This pdf is a digital offprint of your contribution in P.

Kousoulis & N. Lazaridis (eds), Proceedings of the Tenth

International Congress of Egyptologists, University of the Aegean,
Rhodes, 22-29 May 2008 (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta
241), ISBN 978-90-429-2550-2.

The copyright on this publication belongs to Peeters

Publishers.

As author you are licensed to make printed copies of the

pdf or to send the unaltered pdf file to up to 50 relations.
You may not publish this pdf on the World Wide Web –
including websites such as academia.edu and open-access
repositories – until three years after publication. Please
ensure that anyone receiving an offprint from you
observes these rules as well.

If you wish to publish your article immediately on open-

access sites, please contact the publisher with regard to
the payment of the article processing fee.

For queries about offprints, copyright and republication

of your article, please contact the publisher via
peeters@peeters-leuven.be
 ORIENTALIA LOVANIENSIA
ANALECTA
————— 241 —————

PROCEEDINGS OF THE
TENTH INTERNATIONAL
CONGRESS OF EGYPTOLOGISTS

University of the Aegean, Rhodes

22-29 May 2008

Volume II

edited by

P. kousoulis and n. lazaridis

Peeters
Leuven – Paris – bristol, CT
2015

94487_OLA_Kousoulis_Vol_2_VWK.indd 3 7/01/16 11:55


A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
© 2015, Peeters Publishers & Department of Oriental Studies
Bondgenotenlaan 153, B-3000 Leuven/Louvain (Belgium)
All rights reserved, including the rights to translate or to
reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form.
ISBN 978-90-429-2550-2
D/2015/0602/76
94487_OLA_Kousoulis_Vol_2_VWK.indd 5
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: ARCHAEOLOGY
J.R. Anderson and Salah eldin Mohamed Ahmed
Five Years of Excavations at Dangeil, Sudan: A New Amun Temple of
the Late Kushite Period. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
M.-P. Aubry, W.A. Berggren, C. Dupuis, E. Poorvin, H. Ghaly, D. Ward,
C. King, R. O’Brian Knox, Kh. Ouda and W. Fathy Hassan
TIGA: A Geoarchaeologic Project in the Theban Necropolis, West Bank,
Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
B. Bader
A Late Middle Kingdom Settlement at Tell el-Dab‘a and its Potential . . . 45
G. Bąkowska
Meroitic Pottery from Napata. The Hellenistic Influence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
H. Barnard
The Study of Eastern Desert Ware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
N. Billing and J.M. Rowland
Recently Discovered Blocks in the Central Delta Village of Kom el-Ahmar,
Minuf. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
J. Budka
The Asasif Revisited: New Results from the Austrian Concession . . . . . . 111
J. Budka
Festival Pottery of the New Kingdom: The Case of Elephantine. . . . . . . . 131
N. Castellano
Les nécropoles d’Oxyrhynchos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
R. Czerner
Architecture of the Temple of Tuthmosis III at Deir el-Bahari. Some
Remarks on the Hypostyle Hall: Study on Architectural Elements of the
Roof Structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Z. De Kooning
Preliminary Report on the Ceramological Corpus of the Survey in al-Shaykh
Sa‘id South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
7/01/16 11:55
 VI table of contents

C. Fantaoutsaki
New Evidence on the Sanctuary of Isis in the Ancient City of Rhodes. . . 189
J.M. Galán
Excavations at the Courtyard of the Tomb of Djehuty (TT 11) . . . . . . . . . 207
Z. Hawass
The Egyptian Expedition in the Valley of the Kings Excavation Season 2,
2008-2009: Part 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
I. Incordino
Royal Monuments of the Third Dynasty: A Re-examination of the Archae-
ological Documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
M. Jones
The Temple Palace of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu: An Archaeological
Approach to its Preservation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
A.A. Krol
“White Walls” of Memphis at Kom Tuman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
M.J. López-Grande and E. de Gregorio
Pottery Vases from a Deposit with Flower Bouquets Found at Dra Abu
el-Naga. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
M.H. Trindade Lopes and T.R. Pereira
The Palace of Apries (Memphis/Kôm Tumân): Brief Report of the Fifth
Campaign (April 2008). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
S.T. Basilico and S.A. Lupo
Function of Area II in Tell el-Ghaba, North Sinai, through its Pottery Evi-
dence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
M. Müller
Kalksteinpuzzle in Per-Ramses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
M. Mascort
L’Osireion d’Oxyrhynchos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
A. Niwiński
A Mysterious Tomb at Deir el-Bahari. Revelations of the Excavations of
the Polish-Egyptian Cliff Mission above the Temples of Hatshepsut and
Thutmosis III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
M.C. Pérez Die
Ehnasya el Medina (Herakleopolis Magna). Excavations 2004-2007 at the
Necropolis of the First Intermediate Period / Early Middle Kingdom . . . . 393

94487_OLA_Kousoulis_Vol_2_VWK.indd 6 7/01/16 11:55

 table of contents VII

E. Pons Mellado
Saite Tomb n° 14 at the Archaeological Site of Oxyrhynchus (el Bahnasa).411
C. Price
East of Djoser: Preliminary Report of the Saqqara Geophysical Survey
Project, 2007 Season. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
R. Schiestl
Locating the Cemeteries of the Residential Elite of the Thirteenth Dynasty
at Dahshur. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
F. Schmitt
La semence des pierres: le dépôt de fondation dans l’Égypte ancienne. . . 443
N. Shirai, W. Wendrich and R. Cappers
An Archaeological Survey in the Northeastern Part of the Fayum. . . . . . . 459
Z.E. Szafrański
King Hatshepsut from the Deir el-Bahari Temple. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
P. Verlinden
“Tombs for the Tombless”: A Study of Children and Burial Space in the
Dakhla Oasis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
G. Vörös
Egyptian Temple Architecture in the Light of the Hungarian Excavations
in Egypt (1907-2007) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
A. Wodzińska
Tell er-Retaba: Ceramic Survey 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
S. Yoshimura and M. Baba
Recent Discoveries of Intact Tombs at Dahshur North: Burial Customs of
the Middle and New Kingdoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545
C.S. Zerefos, S.N. Ambrazeys, H. Badawy and E. Xirotyri-Zerefou
Past and Present Geophysical Threats at the Great City of Alexandria . . . 557
C. Ziegler
Nouvelles découvertes à Saqqara. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569

PART II: ROYAL IDEOLOGY AND SOCIETY

S. Agapov
Soziale Strukturen und wirtschaftliche Aktivitäten in Gebelein zur Zeit der
4.-5. Dynastie (nach Angaben der Gebelein-Papyri). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583

