Alexandria, Kom el-Dikka (Egypt)
Dates of work: 1 March–30 November 2011
Team:
Director: Dr. Grzegorz Majcherek (PCMA UW)
Deputy director: Renata Kucharczyk, glass specialist (PCMA UW)
SCA representative: Nesrin al Gama, Mona Othman Hussein, Mona Mohammed Abdullah
Archaeologists/trench supervisors: Mariusz Gwiazda (PhD candidate, Research Center for the Antiquity of Southeastern Europe, University of Warsaw); Katarzyna Kapiec (PhD candidate, Research Center for the Antiquity of Southeastern Europe, University of Warsaw); Emanuela Kulicka (independent); Katarzyna Lach (PhD candidate, Jagiellonian University, Kraków); Monika Więch (independent)
Student-trainees: Natalia Bukowska, Aneta Czubińska, Sebastian Jarząb, Zuzanna Rożańska (all Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
Epigraphist: Prof. Adam Łukaszewicz (Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
Numismatists: Assoc. Prof. Barbara Lichocka (Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences); Katarzyna Lach (PhD candidate, Jagiellonian University, Kraków)
Anthropologist: Robert Mahler (PCMA UW)
Conservator: Zygmunt Nawrot (freelance)
Architects: Aureliusz Pisarzewski, Marcin Polak, Marta Sołtys (all freelance)
Documentalist: Ewa Czyżewska (PCMA UW)
The research program on Early Roman urbanism and architecture in Alexandria assumed a return to the excavation of the northwestern part of the site (sector U). Structures cleared include a series of small unconnected rooms and a large multiseat forica featuring a rather unusual linear design. The most remarkable is the orientation of the uncovered architectural remains, which differs from that of other monuments previously discovered at Kom el-Dikka, but is like that further north, in an area traditionally identified as the Royal Palaces quarter (Brucheion). Preservation operations focused, among others, on an overhaul of the mosaic shelter (Villa of the Birds).
[Text: PAM]