Two “Horned” Altars from the El Darazya Site at Marina el-Alamein in Egypt

Rafał Czerner

doi:10.37190/arc230402

Abstract

Relics of two portable “horned” altars made of limestone were found during the first season of research and conservation work, which began in autumn 2021 at the El Darazya – Marina el-Alamein site. The remains of a Hellenistic-Roman period town preserved here are located on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt 100 km west of Alexandria. The well-known ruins of an ancient town at the Marina el-Alamein archaeological site are 4 km east of the place. Many similarities in architectural solutions and the common construction technique indicate the co-existence of the two settlements in one historical period. Similar material culture relics and archaeological objects can confirm their functioning in the same civilisational setting and within the range of the same influences. One of these is altars, which attest to forms of worship on the one hand and artistic traditions on the other. The latter, while also remaining a reflection, on a smaller scale, of the forms of architectural decoration of the buildings, make it possible to look at them analytically as well. The conclusions presented in this article are the result of the author’s own field research at the El Darazya site.

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2024

1(77)

Rafał Czerner*

Two “Horned” Altars from the El Darazya Site

at Marina el-Alamein in Egypt

Introduction

The large, almost building-sized altars are referred to

as “horned” as well as small, portable ones, whose corners

are built up with protrusions of various shapes, but most

often and most simply in the form of a tetrahedron. So,

they look like a pointed merlon. In principle, the term re-

fers to square altars with corners and four horns. However,

some altars of a dierent shape – e.g., round – were also

crowned with similar horns. This is shown, for example,

by iconographic representations from niches in the cham-

ber of the main tomb of the catacombs of Kom el-Shoqa-

fa in Alexandria [1, Fig. 153], [2, Figs. 2.23, 2.25, 2.26,

2.28], [3, Figs. 57, 60–62].

The actual term “horned”, which has become wide-

ly used, is ambiguous or even inappropriate. It is vague

and imprecisely describes a form of great variety, while

at the same time pretending to interpret this shape with

over-precision [4, p. 317]. It would seem to be more ap-

DOI: 10.37190/arc240102

Published in open access. CC BY NC ND license

propriate to refer to these altars as “with acroterions”, as

this may indeed have been their supposed function [4,

pp. 318–326]. This association is all the more justied

if the decoration of the altars refers to architecture. This

is the case with Hellenistic and Roman altars, including

ones of small dimensions, and we will deal with such

examples here.

“Horned” altars are noted to have been present over

a long period of time. Examples may be found in ancient

Egypt, from where their lineage was until recently derived

based on the observation that the oldest specimens were

discovered there [5, pp. 69–70]. However, current scien-

tic opinion generally sees their origin as Eastern or Sy-

ro-Palestinian [6, p. 19], [7, p. 81], [8, p. 40]. Altars of this

type were used in various periods throughout a vast geo-

graphical area: primarily in the Semitic East, Egypt and

nally in the entire Hellenistic-Roman world [4, p. 317].

Therefore, this motif was widespread over a broad area as

well as in various and sometimes distant civilisations. We

are primarily interested in Hellenistic-Roman times and

areas, after the revival of the form from the East, which

probably occurred via the Persians and Greeks.

* ORCID: 0000-0002-7567-4902. Faculty of Architecture,

Wro cław University of Science and Technology, Poland, e-mail:

rafal.czerner@pwr.edu.pl

Abstract

Relics of two portable “horned” altars made of limestone were found during the first season of research and conservation work, which began in

autumn 2021 at the El Darazya – Marina el-Alamein site. The remains of a Hellenistic-Roman period town preserved here are located on the

Mediterranean coast of Egypt 100 km west of Alexandria. The well-known ruins of an ancient town at the Marina el-Alamein archaeological site are

4 km east of the place. Many similarities in architectural solutions and the common construction technique indicate the co-existence of the two settle-

ments in one historical period. Similar material culture relics and archaeological objects can confirm their functioning in the same civilisational setting

and within the range of the same influences. One of these is altars, which attest to forms of worship on the one hand and artistic traditions on the other.