94487_OLA_Kousoulis_Vol_2_VWK.indd 7 7/01/16 11:55

 VIII table of contents

S. Allam
A Field for Interdisciplinary Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
S. Caramello
Aramaic-Speaking People in Egypt: Religion and Ethnicity. . . . . . . . . . . . 605
J. Cashman
The Scribal Palette as an Elite Gift in New Kingdom Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . 615
G. Cavillier
From the Mediterranean Sea to the Nile: New Perspectives and Researches
on the Sherden in Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631
G. Criscenzo-Laycock
The Nome: Naturally Occuring Local Unit, or Artificial Device of the
State? A Case Study of the Fourteenth Upper Egyptian Nome . . . . . . . . . 639
A.J. de Wit
Enemies of the State: Perceptions of “Otherness” and State Formation in
Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649
H. Diaz Rivas
Widowhood in Ancient Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669
Sh. El-Menshawy
Aspects of the Office of Temple Gardener in Ancient Egypt (Reconsid-
eration of the Recently Published Stela TN. 20.3.25.3). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679
A. El Shahaway
Les «individus» qui établissent l’ordre cosmique: un aspect de la dévolution
de prérogatives royales dans les tombes thébaines du Nouvel Empire. . . . 693
C.J. Eyre
Economy and Society in Pharaonic Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
M. Farouk
A Timeline of the Old Kingdom Officials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727
M. Gathy
La peinture thébaine sous le règne d’Amenhotep II: étude d’une création
artistique comme reflet du contexte historique et socioculturel de l’époque.741
B. Hayden
Demotic “Marriage Documents” as Evidence for the Perception and Use
of Coinage among Egyptians in the Ptolemaic Period. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751
K.A. Kóthay
Duties and Composition of the Personnel of the Cults at Lahun. . . . . . . . . 763

94487_OLA_Kousoulis_Vol_2_VWK.indd 8 7/01/16 11:55

 table of contents IX

M. Lianou
The Foundations of Royal Military Power in Early Ptolemaic Egypt. . . . . 777
G. Menéndez
Foreigners in Deir el-Medina during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties.791
J. Moje
The Demotic Tomb Stelae from Dandara. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805
M. Minas-Nerpel
Ptolemaic Queens in Egyptian Temple Reliefs: Intercultural Reflections of
Political Authority, or Religious Imperatives?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 809
M. Nuzzolo
Sun Temples and Pyramid Texts: The King’s Progress in the Evolution of
his Cult . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823
M. Orriols-Llonch
Semen Ingestion and Oral Sex in Ancient Egyptian Texts. . . . . . . . . . . . . 839
F. Payraudeau
La situation politique de Tanis sous la XXVème dynastie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849
D. Stefanović
The hkrt-nswt on the Monuments of the Ꜣtw n tt hkꜢ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 861
D. Sweeney
Masculinity, Femininity and the Spirituality of Work at Deir el-Medîna. . 873
K. Szpakowska
Infancy in a Rural Community: A Case Study of Early Childhood at Lahun.885
A. von Lieven
Who was “King” (S)asychis? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 899
A.P. Zingarelli
Comments on the Egyptian Term whyt: Family or Quasi-Village?. . . . . . 909

PART III:  BELIEF SYSTEM AND RITUAL

B. Arquier
Décans nocturnes et décans diurnes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 923
J. Assmann
The “Structure” of Ancient Egyptian Religion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 935

94487_OLA_Kousoulis_Vol_2_VWK.indd 9 7/01/16 11:55

 X table of contents

J.A. Belmonte, M. Shaltout and M. Fekri

Astronomy and Landscape in Ancient Egypt. Temple Alignments and Impli-
cations for Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 951
R. Bussmann
Changing Cultural Paradigms: From Tomb to Temple in the Eleventh
Dynasty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 971
E. Constas
Une lecture de la façade du tombeau de Petosiris. Les piliers d’ante:
approche sémiologique. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 987
D. Czerwik
The Afterlife Beliefs in the Sixth-Dynasty Private Inscriptions . . . . . . . . . 1003
M. Dolinska
The Bird at the Back of the Atef Crown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1017
K. Lahn Dumke
Some Reflections on the Function of a Particular Triad Constellation in
New Kingdom Religious Iconography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1041
Kh. Elgawady
Die Schranken in den ägyptischen Tempeln der griechisch-römischen Zeit.1053
A. el-Tayeb Sayed
Coffin Texts Spell 823 and the Rites of Passage: The Archaeological
Context of the Coffin of Mentuhotep. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1073
F. Feder
Egyptian Mortuary Liturgies in the Papyri of the Ptolemaic Period. . . . . . 1083
A. Gaber
Some Snake Deities from the Temple of Edfu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1093
K. Griffin
Links between the rekhyt and Doorways in Ancient Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1115
N. Guilhou
La constellation de la tortue: proposition d’identification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1131
S. Tower Hollis
Hathor, Mistress of Byblos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1143
L.J. Kinney
The (w)nwn Funerary Dance in the Old Kingdom and its Relationship to
the Dance of the mww. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1153

94487_OLA_Kousoulis_Vol_2_VWK.indd 10 7/01/16 11:55

 table of contents XI

Y. Koenig
The Papyrus of the Seven Utterances of the Goddess Mehet Weret. . . . . . 1167
L. Díaz-Iglesias Llanos
The Role of Osiris in the Mythological Cycle Devised around Heracleopolis
Magna and its Territory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1173
R. Lucarelli
Ancient Egyptian Demons: The Evidence of the Magical and Funerary
Papyri of the New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period. . . . . . . . . 1187
L. Martzolff
L’adaptation d’un rituel sur les murs d’un temple à la période tardive:
l’exemple du rituel divin journalier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1195
A. Pries
Standard Rituals in Change – Patterns of Tradition from the Pyramid Texts
to Roman Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1211
G. Schreiber
Crocodile Gods on a Late Group of Hypocephali. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1225
J.M. Serrano
Nouvelles données concernant le rituel de l’Ouverture de la Bouche: la
tombe de Djehouty (TT 11) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1237
R. Sousa and T. Canhão
Some Notes on Sinuhe’s Flight: The Heart as a God’s Voice . . . . . . . . . . 1247
C. Wade
Sarcophagus Circle: The Goddesses in the Tomb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1259
D.A. Warburton
The New Kingdom Solar Theology in Scandinavia? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1271
A. Wüthrich
Un exemple de l’évolution des concepts funéraires à la Troisième Période
Intermédiaire: le chapitre 166pleyte du Livre des Morts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1281

PART IV: LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND EPIGRAPHY

E.M. Ciampini, F. Contardi and G. Rosati

Hathor Temple Project: The Epigraphic Survey at Philae (2006). . . . . . . . 1293
D. Cilli
Funny Signs, a New Perspective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1307

94487_OLA_Kousoulis_Vol_2_VWK.indd 11 7/01/16 11:55

 XII table of contents

M. Dessoles et V. Euverte
Projet Rosette: une assistance informatique pour l’étudiant, l’épigraphiste
et le philologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1317
C. Di Biase-Dyson
Two Characters in Search of an Ending: The Case of Apophis and Seqenenre.1323
B. Egedi
Greek Loanwords and Two Grammatical Features of Pre-Coptic Egyptian. 1333
J. Gee
Textual Criticism and Textual Corruption in Coffin Texts 131-142. . . . . . 1345
T. Gillen
Thematic Analysis and the Third Person Plural Suffix Pronoun in the
Medinet Habu Historical Inscriptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1351
R. Jasnow
“From Alexandria to Rakotis”. Progress, Prospects and Problems in the
Study of Greco-Egyptian Literary Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1363
F. Kammerzell
Egyptian Verb Classifiers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1395
R. Landgráfová and H. Navrátilová
Texts from the Period of Crisis. A Database of the First Intermediate
Period and Middle Kingdom Biographical Texts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1417
E.-S. Lincke
The “Determinative” is Prescribed and Yet Chosen. A Systematic View
on Egyptian Classifiers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1425
M.Á. Molinero Polo
L’identification des Textes des Pyramides des tombes de Haroua (TT 37)
et de Pabasa (TT 279). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1435
L.D. Morenz
Kultursemiotik der Alphabetschrift. Ein mentalitätsgeschichtlicher Rekon-
struktionsversuch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1447
K. Muhlestein
Those Who Speak Rebellion: Refining our Understanding of the Words
Used to Describe “Rebellion” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1473
F. Naether
Magic in the Internet: Investigation by Genre in Trismegistos. . . . . . . . . . 1485

