Marina el-Alamein

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Marina el-Alamein ( Arabic مارينا العلمين) is a tourist resort on the north coast of Egypt near el-Alamein , which was particularly famous for the battles there during World War II . In the 1980s, when an extensive tourist complex was being built, the remains of an ancient settlement were found, which flourished mainly in the first to fourth centuries AD. This settlement is one of the most important Egyptian necropolis excavations of recent times, especially because of the enormous variety of burial forms in the nearby cemetery. It is also the northernmost point where the so-called mummy portraits were found.

location

Marina el-Alamein is about 110 kilometers west of Alexandria and 240 kilometers northwest of Cairo . The remains of the ancient settlement are about 6 kilometers east of the city of el-Alamein and 800 meters inland from the coast. It extends over 1200 meters in an east-west direction.

history

Strabo mentions two cities in his geography that could be identified with this ancient settlement: Leukaspis and Antiphrae. The settlement was founded around the 2nd century BC. Populated until the 3rd century AD; however, the excavating archaeologist suspects settlement until the 6th century AD.

Excavation history

The settlement has been excavated since 1987/88 annual excavation campaigns led by Wiktor A. Daszewski from the Polish Center of Mediterranean Archeology at the University of Warsaw . Daszewski and his colleagues published numerous preliminary reports and articles about individual finds from Marina el-Alamein.

Residential houses (some of high-ranking personalities), public buildings, infrastructural installations, cisterns , the harbor and graves were excavated. Due to the difficult situation in Egypt for archaeologists and due to the proximity to the city of Marina el-Alamein, in which a tourist center was built, the findings were restored immediately , which delayed the excavation work compared to other campaigns.

As the excavations progress, a change in interpretation can be seen. For example, a strangely built grave with numerous burials was first referred to as a "mass grave". Later it turned out, however, that this was by no means the burying of unloved family members or impoverished members of society, so that from then on it was called "prism grave".

settlement

The actual city, which had a predominantly Hellenistic-Roman character, lay directly on the sea and extended over an area of ​​around 500 by 500 meters. The city was obviously densely built with residential buildings of various types. There is no urban planning with streets crossing at right angles, as was common in Roman times. There was an open square in the city center, which was decorated with columns on three sides. It dates to the first century and was in use until the fifth century. Perhaps there was a sanctuary on the west side. A number of public buildings stood around this square, of which mainly a portico has been excavated to the south .

Many of the residential buildings excavated in recent years are quite well preserved. The houses in the city center in particular are made of quarry stone. Often there are remains of aediculae , tympani , metopes and triglyphs . The structure of the published houses mostly corresponds to a Hellenistic house structure: elevated entrance, reception hall, multi-storey, latrine and cistern are available in the house. Many larger houses have a peristyle , with Corinthian columns. The published house 9 had a cistern under the reception hall and the rainwater ran to the latrine or into a basin.

The preservation of the walls of the residential buildings can vary greatly and depends on the material (carved or broken stone, dryness of the stones) and the binding elements ( limestone or clay ). The walls of House 9 , for example, were without mortar on the outside and filled with rubble and mortar on the inside.

Both Roman and Greek decorative elements can be found inside a house. The walls were plastered, partially decorated with decorated multi-colored panels in the colors blue, yellow, dark red and black. Paint residues can also be found on the plaster stucco on the pillars of the reception hall in House 9.

Graves

General

The graves are characterized by an extraordinary plurality of construction methods. These can be divided into at least eight groups by evaluating the pre-excavation reports. If the sub-forms are counted, however, there are far more grave forms. In addition to graves with monuments standing on them , the hypogea and a columbarium , two new types of graves can be found in Marina el-Alamein:

  • The so-called “prism grave”: Stone prisms are irregular rectangles with slightly rounded corners, on which flat limestone slabs stand vertically and form a perimeter on the narrow side . These prisms were closely grouped together; in them there are pit graves.
  • The so-called “box-like graves”, in which the deceased were buried in small niches called loculi .