The latter, while also remaining a reflection, on a smaller scale, of the forms of architectural decoration of the buildings, make it possible to look at

them analytically as well. The conclusions presented in this article are the result of the author’s own field research at the El Darazya site.

Key words: “horned” altar, Hellenistic-Roman Egypt, Marina el-Alamein, domestic cult, architectural decoration

1(77)/2024

Two “Horned” Altars from the El Darazya Site 13

The altars could have a libation function [9, pp. 3–5],

especially the small portable ones, or were perhaps

used in religious ceremonies, be it public, domestic [10,

p. 386] or funerary. Altars practically identical in form

were found in the burial chambers of the hypogea and in

the residential space. They were used to burn sacricial

food or as incense burners. The small portable ones were

primarily for the latter purpose. In the domestic sphere,

they could also have been used as “lamp-shrines” (models

which hold lamps for ritual purposes) [9, p. 10]. It is also

believed that the act of burning incense could still have

been symbolically associated with the holocaust, as attest-

ed to in Egyptian texts and in Syro-Palestinian context [4,

pp. 328–329, n. 4], as well as the symbolic annihilation of

the enemies of the gods [9, pp. 3–4], [11, pp. 340–341].

The relics of the two portable altars referred to in the

title were found during research and conservation work

carried out at the El Darazya site in Marina el-Alamein

which contains the architectural remains of a city from the

Hellenistic-Roman period and is located on the Mediter-

ranean coast of Egypt 100 km west of Alexandria (Fig. 1).

Attempts to identify the place with a historical name have

indicated a possible connection with Derrhis, mentioned

in ancient descriptions of this section of the coast [13].

4 km east of this place, there are well-described ruins of

another ancient city, functioning from the 2

century BC

to the 5

century AD, at a site known today as Marina.

Numerous architectural similarities conrmed by re-

search carried out at both sites, in particular the same con-

struction techniques, as well as building types indicate the

contemporary existence of both neighbouring settlements

at one time in the past. They are conrmed to have ex-

The Polish-Egyptian Conservation Mission operating here is

organised by Wrocław University of Science and Technology and the

Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities at the Ministry of Tourism and

Antiquities, in cooperation with the Jagiellonian University and the In-

terAcademy Institute of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art.

isted in the same civilisational circle and under the same

inuences, primarily from Alexandria and related to the

location on the sea and land trade routes, by details such

as architectural decoration and objects. Sorting out these

interdependencies and determining similarities, and there-

by detailing what we know about the ancient settlement

from the El Darazya site, is the main research goal of this

study. Altars, including of the portable “horned” variety,

in particular the two described, are among the objects

mentioned and may be of exceptional importance. By

their nature, as evidenced by other examples, they reect

the forms of architectural decoration on a smaller scale

and also enable research into its origin and nature.

State of research

Waldemar Déonna’s work from 1934 [10] consti-

tutes the basis for studies on “horned” altars. The author

starts with descriptions of altars from Delos, as this was

the site of his research, but he consequently conducted

comparative studies, juxtaposed and analysed all the ele-

ments of the altars suitable for such a comparison. More

or less cross-sectional studies by Jan Quaegebeur from

1993 [11] and Jana Helmbold-Doyé from 2010 on Tuna

el-Gebel [14, pp. 133–148] supplement them. Cross-sec-

tional analyses are also included in a study by Georges

Soukiassian from 1983 [4]. Renate Rosenthal-Heginbot-

tom wrote about Roman “horned” altars in 2008 [15].

David A. Falk, in his work from 2016, addresses the im-

portance of such altars [5]. He relates the work to Egypt

and the East. The following authors wrote about Egyp-

tian altars: Rozalia Tybulewicz on those from Tell Atrib

in 2015 [16], Ross Thomas and Aurélia Masson on those

from Naukratis in 2018 [8], and Marie-Dominique Nenna

on Hellenistic-Roman Alexandrian altars in 2018 [17].