94487_OLA_Kousoulis_Vol_2_VWK.indd 12 7/01/16 11:55

 table of contents XIII

J.R. Pérez-Accino
Who is the Sage Talking about? Neferty and the Egyptian Sense of History.1495
S. Polis and J. Winand
Structuring the Lexicon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1503
J. Winand, S. Polis and S. Rosmorduc
Ramses: An Annotated Corpus of Late Egyptian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1513
V. Ritter
La littérature sapientiale du Nouvel Empire. Un état de la question. . . . . . 1523
A. Roccati
Alien Speech: Some Remarks on the Language of the Kehek. . . . . . . . . . 1531
H. Satzinger
What Happened to the Voiced Consonants of Egyptian?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1537
I. Cordón Solà-Sagalés
Four Daughters of the King from the Second Dynasty: Epigraphic and
Iconographic Analysis of the Stelae of Hepetkhenmet, Satba, Shepsetipet (?)
and Sehefner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1547
J. Stauder-Porchet
Relations between Verbs and Simple Prepositions in Earlier Egyptian . . . 1559
U. Verhoeven
Literarische Graffiti in Grab N13.1 in Assiut/Mittelägypten. . . . . . . . . . . . 1569
K. Vértes
Ten Years’ Epigraphy in Theban Tomb 65. Documentation of the Late
Twentieth Dynasty Wall Paintings in the Tomb of Imiseba. . . . . . . . . . . . 1577

PART V: ART AND VITREOUS MATERIAL

K.E. Bandy
Scenes of Fish and Fishing in Middle Egypt: An Examination of Artistic
Continuity and Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1589
E. Bernhauer
Zyperns Hathorkapitelle aus altägyptischer Sicht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1603
M. Casanova, G. Pierrat-Bonnefois, P. Quenet, V. Danrey and D. Lacambre
Lapis Lazuli in the Tôd Treasure: A New Investigation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1619

94487_OLA_Kousoulis_Vol_2_VWK.indd 13 7/01/16 11:55

 XIV table of contents

S. Einaudi
Le Livre des Morts dans la cour de la tombe d’Haroua (TT 37): nouvelles
découvertes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1641
L. Evans
Animal Behaviour in Egyptian Art: A Brief Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1653
S. Grallert
Integrated Sets of Model Vessels in Late Period Burials from Lower Egypt.
A Preliminary Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1667
M.C. Guidotti
Essai de classification de la céramique d’Antinoopolis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1681
A. Milward Jones
Faience Bowls of the Late New Kingdom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1693
T. Kikuchi
The Decoration Program in the Burial Chamber of the Royal Tomb of
Amenophis III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1709
É. Liptay
Panther-Head on the Cloak. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1719
N.C. McCreesh, A.P. Gize and A.R David
Pitch Black: The Black Coated Mummies, Coffins and Cartonnages from
Ancient Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1731
S. Medeksza, R. Czerner and G. Bąkowska
Forms and Decoration of Graeco-Roman Houses from Marina el-Alamein.1739
P.T. Nicholson
Glass and Vitreous Materials at Tell el-Amarna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1759
M. Panagiotaki, M. Tite and Y. Maniatis
Egyptian Blue in Egypt and Beyond: The Aegean and the Near East. . . . 1769
G. Pieke
Principles of Decoration: Concept and Style in the Mastaba of Mereruka
at Saqqara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1791
C. Raedler
Potsherd Scrapers and their Function at the Workshops of the Residence
at Piramesse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1807
J. Revez
Déconstruction intellectuelle et restitution monumentale: le temple d’Amon-
Rê de Karnak comme laboratoire d’idées. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1819

94487_OLA_Kousoulis_Vol_2_VWK.indd 14 7/01/16 11:55

 table of contents XV

G. Robins
The Flying Pintail Duck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1833
N. Staring
Contextualizing Old Kingdom Elite Tomb Decoration: Fixed Rules versus
Personal Choice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1839
I. Stünkel
Analysing CT-Scans of a Mummy: The Amulets of Nesmin. . . . . . . . . . . 1849
G.J. Tassie
“I’m Osiris, No I’m Osiris, No I’m Osiris”: Hairstyles and the Afterlife. 1873
A. Woods
Five Significant Features in Old Kingdom Spear-Fishing and Fowling
Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1897
G. Xekalaki
The Royal Children as Signs: Reading New Kingdom Princely Iconography.1911

PART VI: EGYPT AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD

A. Altman
Was Ugarit ever Subordinated to the Eighteenth Dynasty Pharaohs?. . . . . 1925
N.D. Ayers
Egyptian Imitation of Mycenaean Pottery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1935
K. Blouin
Mendès et les reines: reconsidération historique des mosaïques navales de
Thmouis (Alexandrie 21739 et 21736). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1951
P.A. Butz
Egyptian Stylistic Influence on Stoichedon and the Hekatompedon Inscrip-
tion at Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1961
L. Haguet
Ceci n’est pas l’Égypte: toponymes, monuments et mythes grecs en Égypte
dans la cartographie occidentale entre les XVIe et XVIIIe siècles. . . . . . . . 1975
A. Hassler
Mycenaean Pottery in Egypt Reconsidered: Old Contexts and New Results.1989
I. Hein
Cypriot and Aegean Features in New Kingdom Egypt: Cultural Elements
Interpreted from Archaeological Finds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1999

94487_OLA_Kousoulis_Vol_2_VWK.indd 15 7/01/16 11:55

 XVI table of contents

F. Höflmayer and A. Zdiarsky

Synchronising Egypt and the Aegean: A Radiocarbon-Based Approach. . 2015
S. Iskander
Merenptah and the Sea Peoples: A New Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2035
N. Lazaridis
A Description of the Project “Wisdom Sayings in Ancient Egyptian and
Greek Literature” and its Significance as a Comparative Study . . . . . . . . 2047
R. Müller-Wollermann
Ägypten in Iran. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2051
J. Phillips
Egyptian Amethyst in Mycenaean Greece. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2057
J.-L. Podvin
Lampes à décor isiaque du littoral égéen d’Asie mineure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2071
T. Pommerening
Milch einer Frau, die einen Knaben geboren hat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2083
O.A. Vasilyeva
“Lost Child” of Isis: Towards the Problem of the Interpretatio Graeca of
the Osirian Myth in Texts of Later Antique and Christian Authors. . . . . . 2097

PART VII: CULTURAL HERITAGE AND MUSEOLOGY

A. Amenta
The Vatican Mummy Project. A Preliminary Report on the Restoration of
the Mummy of Ny-Maat-Re (MV 25011.6.1). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2107
G. Andreu
News from the Louvre Museum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2119
M. Hanna and M. Betrò
Exploring 3D Mapping Applications for the Risk Assessment and Monitoring
of Mural Paintings in Theban Tomb 14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2127
J.-L. Bovot
Le catalogue des chaouabtis du Louvre: réflexions sur une publication. . . 2137
V.I. Chrysikopoulos
À l’aube de l’égyptologie hellénique et de la constitution des collections
égyptiennes: des nouvelles découvertes sur Giovanni d’Anastasi et Tassos
Néroutsos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2147

