DOI issue:
Egypt
DOI article:Daszewski, Wiktor Andrzej: Marina el-Alamein: excavations 1996
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41241#0082
HYPOGEUM (?) T 16
On the same line as T 13, T 14 and T 11, adjacent to the
west wall of the temenos of the last tomb, excavations revealed
a spacious banquet chamber (EAV 5.72 m x N/S 8.45 m)
apparently belonging to yet another huge hypogeum.
Approximately two thirds of the room were cleared of sand and
debris during the final days of this year's campaign.
The room is rectangular in plan, oriented N-S. A two-step
entrance (1.08 m) in the N wall gave access to a room with two
5.12 m long and 1.45 m wide klinai set along the side (= east and
west) walls at a distance of 0.36 and 0.41 m from them
respectively. The bed fronts reveal corner mouldings imitating
a simple wooden construction. In the rear (= south) wall of the
chamber a door 1.10 m wide opened onto what was probably
a corridor leading to a staircase and the underground part of the
tomb, to be explored in the future.
Tomb 16 appears to have been built prior to T 11 and was
destroyed earlier than this adjacent structure. Since the origins of
T 11 can be traced back to the 1st century AD,7 T 16 must be
somewhat earlier. Future excavations may perhaps provide
additional evidence. In any case, T 16 fell out of use much before
offerings ceased to be performed in T 11, i. e. before well in the 3rd
century. The location of T 16, if considered together with Tombs
13, 14, 11, 7 and 10, points to the existence of a long row of
monumental funerary structures set along the slope parallel to the
coast and oriented N-S. One may well expect more of the same
type of tombs still waiting to be uncovered along the same line.
This particular positioning of the tombs in the area may have been
partly dictated by the slope, but there is seemingly a desire on the
part of the builders to create stage effects by placing the structures
close together. There was no lack of space in Marina and no real
need for such an arrangement. With their large staircases
7 Cf. PAM VI, p. 33ff. and fig. 4.
80
On the same line as T 13, T 14 and T 11, adjacent to the
west wall of the temenos of the last tomb, excavations revealed
a spacious banquet chamber (EAV 5.72 m x N/S 8.45 m)
apparently belonging to yet another huge hypogeum.
Approximately two thirds of the room were cleared of sand and
debris during the final days of this year's campaign.
The room is rectangular in plan, oriented N-S. A two-step
entrance (1.08 m) in the N wall gave access to a room with two
5.12 m long and 1.45 m wide klinai set along the side (= east and
west) walls at a distance of 0.36 and 0.41 m from them
respectively. The bed fronts reveal corner mouldings imitating
a simple wooden construction. In the rear (= south) wall of the
chamber a door 1.10 m wide opened onto what was probably
a corridor leading to a staircase and the underground part of the
tomb, to be explored in the future.
Tomb 16 appears to have been built prior to T 11 and was
destroyed earlier than this adjacent structure. Since the origins of
T 11 can be traced back to the 1st century AD,7 T 16 must be
somewhat earlier. Future excavations may perhaps provide
additional evidence. In any case, T 16 fell out of use much before
offerings ceased to be performed in T 11, i. e. before well in the 3rd
century. The location of T 16, if considered together with Tombs
13, 14, 11, 7 and 10, points to the existence of a long row of
monumental funerary structures set along the slope parallel to the
coast and oriented N-S. One may well expect more of the same
type of tombs still waiting to be uncovered along the same line.
This particular positioning of the tombs in the area may have been
partly dictated by the slope, but there is seemingly a desire on the
part of the builders to create stage effects by placing the structures
close together. There was no lack of space in Marina and no real
need for such an arrangement. With their large staircases
7 Cf. PAM VI, p. 33ff. and fig. 4.
80