Alexandria
Dates of work: 16 March–30 June 2016
Team:
Director: Dr. Grzegorz Majcherek, archaeologist (PCMA UW)
Deputy Director: Renata Kucharczyk, glass specialist (PCMA UW)
SCA representatives: Mohammed Faruk Abdel Aziz Mahmoud, Enjy el-Sayed Abd el-Raheem, Karim Mohammed Mohammed and Omar Mahrous Mahmoud Doma
Archaeologists: Prof. Barbara Tkaczow (Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences), Emanuela Kulicka and Piotr Makowski (independent researchers)
Numismatists: Prof. Barbara Lichocka (Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences), Dr. Katarzyna Lach (PCMA UW)
Conservators: Ewa Parandowska, Szymon Gąsienica-Sieczka and Zygmunt Nawrot (all freelance)
Architects: Marcin Polak and Sara Arbter (both freelance)
Documentalist: Alicja Wieczorek (PCMA UW)
The PCMA expedition to Kom el-Dikka conducted fieldwork between March and July 2016, filling out the usual multiple-task agenda encompassing both conservation projects and archaeological excavation. The program of work was conditioned to a large extent by the pending completion of the first stage of the Kom el-Dikka Site Presentation Project (southern zone of the site). Top priority was given to preservation work, supplemented with limited excavation in the early Islamic necropolis. A vast collection of finds including coins, plasterwork, glass artifacts of different age (from Ptolemaic to early Islamic) originating from previous seasons of fieldwork continued to be documented and studied by a group of specialists. The appendix brings a brief report on the glass finds from area CV, stratigraphically from the level of the Lower Necropolis, but chronologically from the late Roman/early Byzantine period (5th–6th century AD).
Acknowledgments: We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of many individuals and institutions, whose good will was essential to our team’s success. We greatly appreciate the efforts of the relevant authorities of the Ministry of Antiquities, both in Cairo and in Alexandria, for making the work possible. We could not be more grateful to Mr. Hany Abdel Azmi, Secretary of the Permanent Committee of the Ministry in Cairo, Mr. Mustafa Mohammed Rushdy, Director General of Antiquities in Alexandria, Ms Samiha Noshy, Director of the Foreign Mission Department, Ms Baheya Kamal Mohammed, Director of the Kom el-Dikka Site and Mr. Ahmed Musa, Director of Archaeological Sites in Alexandria, for their unfailing assistance.
Text: Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 26/1
Contact
Grzegorz. Majcherek: g.majcherek(at)uw.edu.pl