94487_OLA_Kousoulis_Vol_2_VWK.indd 16 7/01/16 11:55

 table of contents XVII

E. David
A Louvre Museum Project: The Prosopographical Index of Monuments of
the Egyptian Department and its Publication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2163
C. De Simone
A Memorandum of Understanding between Egypt and Sudan in the Field
of Cultural Heritage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2167
A. Dodson
The Egyptian Coffins in the Collection of Bristol’s City Museum and Art
Gallery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2171
K. Exell
Innovation and Reaction: A Discussion of the Proposed Re-display of the
Egyptian Galleries at the Manchester Museum (UK) in the Context of
Consultative Curatorial Practice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2187
M. Helmy
Hidden Histories Project at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. 2199
M. Trapani
Kha’s Funerary Equipment at the Egyptian Museum in Turin: Resumption
of the Archaeological Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2217
W. Wendrich, J. Dieleman and E. Waraksa
Ideas Concerning a New Egyptological Knowledge Base: The UCLA
Encyclopedia of Egyptology (UEE). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2233

94487_OLA_Kousoulis_Vol_2_VWK.indd 17 7/01/16 11:55

 FORMS AND DECORATION OF GRAECO-ROMAN HOUSES
FROM MARINA EL-ALAMEIN

Stanis¥aw MEDEKSZA, Rafa¥ CZERNER

(Wroc¥aw University of Technology)

Grazyna BªKOWSKA
(Jagiellonian University)

A Hellenistic-Roman settlement was discovered in 1986 during construction works at

modern Marina, a tourist settlement being built on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt,
about 6 km east of el-Alamein. It is located 96 km west of Alexandria, 40 km west of
ancient Taposiris Magna (Abu Sir), and 185 km east of Paraetonium (Marsa Matruh). For
the past twenty years, Polish and Egyptian missions have been conducting archaeological
research and preservation of the remains of the Hellenistic-Roman town and necropolis.
Wiktor A. Daszewski has attempted to identify the ancient place name of the site –
based on his study of the local ancient toponomy1. The sources describing the coast
between Alexandria and Paraetonium, the geographers Strabo and Claudius Ptolemy
in particular2, mention several harbour towns and settlements located in the vicinity of
present-day Marina. Of these, Leucaspis and Antiphrae could be considered as corre-
sponding to the location of the discovered settlement. Daszewski’s opinion is that both
names referred to the same site, but at different periods – first Leukaspis, and later
Antiphrae. The former is found in Hellenistic and early Roman sources till the middle
of the 2nd century AD and then disappears. Mention is made only of a sort of large,
independent harbour. Subsequently, the latter joined with the village of Antiphrae,
situated further inland, to create together a new town, that would existed until the
beginning of the 7th century AD.

1
W.A. DASZEWSKI (in collaboration with G. MAJCHEREK, Z. SZTETY™™O, I. ZYCH), ‘Excavations at
Marina el-Alamein 1987-1988’, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo
46 (1990), 15-51, esp. 15-7, where all the ancient sources are quoted; W.A. DASZEWSKI, ‘Marina el Alamein.
The site of an unknown Graeco-Roman settlement on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt’, in L. KRZYZANOWSKI
(ed.), 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 (War-
saw, 1991); ID., ‘Témoignage de l’urbanisation de la côte méditerranéenne de l’époque hellénistique et
romaine à la lumière des fouilles de Marina el Alamein’, Bulletin de la Société Française d’Égyptologie
132 (1995), 14-6; ID., ‘Nouvelles recherches sur la côte nord de l’Égypte. Un type méconnu de chapiteaux’,
Études et Travaux. Travaux du Centre d’Archéologie Méditerranéenne de l’Académie Polonaise des Sciences
XV (1990), Loeb Clasical Library 110.
2
STRABO, Geographia, transl. H.L. JONES, Loeb Classical Library (London, 1982), VII, 1,14; CLAUDIUS
PTOLEMAEUS, in: C. MÜLLER (ed.), Geographia IV (Paris, 1901), 5-9.
 1740
S. MEDEKSZA, R. CZERNER AND G. BªKOWSKA

Fig. 1. Marina El-Alamein. General situation plan with reconstruction of the grid of streets.
(Drawing M. Krawczyk-Szczerbinska).
 FORMS AND DECORATION OF GRAECO-ROMAN HOUSES FROM MARINA EL-ALAMEIN 1741

Archaeological evidence confirms that the town functioned from the 2nd century BC
to the beginning of the 7th century AD3. The earliest remains, some even from the mid
2nd century BC, were found in the necropolis. The houses explored until now may be
dated in their earliest phases to the end of the 1st and the 2nd century AD4, although
few remains from an even earlier period have been traced in places. The remains of
public structures in the central part of the town date from the middle of the 1st century
AD5. The layout of the ancient town has been reconstructed on the basis of results of
investigations conducted to date (fig. 1).
The harbour infrastructure, including warehouses of which ruins have survived, lay
immediately on the coast. Directly to the south of the port and commercial quarter was
the city centre which included baths, a civic basilica and other public buildings around
a porticoed main square. Surrounding the centre were densely occupied habitation
quarters. A belt free of any architectural remains, delimitated the town to the west and
south. Extending beyond this belt were the necropoleis.
About 50 architectural complexes discovered so far in the different functional zones
of the town are enough for a preliminary analysis of its spatial arrangement, the grid
of streets in particular (fig. 1). It appears that the original concept favoured a regular
plan, the terrain allowing. The street grid is oriented basically North-South and East-
West. As is clear from a study of the plan, the rectangular grid is more or less regular
in the harbour zone. As the direction to the port was the most important, all the lati-
tudinal streets in the northern part of the town end up in the waterfront zone. Again,
the plan reveals here less main longitudinal streets, running East-West – only two have
been identified beyond all doubt so far. On the other hand, these crosswise streets must
have been of the most monumental type found in town. Confirming this is the presence
of large numbers of marble column drums and good architectural decoration in the
vicinity of the northern of these two streets, as well as the fact that the only part of
this street which has been uncovered is finely paved with stone slabs. The most irreg-
ular part of the city is contained between presumably the two main longitudinal streets,
possibly indicating that this district was already outside the commercial and official
parts of the town and hence enjoyed greater freedom as far as the agglutination devel-
opment of houses is concerned. It is also to be assumed that originally only a few
latitudinal streets had been traced in this part of the town and the architecture filling
the space between them followed less rigid guidelines. Hence the various back streets,

3
DASZEWSKI, ‘Marina el Alamein’, 12.
4
S. MEDEKSZA, Marina el-Alamein: grecko-rzymskie miasto w Egipcie. Badania architektoniczno-
urbanistyczne i restauracja reliktów architektury mieszkalnej, Conservatio est aeterna creatio (Torun,
1999), 117-54; ID., ‘Marina El-Alamein. Conservation Work 1995’, Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean
VII (1996), 42-52.
5
W.A. DASZEWSKI, ‘Marina el-Alamein. Season 2001’, Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean
XIII (2002), 86.
1742 S. MEDEKSZA, R. CZERNER AND G. BªKOWSKA

Fig. 2. Plan of the house H1. (Drawing R. Czerner, M. Krawczyk-Szczerbinska).