Classification of grave types

1. Graves with construction

  • a flat stone (between T1C & T1D)
  • a step pyramidal structure on top (T2 & T3)

2. "Box-like grave" with different types of monuments on it (mostly columns)

  • Nabataean column
  • Nabataean column with niche (T1K, earliest specimen)
  • Nabatean column with Horus statue T12
  • Nabataean column with smaller column T1J (The grave T1I with a double capital could be seen as a variation)
  • T1C grave with stone in sarcophagus shape

3. “Box-like grave” in a temenos
4. Hypogeum

  • Hypogeum with an above-ground structure ( mausoleum , Heroon ) T1GH, T8, T10A, T13, T14, S6 (Heroon)
  • Hypogeum without a T7 building above ground

The above classification does not come from Daszewski; However, through the dating or his assumptions about the relative dating, he indicates a chronological development of points 1, 2 and 4.
As the excavations progressed, Polish archaeologists noticed that the remains of statues were grouped around many columns. A statistic was not published by them. Daszewski argues, however, that these statues on the pillars were the rule and that all “box-like graves” with a pillar attached without a niche or other decoration also had a statue on them.

Disordered in the relative chronology and at the same time as the other grave forms :
5. Columbarium , T11
6. “Mass grave”, later: Prismatic grave
7. Tumulus with a trapezoidal structure and 2 m high roof
8. Column grave without box-like substructure: T1K; something like that, but with a parallelepiped shape: T12A

Examples of grave shapes

First grave in the eastern part of the necropolis

The grave was built over by a box-like grave (T1B) and was found during the excavations for this. That is why the first grave in this part of the necropolis was named 1B.LS1. It is merely a rectangular pit grave that was closed with a roughly hewn grave slab. There are no remains of corpses or grave goods.

Box-like grave with loculi T1B

T1B is located in the eastern part of the necropolis and is dated to around the 1st half of the 1st century AD. It is a box-like grave with a 4.5 m high pillar on top that stands on a two-tier stylobate . The tomb contained two burial chambers with several loculi .

Northern burial chamber: 1.85 x 0.38 x 1.10 m. It contained a single male skeleton and was previously covered by a closed wooden vault, which was supposed to protect the body from the limestone cladding. The wood is rotten; there were small parts in the limestone, so that a vault was assumed. The body is in excellent condition as it lay directly under the rock. There are no gifts (more?).

A part of the southern burial chamber (1B.LS) had to be removed for later reconstruction. Approx. 5 loculi with 2–3 bodies each were found therein ; a total of 13 skeletons. On the basis of anthropological studies , it was concluded that a man aged 35–40, two men aged 38–47, a woman aged 16–18, a woman aged 25–55, a newborn and seven children aged between 18 months and 5 years ago. (NB! Here this does not indicate a period of time that can be considered as age, but a summary from the youngest to the oldest child. Daszewski does not give an exact age for the individual bodies of the children.)

Possible successor grave of T1B?

T1C, the sarcophagus grave, is believed by Daszewski to be the successor grave of T1B: It was built when the capacity of T1B was exhausted. However, T1C is a different form of grave, so it is questionable whether it continues the burials of T1B directly.

T1C is relatively dated two generations after T1B. On the grave there was a single-tier stylobate and a gable roof - a stone sarcophagus . The southern loculus had three burials: two adults and one child. There are no grave goods.

Hypogeum T1GH - the largest grave

The hypogeum T1GH is also located in the eastern part of the necropolis . Most of the hypogea are to the west. The entire length of the grave, above and below ground, is 42 m. This makes it the largest tomb in Egypt from the early Roman period . In addition, it is the only tomb with two entrances.

The above-ground part is connected to the underground part via a staircase. However, this was unusable because the steps stop 1.2 m above the burial chamber. There was another entrance, which, according to Daszewski's idea, was originally only used to transport rubble.

On the north side, facing the sea, there is an Ionic portico . The entrance to the above-ground part was decorated with a tooth frieze , so-called dentils . In the center of the above-ground part there was a reception hall with two stone benches. The remaining rooms were storage rooms, lodging rooms and banquet halls. A monumental entrance leads from the banquet hall to a small vestibule , from which a corridor with pillars leads to a 17 m long staircase that leads 7 m into the rock. On the surface, the stairwell was protected from sand by a limestone wall.

The vault and the upper steps were also made of limestone blocks; from the lower steps it is rock. The steps lead into the underground burial chamber, but end 1.2 m above the chamber. The last two steps were twice as high as the rest. Daszewski suspects an error in the bending angle that could not be corrected, or a subsequent installation of the stairs that did not work. There were two slabs of rock nearby, which must have closed off the stairs.

