Judith S. McKenzie

The architecture of Petra

This is an enormous and impressive book not only full of facts, but also solving mysteries. It provides a detailed and lavishly illustrated catalogue of the main monuments of Petra. Then, in seeking the origins of Petras particular architecture and its close relations with the architectural scenes on the walls of Pompeii, Judith McKenzie examines the rock cut tombs of Medain Saleh (Saudi Arabia) and then the little known architectural remains of Ptolemaic Alexandria. Here lies her solution, for the earliest of the Petra-style baroque architecture is in Alexandria from where it spread east to Petra and west to Pompeii and thus elsewhere in the Roman World. It is an impressive study with a significant and satisfying conclusion.

Reconstructing the Serapeum in Alexandria from the archaeological evidence

The Serapeum or Sarapeion, which contained the Temple of Serapis, was Alexandrias most important sanctuary, and one of the most famous pagan sanctuaries of antiquity. It was also the centre of a cult which spread widely across the Mediterranean in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Although the excavation of the Serapeum was completed half a century ago, the archaeological evidence for its form and phases has never been fully collected and analysed. When the records of the remains uncovered in c . 1900 are combined with those of the excavations during World War II, analysis of them reveals that there is sufficient evidence from which to suggest reliable reconstructions of both the Ptolemaic and Roman phases of the complex and to clarify its chronology. The archaeological evidence also elucidates the information in the written sources about the conversion of the site to Christian use after the destruction of the temple in A.D. 391. Previously unpublished architectural fragments excavated at the site in c . 1900 suggest that the architecture of the Ptolemaic sanctuary was ‘classical’ (Greek) not Egyptian in style (see Appendix).

Reconstruction of the Nabataean Temple Complex at Khirbet Et-tannur

The temple complex at lt~irbet etTannur) 70 km north if Petra in Jordan) is reconstructed in three dimensions on paper) incorporating revised elevations if thefafades if the altar plaiform in Periods II and III) and if the Inner Temenos Enclosure. These are based on a re-examination if the evidence in the Jordan Archaeological Museum and at the site itself, some if which was not included in thefinal publication if the I937 excavation by Nelson Glueck) Deities and Dolphins. Establishing the accurate reconstruction if the temple complex is essential bifore its function can validly be re-considered. The use if anthropomorphic representations if gods by the Nabataeans is also discussed) in the light if their locations in temple architecture. SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Figs 7c, 23a, and 24 are reproduced by permission of the Cincinnati Art Museum, and Fig. 5a by permission of the ASOR Nelson Glueck Archive, Semitic Museum, Harvard University. Fig. 25 is by Peake Pasha in Glueck I937c, fig. 5. Copyright for the remaining illustrations rests with McKenzie.

The Alexandrian Tychaion: a Pantheon?

The Tychaion of Alexandria, named for the city goddess of Fortune, is the only temple in the city other than the Serapeum for which a detailed description survives. Notably, it includes its sculptural programme.* The ekphrasis, in Greek, is by an unknown author, apparently writing in the late 4th or the 5th c. A.D. It is also of interest because the Tychaion adjoined the ‘Temenos of the Muses’ which can now probably be identified as the large educational complex at Kom el-Dikka excavated in the late-antique city centre (figs. 1-2).1 A reconstruction of the Serapeum, based on detailed re-examination of the archaeological evidence, has revealed that the descriptions of it by Aphthonius and Rufinus, written around the time of its destruction by Christians in 392, were more accurate than had been appreciated.2 They describe the Roman version which replaced the Ptolemaic one (of Ptolemy III Euergetes I, 246-221 B.C.) which burnt down in A.D. 181 and was re-built by 218 (with most of the work probably being done during the reign of Septimius Severus).3

A commercial nursery near Abu Hummus (Egypt) and re-use of amphoras for the trade in plants.

To date, much of the research on plants during the Roman era in Egypt has focused on foodstuffs from sites on its E coast. The Beheira Survey, conducted by M. Kenawi in 200811,2 is the first project to look at the Western Delta in detail.3 In documenting 63 sites, the work has created the first comprehensive archaeological maps, identifying several wine4 and olive-oil production centres, and broadening our knowledge of the local economy. This paper argues that a complex within the survey area near Abu Hummus, excavated by H. Riad in 1960, was a nursery. Other examples of nurseries that raised plants, to be transplanted into the gardens of houses, villas, estates and temples, will also be reviewed, as well as the types of vessels used for the propagation of plants in nurseries, and their transport.