DOI issue:
Egypt
DOI article:Majcherek, Grzegorz: Kom el-Dikka: excavations 1997
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41242#0035
panels were separated by narrow black-painted bands. Examples of
similar decoration, closely recalling the first Pompeian style, were
previously recorded in house FA.
In the western part of the trench, just below the comer of the
cistern, the entrance to this building was discovered. It was a kind
of porch (prothyron) with steps leading up from the street level
between flanking projections. The steps of the porch were largely
destroyed, but the extant remains indicate that the surface of the
side street at this time was located 6 m above sea level. The level
corresponds to the Early Roman level of street R4, identified in
1989 near the currently explored house. The entrance was only the
latest in a series that had led inside the building. The lowermost
threshold was found at ca. 5.20 m above sea level. In a small test
trench dug next to the great wall, a Ptolemaic wall was found to mn
immediately under the Early Roman one. Built as an opus
isodomum wall, it used exceptionally large blocks in its
constmction; some are more than a meter long. Both walls were
partly destroyed when the great perimeter wall enclosing the
cisterns was constmcted (the foundations of the great wall were
reached at a depth of 4.90 m above sea level). In the section of the
side street that was excavated this year, the surface was made of
successive tamped layers of lime. The intervening layers contained
large quantities of pottery, representing a wide spectmm of type-
forms: Egyptian and imported amphorae, stamped amphora handles
and primarily a numerous assemblage of tableware forms. Beside
the thin-walled Coan vessels, there is considerable number of
Eastern Sigillata A (Hayes EAA Forms: 4, 28), fragments and
several examples of stamped Italian Terra Sigillata. Several lamps,
both local and imported, of late Ptolemaic date were also found
(e.g. inv. no. 4408). A chronological analysis of the dated pottery
forms and the lamps indicate that the building and corresponding
street levels date to the end of the 1st century BC - beginning of the
33
similar decoration, closely recalling the first Pompeian style, were
previously recorded in house FA.
In the western part of the trench, just below the comer of the
cistern, the entrance to this building was discovered. It was a kind
of porch (prothyron) with steps leading up from the street level
between flanking projections. The steps of the porch were largely
destroyed, but the extant remains indicate that the surface of the
side street at this time was located 6 m above sea level. The level
corresponds to the Early Roman level of street R4, identified in
1989 near the currently explored house. The entrance was only the
latest in a series that had led inside the building. The lowermost
threshold was found at ca. 5.20 m above sea level. In a small test
trench dug next to the great wall, a Ptolemaic wall was found to mn
immediately under the Early Roman one. Built as an opus
isodomum wall, it used exceptionally large blocks in its
constmction; some are more than a meter long. Both walls were
partly destroyed when the great perimeter wall enclosing the
cisterns was constmcted (the foundations of the great wall were
reached at a depth of 4.90 m above sea level). In the section of the
side street that was excavated this year, the surface was made of
successive tamped layers of lime. The intervening layers contained
large quantities of pottery, representing a wide spectmm of type-
forms: Egyptian and imported amphorae, stamped amphora handles
and primarily a numerous assemblage of tableware forms. Beside
the thin-walled Coan vessels, there is considerable number of
Eastern Sigillata A (Hayes EAA Forms: 4, 28), fragments and
several examples of stamped Italian Terra Sigillata. Several lamps,
both local and imported, of late Ptolemaic date were also found
(e.g. inv. no. 4408). A chronological analysis of the dated pottery
forms and the lamps indicate that the building and corresponding
street levels date to the end of the 1st century BC - beginning of the
33