A second corridor leads east of the burial chamber to the hypogeum, which Daszewski's guess was probably used for transport purposes. The entrance to this corridor was 3 m high and 1.2 m wide; the ceramic filling points to the turn of the century.

The burial chamber measured 7 × 5.5 m. Inside there was severe erosion , which is why two columns made of local limestone were attached to the entrance as a support as part of the restoration work. Daszewski emphasizes that they are fully reversible .

Where the first, unsuccessful staircase led into the burial chamber, there was a square ventilation and light shaft 1.2 m wide. At the bottom it was clad with limestone at a height of 1.2 m and decorated with pillars. The pillars had Nabataean capitals. Under the light shaft there is an altar with the basic dimensions 1 × 0.98 m and a height of 0.37 m. Traces of fire can be seen on it.

There were 9 loculi in the wall. 8 loculi were filled with skeletons (2–6 dead each), the ninth with grave goods. On the eastern wall was a sacrificial table and a relief with vegetables and fruits. The subterranean part of the grave measured completely 13 m.

The burial with most of the grave goods had a 45-55 year old man who was lying in a rectangular lead coffin . The coffin measured 1.83 m in length, 0.42 m in width and 0.24 m in height. Grave goods were two terracotta unguentaria and a glass bottle of very exquisite quality that lay next to the head. In the glass were dried remains of a substance that Daszewski believes to be fragrant oils. Large holes were cut in the coffin at head and waist height . Daszewski suspects that the reason for this was grave robbers who wanted to find jewels on the head or fingers and broke into the grave shortly after the burial.

Finds from the various loculi , such as broken glass, glass containers and a terracotta oil lamp, date from the 2nd half of the 1st century BC. (Or late 1st century BC) to the middle of the 1st century AD. Daszewski rates the grave goods as extremely undemanding in comparison with the monumental structure.

On the southern side of the burial chamber there is a rectangular opening that leads to another underground chamber (dimensions: 7.25 × 6 m). Inside there are stone benches on three sides and an altar in the middle. There are lines scratched that were supposed to be loculi , but were never cut out except for one. In the single loculus there are two skeletons, three more lay on a scree slope in the corner of the room and on a bench.

Heroon S6 (mummy portraits)

Grave S6 has an above-ground mausoleum and an underground complex dedicated to the hero . These are connected by a 15 m long staircase, which was probably roofed earlier.

The stairs lead into a courtyard in front of the burial chamber at a depth of about 8–9 m. In the courtyard there is an altar 1.30 m high, 1.05 m wide and 1 m long, which stands in the center of the courtyard and shows traces of fire. In the northwest corner of the courtyard was a small wall measuring 1.29 × 0.85 m. There a staircase leads down to an approx. 9 m deep basin in which water was probably collected for ritual purposes. On the northeast side of the courtyard there were amphorae from the 2nd – 3rd centuries. Century.

The burial chamber is on the northeast side. The entrance to the burial chamber is 3.6 m high and 1.15 m wide, the threshold is 0.19 m higher than the courtyard. Daszewski suspects it should protect against rainwater ingress. In the burial chamber, benches are cut into the stone and there is a side loculus and another altar in them. Halfway up the stairs - 7.2 m deep - there are two more loculi , the entrances of which were sealed.

Eastern loculus : This is 2.2 m long, 1.65 m wide and 0.85 m high and contains 11 burials that were poorly preserved due to the humid environment. The skeletons faced east to west, but the heads alternated east and west; Daszewski suspects reasons for saving space. Two of the buried were mummies in bandages and mummy portraits .

Western loculus : This is very small and contains only four burials, but they are somewhat better preserved. Three mummies were adults and one is a child. Gilding was preserved on the outside of the bandages. There was also a mummy portrait showing a young man with a gold wreath on his head. This mummy portrait is painted using the encaustic technique (wax, polished with cloth). Stylistically, the picture can be dated to around the 2nd century AD.

