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Al-Ahram Weekly 29 July - 4 August 1999 Issue No. 440 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 29 July - 4 August 1999 Issue No. 440
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Grounds for burial
By Hala Halim
ON THE ALTAR OF PROGRESS: The fate of the Alexandria Necropolis, or city of the dead, could be in the balance. Ironically, the flyover that inadvertently led to the discovery of this spectacular site could ultimately be responsible for its destruction, if pleas to change the bridge's original design are not heeded
Eros frolicking with dolphins on a painted ceiling, Saint Menas pilgrim flasks, Tanagra statuettes -- these are some of the more "spectacular" finds yielded by a French-Egyptian excavation of part of ancient Alexandria's city of the dead. The salvage excavation was begun in 1997 when the construction of an access ramp for a fly-over linking Alexandria's Western Harbour with the Desert Road exposed the site. Since then, the archaeologists have unearthed what is arguably far more significant than any specific artifact: an architecturally complex site, a deeper understanding of funerary practices in antiquity, and invaluable insights into the social and cultural history of ancient Alexandria.
Situated to the West of Alexandria in the Qabbari quarter, the tomb complex is part of the Necropolis, literally city of the dead, described by Strabo. Visiting the city some 25 years before the birth of Christ, Strabo spoke of "the suburb Necropolis, in which there are many gardens and graves and halting-places fitted up for the embalming of corpses..." The site is some 200m long and 30m wide. Albeit a mere segment of the Necropolis, it has revealed about 45 collective tombs, slotted side by side, each composed of at least 250 loculi or burial niches, explains antiquities inspector Youssri El-Girgawi. According to Jean-Yves Empereur of the Centre d'Etudes Alexandrines (CEA), who heads the excavation, the earliest findings date back to approximately 250 BC and the latest to the seventh century AD.
Initially, the archaeologists had conjectured that this particular portion of the Necropolis was used by Greeks: inscriptions like "Worthy Dionysia, go with God" and oil lamps adorned with motifs from Greek mythology, such as Aphrodite and Eros, among other things, bore out this hypothesis. More importantly, as Empereur explains, the practice of cremation -- evidenced here in the many urns containing ashes of the dead -- betonkened Greek burial customs, for "this process was taboo for the Egyptians as it would be later for the Christians. The recent discovery of the mummies in the site -- remarkable in view of Alexandria's humidity -- indicates that at least some of the deceased were either Egyptians or Greeks who had "gone native".
Indeed, a form of cultural hybridity was evident in the cremation practices. Two French anthropologists who specialise in cremation, Gilles Grevin and Paul Bailet, have been studying the contents of cremation urns in an attempt to estimate the age of the deceased, their sex and the diseases from which they suffered. To their amazement, the anthropologists found the ashes arranged either from head to feet or vice versa. This "anatomical respect for the body", as they put it, is so far unparalleled anywhere else in the ancient world.
The ceiling of the tomb complex, adorned with an Eros and dolphin motif, goes back to the second century BC, according to Empereur, and thus predates the same motif's appearance in Pompeii in the first century after Christ. Crosses and Christian symbols painted on the loculi slabs indicated to the archaeologists that Alexandria's Necropolis, like Rome's catacombs, was used as a hide-out by Christians fleeing Pagan persecution. The division of the collective tombs, inscriptions specifying ownership and lines marking out shapes of loculi yet to be dug out of the rock bespeak "an elaborate architectural programme... and suggest an organisation of the space clearly distributed amongst the various undertakers", comments Empereur. "To my knowledge, this is the first time that such a funerary organisation has appeared in the Greek world."
The future of the Necropolis site, with its tremendous potential as a tourist attraction, is far from certain, however. The construction of the access ramp of the flyover following the original design would require the pitching of about 132 support columns in the 200m that make up the length of the site. Some months ago, an international committee composed of members of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), UNESCO consultants and engineers, and representatives of the CEA and Alexandria University's Faculty of Engineering met to discuss the future of the site. The committee unanimously recommended the preservation of the site, the alteration of the course of the ramp as well as the asymmetrical distribution of the supports to spare portions of the tombs.
Mustafa El-Abbadi, a world authority on ancient Alexandria and a member of the SCA's permanent committee, remarks sadly that "the UNESCO engineers had suggested alternative columns, but the contractors said these would be inadequate to support the weight of heavy trucks carrying cargo [to and from the harbour]. So the ramp will be altered somewhat, but the supports will be constructed, and yes, the site is likely to be damaged. But in return, by agreement between the SCA and Alexandria governorate, the shantytown to the east of the site [under which the Necropolis extends] will be cleared for excavation."
Secretary-General of the SCA Gaballah Ali Gaballah, for his part, invokes the UNESCO recommendations and speaks of the site being spared by the use of alternative columns. Asked whether parts of the site will not be sacrificed nevertheless, Gaballah interjects: "Please, do not use the word 'sacrifice' -- we do not sacrifice archaeological sites."
The contractors undertaking the construction of the flyover were unavailable for comment. The archaeologists' excavation permit will expire at the end of February 2000.
