Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (9.1997(1998))

Architectural analyses provided grounds for dating the origins
of building H9 to an earlier period than in the case of house H9a, as
well as the room connecting the two houses. Objects found during
the season, i.e. 7 well dated coins2 and many bronze objects like a
round key and a fishing hook, as well as fragments of oil lamps and
an amphora sherd with dipinti,3 will help in providing a more
precise date for the occupation of the houses, a task which is
expected to be completed in the next season.
HOUSES 7 AND 7A
Detailed architectural studies of this complex were carried
out over the course of the season. The resulting documentation in
1:50 scale is prerequisite to preparing the conservation project.
Many elements of the architectural decoration and functional
design, such as the types of thresholds and the roof-support design
in one of the rooms (preserved wooden pole settings), were also
studied and recorded. In the course of the work, fragments of wall
paintings from the first stage of house H7 were discovered, moving
the provisional dating of the construction of this complex from the
lst-2nd century AD to the turn of the 1st century BC. Based on the
investigations carried out in the necropolis, the discovery of even
earlier architectural remains, from the 2nd century BC, should be
expected at the site of Marina.4

2 The coins belonged to Vespasian, Hadrian, divus Constantinus, the sons of Constantine,
Theodosius I, and Theodosius II (as kindly identified by Dr. H. Ch. Noeske from the J.W.
Goethe Universitat, Frankfurt am Main).
3 All the objects were recorded archaeologically by Dr. A. B. Biernacki.
4 W. A. Daszewski, Marina el-Alamein. The site of an unknown Graeco-Roman
settlement on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, in: Marina el-Alamein. Archaeological
Background and Conservation Problems. The Polish-Egyptian Preservation Mission at
Marina 1988. The Polish Excavation Mission at Marina 1987-1989, vol. 1,
Warsaw 1991, p. 12.

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