Reasons for the plurality of grave forms

The reasons for these diverse differences raise various questions that have not been adequately answered so far. For example, Daszewski thought of interpreting the prismatic graves as burial sites for unloved relatives, or as a reference to impoverished families who had originally planned to build more monumental graves. Another possibility would be the ethnic diversity that was evident in the Egyptian Mediterranean region at the time. In the late period there were often Egyptized Hellenes who adapted to the customs of the country. There are also references to Jewish settlements on Elephantine as early as Pharaonic times .

bibliography

  • Wiktor A. Daszewski: Marina 1990. In: Polish Archeology in the Mediterranean. 2, Warsaw 1991.
  • Wiktor A. Daszewski: Marina 1991. In: Polish Archeology in the Mediterranean. 3, Warsaw 1992.
  • Wiktor A. Daszewski: Marina 1992. In: Polish Archeology in the Mediterranean. 4, Warsaw 1993.
  • Wiktor A. Daszewski: Marina 1993. In: Polish Archeology in the Mediterranean. 5, Warsaw 1994.
  • Wiktor A. Daszewski: Marina 1994. In: Polish Archeology in the Mediterranean. 6, Warsaw 1995.
  • Wiktor A. Daszewski: Marina 1995. In: Polish Archeology in the Mediterranean. 7, Warsaw 1996.
  • Wiktor A. Daszewski: Marina 1996. In: Polish Archeology in the Mediterranean. 8, Warsaw 1997.
  • Wiktor A. Daszewski: Marina 1997. In: Polish Archeology in the Mediterranean. 9, Warsaw 1998.
  • Wiktor A. Daszewski: Marina. A newly discovered Greco-Roman city on the north coast of Egypt. In: Nürnberger Blätter zur Archäologie 5, 1988–89, pp. 34–38.
  • Wiktor A. Daszewski: Marina el-Alamein 1988. In: Raporty wykopaliskowe. 1, 1988-1989
  • Wiktor A. Daszewski: Excavations at Marina el-Alamein, 1987–1988. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. No. 46, Wiesbaden 1990.
  • Wiktor A. Daszewski: A la recherche d'une Egypt peu connue. Travaux sur la côte north-east, à Marina el-Alamein. In: Comptes rendus des séances Académie des inscriptions. 1993.
  • Wiktor A. Daszewski: Mummy portraits from northern Egypt. The necropolis in Marina el-Alamein. In: Maurice L. Bierbrier (Ed.): Portraits and Masks. Burial Customs in Roman Egypt. London 1997.
  • Ali Hassan: el-Alamein, Marina. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 128-129.
  • Wiktor A. Daszewski: Marina el-Alamein. In: Seventy years of Polish archeology in Egypt. Warsaw 2007, pp. 145–158.
  • Rafał Czerner: The architectural decoration of Marina el-Alamein. Archaeopress, Oxford, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4073-0422-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Strabon , Geôgraphiká 17, 1, 14.
  2. ↑ See the plan: S. Medeksza et al .: Marina el-Alamein. In: Polish Archeology in the Mediterranean. No. 15, Warsaw 2003, p. 92.
  3. ^ WA Daszewski: Marina el-Alamein. In: Polish Archeology in the Mediterranean. No. 16, Warsaw 2005, pp. 86-92.
  4. ↑ Compare the plan in: WA Daszewski: Marina el-Alamein. In: Polish Archeology in the Mediterranean. No. 16, Warsaw 2005, p. 110 Fig. 2.
  5. ^ Wlodzimierz Bentkowski: The activities of the Polish-Egyptian Preservation Mission at Marina el-Alamein in 1988. In: Polish Archeology in the Mediterranean. No. 2, Warsaw 1991, pp. 40-43.
  6. ^ W. Bentkowski: The activities of the Polish-Egyptian Preservation Mission at Marina el-Alamein in 1988. In: Polish Archeology in the Mediterranean. No. 2, Warsaw 1991, pp. 40-43.
  7. ^ W. Bentkowski: The activities of the Polish-Egyptian Preservation Mission at Marina el-Alamein in 1988. In: Polish Archeology in the Mediterranean. No. 2, Warsaw 1991, pp. 40-43.
  8. ^ Wiktor A. Daszewski: Excavations at Marina el-Alamein, 1987–1988. In: MDAIK No. 46 , Wiesbaden 1990, plate 15 h.
  9. ^ Wiktor A. Daszewski: Excavations at Marina el-Alamein, 1987–1988. In: MDAIK No. 46 , Wiesbaden 1990, panel 16 a, b.

Web links

Coordinates: 30 ° 51 '22.5 "  N , 28 ° 55' 1.1"  E