Alexandria: Kom el-Dikka (Egypt)
Dates of work: September 2008–June 2009
Team:
Director: Dr. Grzegorz Majcherek, archaeologist (PCMA)
SCA representative: Naglaa Mohammed Abbas, Khaled Ali Abu el-Hamed, Ihab Abdel Aziz Khater and Mohsen es-Sayegh Halafallah
Archaeologists: Karol Juchniewicz (PhD candidate, Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw), Emanuela Kulicka (freelance), Katarzyna Lach (PhD candidate, Jagiellonian University, Kraków), Urszula Wicenciak (PhD candidate, Center for Research on the Antiquity of Southeastern Europe, University of Warsaw), Łukasz Wojnarowicz (freelance), Iwona Zych (PCMA)
Epigraphist: Assoc. Prof. Adam Łukaszewicz (Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
Numismatist: Adam Jegliński (PCMA)
Anthropologist: Robert Mahler (PCMA)
Conservators: Szymon Gąsienica-Sieczka (freelance), Aleksandra Rowińska (State Archaeological Museum, Warsaw)
Architects: Grażyna Karpińska, Aureliusz Pisarzewski, Marta Sołtys (all freelance)
Documentalist: Ewa Czyżewska (PCMA)
Trainees: Basic field training for a group of eight junior SCA staff members throughout the season.
The report gives an overview of digging in the 2008/2009 season, concentrating on discoveries that have substantial bearing on studies of the urban setting of ancient Alexandria. Excavations were continued in the central area of the site where a large dump of urban refuse is under exploration, uncovering more remains of Early Roman houses with ornamental mosaic floors. Clearing yet another auditorium of Late Roman date brought the total number of halls up to 22, making for an extensive academic complex in the center of the ancient city and testifying to the unrivalled position of Alexandria in the intellectual life of Late Antiquity. The appendix contributes information on a rich set of broken wall plastering with painted decoration found discarded in the ruins of one of the auditoria. The conservation project was continued in different parts of the site: the bath complex, residential quarter and auditoria.
[Text: PAM]