Research and studies of the El Darazya site have only

just been undertaken. In addition to several works in

preparation by the members of the Mission, one study

Fig. 1. The location of the Darazya site in the eastern Mediterranean (drawing by R. Czerner based on [12])

Il. 1. Lokalizacja stanowiska Darazya we wschodnim Śródziemnomorzu (rys. R. Czerner na podstawie [12])

14 Rafał Czerner

on the site and its architecture by Grażyna Bąkowska-

Czerner and the current author was published in 2023

[13]. In turn, in the thirty-eight years since the discovery

of the relics of the ancient city in Marina el-Alamein, and

the twenty-eight years of the conservation mission’s work

there, the site, its architecture and archaeological objects

have been described and studied extensively. Collective

and summary studies related to the discovery have been

presented by Wiktor A. Daszewski [18], [19], Stanisław

Medeksza [20] and the current author together with

G. Bąkowska-Czerner [21]. Annual reports on the work

of the archaeological and conservation mission in Ma-

rina el-Alamein have been published since 1985 in

“Polish Archeology in the Mediterranean”. The follow-

ing authors have written about the altars from Marina:

W.A. Daszewski [18, p. 25, Fig. 17], [22, p. 55], I. Zych

[23, pp. 624–625, Figs 3–5], S. Medeksza [24, p. 75] and

G. Bąkowska-Czerner [25, p. 144].

Research

Studies on two portable altars were carried out after

their discovery during the rst season of eld work run

by the Polish-Egyptian Conservation Mission El Dara-

zya – Marina el-Alamein in September 2021. The pre-

sented studies are therefore basic. Relic analysis and

comparative studies were chosen as research methods.

The comparisons mainly involved artefacts from the

neighbouring site of Marina and other sites pertaining

to Hellenistic-Roman Egypt. The presented conclusions

are the result of the author’s own eld research. He par-

ticipated in it between 1996–2018, co-led the Marina

el-Alamein Conservation Mission and leads the mission

in El Darazya.

The portable altars from El Darazya are a surface nd.

Their context is then limited to the probability that they

come from a residential area. They are therefore associat-

Fig. 2. Relic of portable altar 1 from the Darazya site

(photos by R. Czerner)

Il. 2. Relikt przenośnego ołtarzyka nr 1 ze stanowiska Darazya

(fot. R. Czerner)

Fig. 3. Relic of portable altar 1 from the Darazya site

(drawing by R. Czerner)

Il. 3. Relikt przenośnego ołtarzyka nr 1 ze stanowiska Darazya

(rys. R. Czerner)

Fig. 4. Relic of portable altar 2 from the Darazya site

(photo by R. Czerner)

Il. 4. Relikt przenośnego ołtarzyka nr 2 ze stanowiska Darazya

(photo by R. Czerner)

Fig. 5. Relic of portable altar 2 from the Darazya site

(drawing by R. Czerner)

Il. 5. Relikt przenośnego ołtarzyka nr 2 ze stanowiska Darazya

(rys. R. Czerner)

Two “Horned” Altars from the El Darazya Site 15

ed with a private, domestic cult. Both were carved from

local oolite limestone, the same from which the buildings

were made [26, p. 1179]. The altars have not survived in

their entirety, but the relics are so extensive that it is pos-

sible to reconstruct the form and dimensions.