 FORMS AND DECORATION OF GRAECO-ROMAN HOUSES FROM MARINA EL-ALAMEIN 1743

small squares with doors to but a few houses and winding streets that can be observed
here.
The town is characterized by diversified development. In the south part, the insulae
are densely filled with “carpet” housing. It should be emphasized that this term is not
entirely justified here. “Carpet” housing is erected simultaneously, and houses have
got common walls. In Marina el-Alamein the houses were erected one after another,
they were added to the already existing ones, and the extension of some was carried
out on the basis of agglutination, that is adding next rooms to the already existing ones.
The agglutination extension resulted also in a deformation of the street grid, because
new rooms often broke the established building line and extended into the space of
squares and streets.
Houses take up a part or the whole insula (block). The houses H1, H2 and H21c
take up the whole insula (figs 2, 3). It is surrounded by streets, which are in an orthog-
onal layout. The houses H9 and H9a are located in one insula, in the part of the town
with a strongly deformed street grid (fig. 4). The extension, especially of H9, contrib-
uted to the deformation of this block. The houses of the H10 complex also take up the
whole insula, but there are three of them: H10, H10a and H10b (fig. 5). Numerous
alterations of the mentioned houses can be noticed here, and H10b was later built into
the structure of two houses, H10 and H10a, and it took up a fragment of a street run-
ning in latitudinal order. A complex of four houses marked by us with a common name
H10“E” also takes up the whole insula (fig. 5). In this case the houses were added one

Fig. 3. Plan of the house H21. (Drawing R. Czerner).

1744 S. MEDEKSZA, R. CZERNER AND G. BªKOWSKA

to another from north to south. Particularly in the south part, substantial deformation
resulting from taking up a part of a square adjacent to the entrance to House H9a can
be seen.
The houses in Marina can be classified according to the type of spatial solution
considering various criteria. Houses without and with courtyards can be distinguished.
The first type is clear, and houses from the insula called H10“E” fall into it (fig. 5).
They are small houses on an almost square plan, and having a small number of rooms.
The second type – courtyard houses – can be divided into houses with a portico
courtyard and with a peristyle courtyard. A courtyard can be called a portico courtyard
when it has one or two columned porticos. A peristyle courtyard is such that has at
least three or four porticos. The kind with three porticos is called incomplete peristyle.
Portico courtyards in the houses of Marina can also be divided into courtyards with
one or two porticos. The first kind can be found in House H9a (fig. 4). In this case, a
rectangular courtyard is closed from the east on its shorter side with a single columned

Fig. 4. Plan of the group of houses H9, H9a and H9b. (Drawing S. Medeksza).
 FORMS AND DECORATION OF GRAECO-ROMAN HOUSES FROM MARINA EL-ALAMEIN 1745

portico. We discovered a similar solution in House H2, where a square courtyard is

closed from the west also with a single columned portico. The difference between these
two solutions is that in House H2 two wall pillars were added to the portico.
Double portico courtyards can in turn be divided into those with porticos closing
the courtyard forming a shape of the letter “L” and those with parallel porticos at
opposite walls. To date, a double portico courtyard with porticos forming a shape of
the letter “L” has only been discovered in House H9 (fig. 4). This type of layout
resembles Greek houses, with porticos planned out in this way, but also with the main
entrance located on the axis of the longer portico. Furthermore, between the portico
courtyard and the main room with a niche, there is a transverse room flanked with
pillars, which is also known from the Greek solutions of the prostas and pastas type.
Courtyards with multicolumn parallel porticos were located in Houses H10, H10a,
H21c (figs 3, 5); and in House H19 there was a small layout with a double portico
courtyard, where each portico has only one column (fig. 5). To date, we have found
a courtyard of the incomplete peristyle type only in one house: H1. In this case three
porticos are parallel to the west, north and east walls of a square courtyard. In the south
wall of the courtyard there is a three-door entrance to the main room.
Three layouts are represented in the houses in Marina el-Alamein: axial, bayonet
type and orthogonal. These three types are classified on the basis of the mutual position
of the main axes in the house layout. House H1 is an example of a purely axial layout
(fig. 2). There is one main axis and it runs successively through the entrance, the court-
yard, and the main room. It is an axis of symmetry for all these parts of the building.
The main axes of Houses H10a, H21c and H9 have a bayonet layout (figs 3, 4, 5).
In this case there are two main axes, one running through the main entrance, the court-
yard, and the side portico in it. The other one is an axis of symmetry for the main room
and the courtyard space. The axes are parallel. The three houses mentioned above
belong to the same layout type, but it is necessary to stress that strictly speaking each
of these examples is different. Where do the differences lie? A perfect bayonet layout
is found in House H10a. In House H21c, the axis of the main entrance should be added
as a third one to the basic bayonet layout (fig. 3). Next, in the vestibule it intersects at
a right angle with the axis connecting this vestibule with the east portico of the court-
yard. And the latter is in a bayonet layout with the main axis running through the
centre of the main room and of the entrance to this room from the courtyard. As men-
tioned above, House H9 refers to the Greek layout type with porticos meeting at a right
angle and forming a shape of the letter “L” (fig. 4). This feature makes this house
different from House H10a. Apart from that, the main axes are similarly parallel here,
with one of them running through the entrance, the vestibule and the south portico,
and the other running through the centre of the main room (emphasized with an aedic-
ula), through the entrance to this room, then a room resembling prostas in a Greek
house, and finally the centre of the courtyard space.
 1746
S. MEDEKSZA, R. CZERNER AND G. BªKOWSKA

Fig. 5. Plan of the group of houses H10, H10a, H10b, H10“E” and H19.
(Drawing R. Czerner, S. Medeksza).
 FORMS AND DECORATION OF GRAECO-ROMAN HOUSES FROM MARINA EL-ALAMEIN 1747

The houses H9a and H10 represent the third type of a house with an orthogonal
layout. In these cases the main axes cross in the centre of the courtyard. In House H9a
one of the axes runs from the main entrance through the courtyard to the opposite
portico. The other one is an axis of symmetry for the main room, and it is at the same
time perpendicular to the first axis (fig. 4). In House H10 the situation is quite com-
plicated, because traces of many alterations and changes of the main entrance location
can be noticed. During the research we managed to get to know the last phase the best.
There are two axes of this layout (fig. 5). The north-south axis running through the
main room and the courtyard to the room of a megaron type on the north side of the
courtyard is more important. At its south end there is a niche, probably a cult one, with
depictions of Helios, Harpokrates and Sarapis, which constitutes an interesting feature.
The other axis runs from the main entrance to the centre of the courtyard. It is the place
where the axes cross at a right angle.
Many of the structures in the town and in the cemetery were endowed with a striking
architectural form. A very specific type of architectural decoration characterized by sim-
plification and decorative geometrization appears in Marina where it also seems to have
been prevalent. This kind of stylization has been associated mainly with Petra where a
similar architectural decoration was commonly applied. Having been recognized first in
Petra, it came to be known as “Nabatean”. Later, its presence was noted in other regions,
not only within Nabatean territory, but also more widely in the Hellenistic world6. Styl-
ized elements, more particularly some very special capitals, have been found in Arabia,
on Cyprus and in Egypt. Scholars have especially noted the latter location, considering
it as a potential source for this type of decoration. The current opinion, generally accepted
by scholars, is that this kind of decoration was developed in Alexandria and its vicinity.
The stylized architectural decoration discovered at Petra and Hegra is very specific
and dissimilar from any of the Classical orders. Almost exactly these forms appear in
the Marina necropolis, mainly in the decoration of the monumental pillar tombs. None-
theless, only the earliest of these tombs and thus of all the monuments of the site, have
this kind of decoration. In Marina the type had a longer development, assuming around
the 1st century AD different forms, which are typical of the houses’ decoration. These
forms have recently been designated as of the “Marina type” (after W.A. Daszewski).
The decoration applied here represented three different orders, which despite the sim-
plification can be recognized as corresponding to the Corinthian, Ionian and Doric
orders. The three stylized orders are also found outside Marina. The proportions of
these orders are similar to those of their Classical counterparts; the forms exhibit

