the
northern sacristy.
Near the southeastern corner of the Church, outside the
baptistry a cistern was hewn in bedrock. Its circular mouth was
cased with voussoir-shaped stones. The bottom of the cistern is
only 142 cm below the first foundation course of the southern wall.
Theoretically, the water could soak in and the cistern could serve
as a well. The Christian graves in the TEE cemetery (Tombs East
of Alow E) attest to the extremely high water level in the desert in
the Early Christian Period. The burials excavated in 1985 were
flooded with water, which transformed the grave fillings into stone-
hard deposits (the bottom of the deepest grave excavated in TEE
was 50 higher than the bottom of the well).
On the basis of two seasons of excavations, the following
architectural development of the church on Alow E can be
postulated:
1. The Erst Church on Alow E was probably commissioned in
connection with the two 6^ century Rock Tombs. The tombs and

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