Human remains from ‘Marea’/Philoxenite, Egypt, 2023

The principal burial ground of 'Marea'/Philoxenite was located to the south-east of the main urban core of the town.The burial area, serving as a type of 'necropolis hill' on the account of its elevated position on a natural rock hill, is located little over 50m to the south-east of the public baths.Burials were already noted there by el-Fakharani (1983:176-178) though his account includes just a short description, without plans or photographs.More extensive work was conducted some 20 years later by the Polish archaeological team, though these efforts focused not on graves as such, but rather on newly identified Late Antique family burial chapel (Babraj & Szymaska 2008:177-178).A more comprehensive architectural survey conducted in 2019 revealed that the hill included several other standing structures (possibly more burial chapels?) and was surrounded by a low rubblework wall that separated it from the rest of the town (Kutiak 2025:150).Thus, in the Byzantine period the hill must have formed an important topographical location, marked by religious architecture and visible from afar to visitors approaching Philoxenite from the mainland.The two rock cut tombs were opened in 2019 by Kacper Wasilewski (Sobczyska & Wasilewski 2021:183-185).Initially it was thought they might represent the oldest, pre-Christian structures preserved on the hill.This interpretation was based mainly on their architecture as both tombs were accessible via steps with open passageways (dromoi).This, however, is far from certain as similar tombs dating to the Byzantine period were excavated by el-Fakharani in the hinterland to the south of 'Marea'/Philoxenite (Solieman 2004:279-282).During the 2023 excavation season, research focused on human remains from Grave 2, which was partially excavated in 2021 and a part of the bone assemblage studied in 2022 (Sotysiak et al. 2025).During the present season, remaining bones from the 2021 season were described and measured and in parallel the excavation of this grave continued, with several layers of bone still left for future work.Therefore

Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Paleopathology and ancient diseases · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology