Alexandria
Dates of work: 11 February–30 November 2014
Team:
Director: Dr. Grzegorz Majcherek, archaeologist (PCMA UW)
Deputy director: Renata Kucharczyk, glass specialist (PCMA UW)
SCA representatives: Eman Mahmoud Hamdi Saleh, Ahmed Zakaria Khalil Abu El Enain, Walaa Mohammed Mahmoud, Mohammed Mohammed Mahmoud, Ramadan Hassan Mohammed Ahmed, Mohammed Ali Saleh, Mohammed Sobhy Tawfik Mohammed, Mohammed Ramadan Helal
Archaeologists: Prof. Barbara Tkaczow (Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences), Emanuela Kulicka (independent), Donata Pawłowska (independent)
Anthropologists: Robert Mahler (PCMA UW), Urszula Okularczyk (independent)
Numismatists: Prof. Barbara Lichocka (Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences), Dr. Katarzyna Lach (independent)
Small finds specialist: Iwona Zych, oil lamps (PCMA UW)
Student-trainee: Aleksander Misiurny (Institute of Archaeology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań)
(Joint description of seasons 2014 and 2015)
The Polish–Egyptian mission at Kom el-Dikka, run by the PCMA UW, stepped up the already advanced preservation processes aimed at establishing an Archaeological Park at the site. Conservation work was carried out in the Theatre Portico, the Bath complex and the residential quarter of late Roman date in the eastern part of the excavation area. In turn, the western part was the focus of archaeological research centered on the exploration of some late Roman structures located underneath. The early medieval/Islamic cemetery overlying these remains was explored first. Archaeological excavations of the medieval Islamic burial ground in the northern part of Area U on the Kom el-Dikka site in Egyptian Alexandria, carried out from 2012 to 2014, yielded a total of 98 graves. Of these, 75 contained human skeletal remains. The western gate to the bath complex, leading from the Theatre Portico, was fully exposed. Finds from present and earlier work at the site continued to be studied: glass vessels, pottery, lamps, bone objects, painted wall plaster, and a vast collection of coins.
[Text: Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 25]