6
G.R.H. WRIGHT, Ancient Building in Cyprus, vol. 1 (Leiden/New York/Köln, 1992), 458; A. NEGEV,
Tempel, Kirchen und Zisternen. Ausgrabungen in der Wüste Negev. Die Kultur der Nabatäer (Stuttgart,
1983), 110; G. FOERSTER (with contribution by N. PORAT), Masada V. The Yigael Yadin Excavations 1963-
1965. Final Reports. Art and Architecture (Jerusalem, 1995), 113-23.
1748 S. MEDEKSZA, R. CZERNER AND G. BªKOWSKA

far advanced stylization. Daszewski drew attention to the abundance of this kind of
architectural decoration in the building remains found in Marina el-Alamein, making
the ancient town the main centre of occurrence of the type.
In Marina, the Doric is by far the fewest and absent in decoration of the houses.
Most of the porticoes, pediments on pilasters and engaged columns, and small architec-
tural forms from Marina feature the local stylized pseudo-Ionian and pseudo-Corinthian.
These two orders contributed to the monumental appearance of the houses in which
they were employed. They are preserved in greater numbers and occasionally also
complete with all elements. Importantly, the architraves and cornices of these two
stylized orders of Marina, pseudo-Ionian and pseudo-Corinthian, insignificantly sim-
plified in their details in comparison to Classical examples, appear not to have differed
one from the other. Thus, the major difference between the two orders was in the shape
of the columns, engaged columns and pilasters. More specifically, it was the form of
the capitals that mattered (fig. 6).
The stylized, voluted, pseudo-Ionian capital of Marina is heavily simplified. It com-
prised all the elements that composed the Classical variant of a capital of that order.

Fig. 6. Examples of capitals of Marina, pseudo-Ionian and pseudo-Corinthian.

(Drawing R. Czerner).
 FORMS AND DECORATION OF GRAECO-ROMAN HOUSES FROM MARINA EL-ALAMEIN 1749

These have undergone, however, a far-reaching geometric stylization. The abacus slab
is finer than in the classical version and its edge profile has been reduced to an ordinary
angled cut, usually only on the side of the volute fronts. The echinus exhibits a very
simple form with a very sharp upper edge. Very characteristic are two angled cut-offs
that appeared directly next to where it interpenetrated with the volute fronts and where,
in the Classical, order palmettes sometimes appeared. The fronts of volutes were not
articulated by carving. Neither was the centre of the volute distinguished in any way
in the middle of this flat surface.
The Marina pseudo-Corinthian is the most characteristic of the site’s architectural
decoration. The pseudo-Corinthian capital is intensely geometricized. Its calathus is a
reversed truncated cone with an abacus with incurving sides on top. The corners of the
abacus constitute the top of massive volutes. The two rows of acanthus leaves are
heavily stylized. Indeed, the similarity boils down to the number and positioning of
the geometricized shields that replace the leaves and project from the face. Stylization
could go even further at times with a cylindrical band running around the capital where
the shields should be.
The same stylization principles concerned other elements of both pseudo-Ionian and
pseudo-Corinthian architectural orders. The modest form of all the bases resembles a
truncated cone supported on a band. The column shafts were not fluted in the stone
itself; however, fragments of fluting in stucco have been recovered. The upper parts,
that is, the entablature, especially immediately below the cornice, were most frequently
of the Ionic style, applied in much the same way for the Pseudo-Ionian as well as for
the pseudo-Corinthian order. They were no more different from the Classical model
than the columns with their capitals, but they also had their specificity. Probably no
friezes ran above the architraves in all cases, except for a few rare exceptions. Another
possible entablature to be used with stylized pseudo-Corinthian, but not with pseudo-
Ionian, capitals of Marina was Doric, the full set in such cases, that is complete with
frieze. The flat underside of cornice slabs extending beyond the architrave was deco-
rated in Marina in two fashions. On the one hand dentils which are known from the
classical orders, the Corinthian and foremost the Ionic for which it is generic, have
been found on a substantial number of cornice fragments from all over the ancient
town. The other kind of decoration, considered typical of Marina, was a recessed pro-
file consisting of flat grooved modillions alternating with square hollow modillions
(fig. 7). A diamond shape with an identical profile occupied the space between two
modillions in certain special places. This kind of decoration was a Hellenistic contribu-
tion to architecture, becoming a characteristic form of the period. It appeared in the
first half of the 2nd century BC in different regions of the Mediterranean7.

7
H. VON HERSBERG, Konsolengeisa des Hellenismus und der frühen Kaiserzeit (Mainz, 1980), 87ff.
There also an overview of relevant research.
1750 S. MEDEKSZA, R. CZERNER AND G. BªKOWSKA

Fig. 7. Cornice and pediment of the aedicula of house H21“N” (Phot. R. Czerner).

Small architectural forms such as the frames of portals and aediculae decorated the
significant parts of houses. They often have been preserved practically complete in terms
of constituent elements (including remains of entablatures and cornices in addition to
columns or pilasters) and have played an important part in studies on the architectural
decoration. Theoretical reconstructions were carried out on the architectural frame of an
opening, presumably a doorway from House H9a8 and a virtually complete wall niche
from House H99, the elements belonging to small but complete aediculae once built into
a wall in the oikos of House H1010 (fig. 8) and the similar aediculae discovered in the
houses H21“N” and H21c11. The niches were all framed with elements of the stylized
pseudo-Corinthian order of the Marina type and all were practically complete. One of

8
DASZEWSKI, Études et Travaux XV (1990), 114, Fig. 3.
9
J. RADZIK, Aedicula, Archaeological Background and Conservation Problems. The Polish-Egyptian
Preservation Mission at Marina 1988. The Polish Excavation Mission at Marina 1987-88, vol. 1 (Warsaw,
1991), 45-6; W.A. DASZEWSKI, ‘À la recherche d’une Égypte peu connue: Travaux sur la côte nord-ouest,
à Marina el-Alamein’, Comptes Rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (avril-
juin 1993), 415-6.
10
R. CZERNER, ‘The Anastylosis and Conservation of Architectural Niches in Marina El-Alamein’, Polish
Archaeology in the Mediterranean XVI (2005), 121-25.
11
S. MEDEKSZA, ‘Marina el-Alamein. Conservation work 2000’, Polish Archaeology in the Mediter-
ranean XII (2001), 73, Fig. 10.
FORMS AND DECORATION OF GRAECO-ROMAN HOUSES FROM MARINA EL-ALAMEIN 1751

Fig. 8. Reconstruction of the aedicula of house H10. (Drawing R. Czerner).