The bulkier of the altars is carved from a prismatic

cube, square in plan, with a side length of 21.2 cm and

11 cm in height (Figs. 2, 3). The upper surface contains

a square recess for burning incenses, with a trapezoidal

cross-section; the side length at the top is 17.6 cm, 12 cm

the bottom is and 2.5 cm deep. The lower surface of the

cuboid altar is at and carefully levelled, while the side

ones are sculpted in the form of horns – larger and higher

corner merlons or acroterions and smaller ones in the mid-

dle of each wall. The corner (edge) horns are 8.5 cm long,

while the small middle ones are 4.2 cm. These were also

about 3.5 cm lower than the corner ones, which reached

almost the upper edge of the altar and were about 8.5 cm

high. The angle of inclination of the upper edges of the

large and small horns is the same. They are not separated

in any way, but their upper, lower and side edges are joint-

ly outlined by a slightly rounded band 0.8 cm wide marked

with a thin scratch. The lower part of the wall decoration

is like a base distinguished by an architectural half-round

prole 2 cm in height. It is the only one that is more artis-

tically carved, while the rest of the decoration is delicate,

at and schematic. A full height corner relic and more than

¼ of the original mass has been preserved. Thanks to this,

the middle of the wall decoration is known, as well as its

height, and it is possible to reconstruct the dimensions.

The second altar featured slightly more developed and

complex decoration, albeit generally representing the same

type of form (Figs 4, 5). It is poorly preserved, which

makes it dicult to determine the height, but it was also

forged from a square, but slightly smaller cube. The relic

in the plan is more than ¾ preserved. Its side length was

15 cm, with a height of 6.5–7 cm, preserved to a height

of 6 cm. The decoration of the walls, similar in character,

also began with an architectural prole at the bottom. It is

similar to a syma and is 1.2 cm high. The corner horns did

not reach the full height of the altar, but only reached up to

about 5.3 cm above the proled base, so they were lower

and attened. A slightly rounded band, 0.8–0.9 cm wide,

framed their upper and vertical side edges from the cen-

tre of the wall. Between two such horns there was a small

central one, 2.2 cm wide and 3.5 cm high, without a band

and only with a vertical line accentuating the centre. The

inclination of the upper edges of the horns was dierent; the

corner ones were gentle, while the central ones were steep.

Also this altar had a at bottom directly below the lower

prole. The form of the upper part and surface diered the

most. The depression of a re pit was round in shape here,

with a diameter almost equal to the width of the block, and

it sank spherically. Externally, it was described in the form

of a cylinder, spatially intertwined with horns-acroterions.

Indeed, this solution is known to have also been applied to

stone “horned” altars in other regions and is typical.

“Horned” altars with more or less similar forms have

been found at the Hellenistic-Roman site of Marina el-Al-

amein. One of the rst such surface nds, described in

1995 by W.A. Daszewski [18, p. 25, Fig. 17], with a Greek

inscription, has more elaborate architectural decoration.

Subsequent items present signicant similarities in the

form of the horns themselves, which are even more sche-

matic, or also in the characteristic thin straight band.

Two altars were discovered in 2000 by the conservation

mission in the area of residential house H10″E″ [24,

p. 75] (Fig. 6) and three of the hypogea T16, T19 (Fig. 7)

and T29 described by I. Zych [23, p. 624, Fig. 3] and

W.A. Daszewski [22, p. 55]. A portable altar found in

the hypogeum T29 chamber is identical in terms of horn

shape. It can be seen in a photograph taken in 2001 by A.B.

Biernacki through the hole in the ceiling of the chamber

before starting its exploration a year later (Fig. 8).

Two things distinguish the decoration of both altars

from El Darazya and similar ones from Marina el-Alam-

ein against a background of counterparts found elsewhere

– e.g., at Kom el-Shoukafa in Alexandria. Firstly, there are

no elements referring to the forms of decoration and ar-

chitecture of ancient Egypt [1, Abb. 181], [17, pp. 88, 89,

Fig. 6. Two portable altars found in the area of House H10″E″

in the Marina site (photos by R. Czerner)

Il. 6. Dwa przenośne ołtarze znalezione w przestrzeni Domu H10″E″

na stanowisku Marina (fot. R. Czerner)

Fig. 7. Two portable altars found in hypogea T16 and T19 in the

necropolis of the Marina site (photos courtesy of W.A. Daszewski)

Il. 7. Dwa przenośne ołtarze znalezione w hypogeach T16 i T19 na

nekropoli stanowiska Marina (fot.: dzięki uprzejmości W.A. Daszewskiego)

16 Rafał Czerner

Fig. 27], with the only exception being a sometimes

strongly simplied cavetto cornice. This may be related

to the ethnic origin of the city’s inhabitants from Marina

and similarly from the area of Darazya. Such reections

on how the nature of architecture, especially sepulchral

architecture, depended on the origin of groups of the Hel-

lenistic population of Alexandria were recently conducted

by Kyriakos Savvopoulos [27, pp. 107–111]. Following

his line of thought, the lack of elements relating to Egyp-

tian architectural forms would, of course, point to ethnic

Greeks rather than Hellenised Egyptians.

