DOI issue:
Egypt
DOI article:Daszewski, Wiktor Andrzej: Marina el-Alamein: excavations 1996
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41241#0083
projecting well above ground, provided either with small entrance
vestibules with doors or with large banquet halls, and accompanied
in the eastern part of the area by a series of tall pillar tombs, this
part of the necropolis must have cut a very impressive and
spectacular picture indeed.
Some excavations were also carried out at a short distance
south of hypogeum Tomb 10 in the westernmost part of the
necropolis. A small tomb (T 15) oriented E-W, probably of cubic
shape, containing three loculi, was cleared. Originally the tomb
was smaller and had only two loculi. The third one, to the south,
was added later. Its walls were made of reused blocks apparently
taken from the uppermost layer of the bracing wall of one of
the hypogea. These blocks had gabled tops. The whole structure
(approximately 3.16 x 3.07 m) had been badly damaged in the
course of time. Only the lowest layer of oblong blocks forming the
walls of the loculi remained in situ. The north loculus was empty,
while the central one contained two skeletons of adults and one of
a child; an adult was buried in the south loculus. All of them had
their heads to the west. A square altar made of a limestone slab,
1. 0.74 x w. 0.69 m and h. 0.16 m, was placed in front of the tomb
on the east side. Traces of burning, as well as a layer of ashes
testified to offerings being made there for the dead. Pottery sherds
found near the tomb belonged to local amphorae of the
2nd century AD, a small drinking bowl and a CS vase Form 40.
A 2nd century AD date for the tomb appears to be acceptable.
This year's excavations confirmed earlier observations that
the greatest prosperity of the town and the resultant construction of
the most impressive funerary structures should be linked with the
first two centuries of Roman domination in Egypt. It may well
have been the richness of inhabitants that prompted the robbers to
plunder the tombs in search of easy booty.
81
vestibules with doors or with large banquet halls, and accompanied
in the eastern part of the area by a series of tall pillar tombs, this
part of the necropolis must have cut a very impressive and
spectacular picture indeed.
Some excavations were also carried out at a short distance
south of hypogeum Tomb 10 in the westernmost part of the
necropolis. A small tomb (T 15) oriented E-W, probably of cubic
shape, containing three loculi, was cleared. Originally the tomb
was smaller and had only two loculi. The third one, to the south,
was added later. Its walls were made of reused blocks apparently
taken from the uppermost layer of the bracing wall of one of
the hypogea. These blocks had gabled tops. The whole structure
(approximately 3.16 x 3.07 m) had been badly damaged in the
course of time. Only the lowest layer of oblong blocks forming the
walls of the loculi remained in situ. The north loculus was empty,
while the central one contained two skeletons of adults and one of
a child; an adult was buried in the south loculus. All of them had
their heads to the west. A square altar made of a limestone slab,
1. 0.74 x w. 0.69 m and h. 0.16 m, was placed in front of the tomb
on the east side. Traces of burning, as well as a layer of ashes
testified to offerings being made there for the dead. Pottery sherds
found near the tomb belonged to local amphorae of the
2nd century AD, a small drinking bowl and a CS vase Form 40.
A 2nd century AD date for the tomb appears to be acceptable.
This year's excavations confirmed earlier observations that
the greatest prosperity of the town and the resultant construction of
the most impressive funerary structures should be linked with the
first two centuries of Roman domination in Egypt. It may well
have been the richness of inhabitants that prompted the robbers to
plunder the tombs in search of easy booty.
81