1752 S. MEDEKSZA, R. CZERNER AND G. BªKOWSKA

the most interesting small forms of architecture is the commemorative monument dedi-
cated to Commodus12. It was discovered in House H21c, inside an official hall opening
axially of the south side of courtyard, against the west wall of the room (fig. 9).
Geometricized capitals from Alexandria13, “Nabatean” capitals from Petra14, and
from Cyprus15 were often considered as unfinished products. Not all researchers, how-
ever, were inclined to think so16. The whole discussion was summarized in 2000 by
Françoise Laroche-Traunecker17. More recently, the opinion about these capitals being
unfinished has largely been abandoned in favour of the idea that they were a conscious
transformation of roughly-shaped forms into the final stylized version18. Studies on
pseudo-Ionian and especially pseudo-Corinthian capitals from Marina support this idea.
On the inside wall plasters of houses in Marina, examples of wall paintings were
found. Some paintings have survived in situ, but most of them are fragments of painted
plaster found in layers of rubble. A wall usually built of stone blocks19 was covered
with several layers of plaster, which contained more and more fine-grained fractions
of sand. The last layer, often with gypsum added, was a ground for the painting20.
The textures examined are shallow rustication and flat convex pilasters. There are
examples of monochrome paintings, but polychrome are more frequent. Considering
the subject, figurative representations, and also geometric and plant motifs can be
distinguished. Sometimes the wall surface was to look like orthostates. Intense colours
dominate, especially black, red, yellow, brown and green.

12
R. CZERNER, S. MEDEKSZA, ‘The Commodus Monument from House H21c in Marina el-Alamein’,
Polish Archaeology in Mediterranean XIX (2008).
13
M. SABOTTKA, ‘Ausgrabungen in der West-Nekropole Alexandriens (Gabbari)’, in: G. GRIMM,
H. HEINEN and E. WINTER (eds.), Das römisch-byzantinische Ägypten. Akten des Internationales Symposions
26-30 September 1978 in Trier (Mainz, 1983), 201, Pl. 41, 1; ID., ‘Gabbari 1975-1977 (Vorbericht)’,
Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte LXX (1984-1985), 281, Taf. IIa.
14
D. SCHLUMBERGER, ‘Les formes anciennes du chapiteau corinthien en Syrie, en Palestine et en Ara-
bie’, Syria, Revue d’Art Oriental et d’Archéologie XIV (1933), 289, note 10.
15
O. CALLOT, ‘Éléments d’architecture romaine à Larnaca’, Reports of the Department of Antiquities,
Cyprus 1988, 225.
16
H.C. BUTLER, Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expedition to Syria in 1904-
1905 and 1909, II A (Leiden, 1914-1919), 237; G. DALLMAN, Petra und seine Felsheiligtümer (Leipzig,
1908), 269; H. KOHL, Kasr Firaun in Petra (Leipzig, 1910), 26.
17
F. LAROCHE-TRAUNECKER, ‘Chapiteaux «nabatéens», «corinthiens inachevés» ou «simplifiés»?
Nouveaux exemples en Égypte’, Ktema: Civilisations de l’Orient, de la Grèce et de Rome Antiques 25
(2000), 207-13, esp. 207-9.
18
A. HERMARY, ‘L’Architecture religieuse à Chypre à l’époque impériale: traditions et innovations’,
in: Chypre. La vie quotidienne de l’antiquité à nos jours (Actes du Colloque 15-17 nov. 1982), Musée de
l’Homme (Paris, 1985), 131; A. HERMARY, M. SCHMID, ‘Le sanctuaire d’Aphrodite à Amanthonte’, in:
Pratika tou Dhefterou Dhiehnous Kyprologikou Synedriou – Proceedings of the Second International
Congress of Cypriote Studies (Nicosia, 1985), 285; J. PATRICH, ‘The formation of the Nabatean capital’,
in: Judea and the Greco-Roman World in the Time of Herod in the Light of Archaeological Evidence
(Göttingen, 1996), 203-5.
19
Sometimes built of sun-dried bricks – House H2.
20
MEDEKSZA, Marina el-Alamein, 134.
 FORMS AND DECORATION OF GRAECO-ROMAN HOUSES FROM MARINA EL-ALAMEIN 1753

Fig. 9. House H21c. Reconstruction of the commemorative monument

dedicated to Commodus. (Drawing R. Czerner).

In most of the houses examined it was noticed that the socles of the walls were
painted black (up to the height of 22-48 cm). That is, among others, the case in houses
H1, H2, H9, H10, H10a. In House H10, in room 3, on one of the walls a painted
decoration survived in situ, up to the height of 0.87 m. A black socle is separated with
an engraved line from red and black pilasters surrounded with a red frame. Between
the pilasters there are panels, brown and black alternately, with traces of marbling21.
In the same house, in room 3a, there is one more example of geometric decoration
which survived in situ22. This painting has not been fully uncovered yet. There is a

21
See also: M. MA™ACHOWICZ, Wstπpne wyniki obserwacji reliktów faktur oraz kolorystyki scian i
detalu architektonicznego miasta Marina el Alamein, 1995 (typescript in the library of the IHASzt.iT of
the Faculty of Architecture, Wroc¥aw Technical University), 1-4.
22
MEDEKSZA, Marina el-Alamein, 130.
1754 S. MEDEKSZA, R. CZERNER AND G. BªKOWSKA

similar situation in House H10a, in the oikos (room 22), where remains of geometric
wall paintings were discovered during excavating under a stone floor. There is also a
black socle, a blue-black pilaster framed in green with two planes on both sides, one
with red background in a yellow frame, and the other with yellow background in a red
frame. They come from an earlier phase of the house23. A geometric decoration in situ
was also in House H9, in room 14, but unfortunately nothing remained of it24. Above
a black socle, colourful, rectangular fields were marked out, within which geometric
figures were inscribed. One of them is a red circle, and the other’s design is more
complicated: there is a dark blue pentagon with concave sides inscribed within a red
circle, and within the pentagon there are other light and smaller circles. This fragment
of the painting draws on a decoration of a base course from “Casa della Caccia Antica”
in Pompeii25. It is the Fourth Pompeian style.
Remains of geometric decoration survived also in House H1, as black, red and green
stripes on small fragments of plaster. Small fragments with this kind of ornament were
in House H2, in room 2, while in room 5 a big stone block was found on which col-
oured lines forming a rectangle panels: a thicker green one with two thinner red ones
at its sides.
Wall decoration which was to imitate marble panels as in room 3a, in House H10,
was already mentioned above. Numerous examples of it can be found all around the
excavation site in Marina. Fragments of marbling with a tinge of black, grey and blue
were found in House H9, and some with a tinge of light brown in House H126. Painted
plasters without context are also discovered in the vicinity of houses or heaps. There
are red and green colours on them.
In wall paintings, floral motifs can also be noticed. The best examples are remains
of the wall paintings discovered in House H2, in room 11a (fig. 10). In a rubble heap
lying by a wall built of sun-dried bricks, polychromed wall plasters were found. There
were big fragments of amphorae sherds embedded in the layers of plaster27. Among the
remains of paintings there is a wide greyish-blue stripe, divided by thin white, yellow,
dark red and light pink horizontal lines. On some fragments the red and pink stripes
make an angle, perhaps forming a panel. At the top, the grey stripe borders a white
line, which borders a pink one, and then follows a red stripe, a white one, and a red

23
Ibid., 126, fig. 9. The house can be dated to the 1st century BC – 1st century AD.
24
DASZEWSKI, Bulletin de la Société Française d’Égyptologie 132 (1995), 24, fig. 14.
25
V.M. STROCKA, ‘Die römische Wandmalerei von Tiberius bis Nero’, in: Actes du 3e Colloque interna-
tional sur la peinture romaine, Avenches 1986, Aventicum 5, Cahiers d’archéologie romande 43 (1987),
Pl. IV, fig. 1. The painting is dated to the second half of the 2nd Century. See also: S. GABRA and E. DRIOTON,
Peintures à fresques et scènes peintes à Hermoupolis-Ouest (Touna El-Gebel) (Cairo, 1954), Pl. 8, 9, and
J.H. DECKERS, ‘Die Wandmalerei im Kaiserkultraum von Luxor’, Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen
Instituts 94 (1979), 600-25, fig. 14.
26
MA™ACHOWICZ, Wstπpne wyniki, 2.
27
Some fragments of amphorae sherds can be dated to the 3rd century.
 FORMS AND DECORATION OF GRAECO-ROMAN HOUSES FROM MARINA EL-ALAMEIN 1755

Fig. 10. House H2. Room 11a. Wall painting with floral motifs. (Phot. P. Zambrzycki).

one again, from which bent lines branch off repetitively and meet one another a little
above the top stripe. At the points where they meet, there are flower heads of various
colours (red, green and yellow) with a red border. Around them there are petals shown
as small red beads. Between each two flowers, three green little leafs are painted. On
the basis of the pieces found, this part of the house can be tentatively dated to the
3rd century. Floral decoration was also found in House H9, where there is a light yel-
low background with traces of green28. In House H2, room 4, small fragments showing
probably yellow petals were found. Floral motifs were also depicted on columns.
A fragment of such column was found in House H21c29. On a red background, plant
runners painted in dark red and dark blue can be seen, as well as green vine leaves.
In several houses in Marina examples of figurative paintings were found. One of the
most beautiful is an expressive image of gods from a niche in room 2 of House H1030
(figs 8, 11). The main figure of the painting, which survived only in fragments, was
depicted in the centre of the niche. Rising above this figure in a semicircle there were

28
MA™ACHOWICZ, Wstπpne wyniki, 3.
29
S. MEDEKSZA, R. CZERNER, ‘Rescuing Marina El-Alamein, a Graeco-Roman town in Egypt’, Minerva
3 (2004), 23, fig. 15.
30
MEDEKSZA, Marina el-Alamein, 129-30, fig. 13, 14; Z. KISS, ‘Deux peintures murales de Marina
el-Alamein’, Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale 106 (2006), 163-6, fig. 1.
1756 S. MEDEKSZA, R. CZERNER AND G. BªKOWSKA

Fig. 11. House H10. Aedicula of room 2. Representation of Helios,

Harpokrates and Sarapis. (Phot. R. Czerner).

busts of solar and lunar gods. On the left there were images of Helios, Harpokrates
and Sarapis. On the right, in symmetry, there could have been images of Selene as a
counterpart of Helios, perhaps Luna as a complement to Harpokrates, and Isis as an
opposite of Sarapis. The painting was dated to the second half of the 2nd century or the
beginning of the 3rd century. In the same house in room 5c, a figural painting depicting
Heron, a deity from the Fayum, was found, and it was also dated to the second half of
the 2nd century or the beginning of the 3rd century31. A figure with a nimbus was also
depicted on fragments of wall plasters discovered in the vicinity of House H932. One
of the most beautiful paintings was found in House H10“E”. It is a depiction of a

31
MEDEKSZA, Marina el-Alamein, 131-2, fig. 18, and KISS, Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie
Orientale 106 (2006), 167-9, fig. 2.
32
E. ™UZYNIECKA, Relikty polichromii architektonicznej z domu H9 w Marina el Alamein (1996),
(typescript in the library of the IHASzt.iT of the Faculty of Architecture, Wroc¥aw University of Technology)
and MEDEKSZA, Marina el-Alamein, 131, fig. 17.
 FORMS AND DECORATION OF GRAECO-ROMAN HOUSES FROM MARINA EL-ALAMEIN 1757

Fig. 12. House H10a. Room 25. Representation of a male figure.

(Phot. Archives of Polish-Egyptian Conservation Mission).

woman wearing a nautical crown33. In the vicinity of House H10a, in room 25, a male
figure was shown on one of the fragments (fig. 12)34. To the left of it a red vertical
line was painted, dividing the painting. Only a part of the image survived, the body of
the man can be seen down to the torso. He has a robe thrown over his shoulders, and
he is holding it up with his right hand raised.
It seems that he is also holding something else in this hand, perhaps a bowl or a
bunch of grapes. His left arm is covered with a colourful, dark red, blue and yellow

33
S. MEDEKSZA, ‘Marina El-Alamein. Conservation work’, Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean
XII (2001), 71, fig. 7; Prof. Z. KISS is working on a detailed information about this painting.
34
MEDEKSZA, Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean XII (2001), 72, fig. 8.
1758 S. MEDEKSZA, R. CZERNER AND G. BªKOWSKA

robe. In his left hand he is holding a stick slightly curved at the top. His head, rela-
tively small, is turned right, slightly tilt, decorated with a big wreath with two ribbons
rising at the back. Perhaps the figure is shown running or dancing. On his head there
is a stem, from which big bent sprigs are growing, also painted in the same colours
as the coat: dark red, yellow and blue. A narrow range of colours, yet an excellent
chiaroscuro modelling can be noticed here. The attributes indicate that it may be a
figure from the retinue of Dionysus, perhaps a Satyr, often depicted dancing or among
grapevines. The cane in his hand is probably a pedum. The painting can be tentatively
dated to the 3rd century. A similar image of a Satyr was depicted in “Casa degli amor-
ini doratami” in Pompeii35. The Satyr there is holding a pedum in his right hand, and
little Dionysus in his left hand.
Looking at the paintings from the houses in Marina, an affinity with Italian patterns
can be noticed. Geometric motifs dominate, but there are also floral motifs, especially
those of grapevine, connected with Dionysus, the god of harvest. In figurative depic-
tions, a religious syncretism is noticeable, with a combination of Egyptian, Greek and
Roman cultural tradition. There is a similar situation with the iconography on other
finds discovered at the archaeological site in Marina36. Depictions connected with Hel-
lenistic Egypt dominate: Sarapis, Isis, Harpokrates37. There are also influences from
Cyrenaica. The paintings from the niche in House 10 or House 10E resemble Artemis-
Selene from Zliten38. The remains of polychromes are a proof of rich painting decora-
tion of the houses in this provincial town, to which more or less outstanding artists
from different regions of the Mediterranean world used to arrive. Although only frag-
ments of the paintings were discovered, they are of big value, also because a small
number of this type of decorations survived from Roman Egypt. The paintings shown
on the walls of houses in Marina allow to determine cultural influences in this town,
coming mainly from Alexandria, but also from the Fayum or Cyrenaica. Further finds
and deeper studies of iconography will perhaps help to determine the purpose of each
room and provide better knowledge of inhabitants of this town, help to learn their
customs, beliefs and mentality.

35
E.M. MOORMANN, La pittura parietale romana come fonte di conoscenza per la scultura antica,
Scrinium 2 (Assen/Maastricht, 1988), 186, no. 220/1.
36
W.A. DASZEWSKI, ‘The gods of the north-west coast of Egypt in the Graeco-Roman period’, Mélanges
de l’École Française de Rome, Antiquité 103 (1991), 91-104.
37
G. BªKOWSKA, ‘Bronze jewelry from Marina El-Alamein’, Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean
XVI (2005), 100-5.
38
S. AURIGEMMA, L’Italia in Africa. Tripolitania, I monumenti d’arte decorativa, II: Le pittura d’età
romana (Roma, 1962), 51, pl. 41.