The second characteristic feature is the overarching

simplication and geometrisation, especially of the

horns-acroterions. It should be noted that specic ar-

chitectural decoration from the Hellenistic and Roman

times is of a similar nature [28], [29], the most distinc-

tive element being a simplied, geometrically stylised

capital, recently referred to as blocked-out. However,

the geometric simplication also applies to other ele-

ments of the decoration. These forms, known in connec-

tion with the rst discoveries as Nabataean, have recent-

ly been commonly associated with Alexandria and its

sphere of inuence. They are particularly prevalent at

the Marina site. These forms were so widely used there

that their discoverer, W.A. Daszewski, named the local

variant a “Marina-type”capital [19, p. 434]. Elements

of the same stylised decoration are also beginning to be

found in El Darazya. It seems to be a logical conclusion

that the uniquely geometrised “horned” altars from Ma-

rina and El Darazya should be associated with the same

artistic tendency.

Another feature distinguishes the portable “horned”

altars from El Darazya from both known examples from

Marina el-Alamein as well as others, in particular from

Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt. The dierence involves

the proportions, the height of the altar and the shape

of its base. Altars, either those in existence or known

from iconographic representations [1, Abb. 153], [2,

Figs. 2.23–2.28], [3, Figs. 56–62], [9, Fig. 1] are usually

proportionally high. Below the part with the re pit sur-

rounded by horns, separated by a cornice that supports

them, there is a high base in the form of a pedestal, a col-

umn, less often four corner columns or a miniature of

a kiosk. The altars from El Darazya, on the other hand,

do not have any higher base, and below the area with

the horns there is only a 0.012–0.02 m high cornice-pro-

le and below it the block ends, at and levelled from

the bottom (Fig. 9). The entire altar is therefore shaped

proportionally like a attened cube. This design, re-

gardless of its exceptional simplicity and dominance of

functionality, is unique and almost unknown from other

sites. In any case, there are hardly any known publi-

cations describing portable “horned” stone, ceramic

or miniature bronze altars. Neither do studies, to some

extent resembling catalogues, by G. Soukiassian and

W. Déonna [4], [10] mention cases of such an arrange-

ment. Only Seymour Gitin’s publication from 2002,

concerning the area of modern-day Israel, managed to

nd two altars with similarly attened proportions from

Tel Miqne-Ekrom, but much earlier – from the 7

cen-

tury BC [30, p. 103, Figs. 4.2, 4.7].

Summary

The results of the comparative methods applied have

conrmed what was initially known from analyses of

architectural relics and other archaeological objects,

namely that an ancient settlement from the El Daraz-

ya site in today’s Marina el-Alamein functioned in the

Hellenistic-Roman period and in the same sphere of in-

uence as the neighbouring town from the Marina site.

Fig. 9. Relic of portable altar 1 from the Darazya site.

Photo showing the lower surface (photo by P. Zambrzycki)

Il. 9. Relikt przenośnego ołtarzyka nr 1 ze stanowiska Darazya.

Zdjęcie ukazujące dolną powierzchnię (fot. P. Zambrzycki)

Fig. 8. The chamber of Hypogeum T29 from the necropolis

of the Marina site, as seen through a hole in the ceiling in 2001

before exploration began (photo by A.B. Biernacki)

Il. 8. Komora Hypogeum T29 z nekropoli stanowiska Marina,

widziana przez otwór w stropie w 2001 r.

przed rozpoczęciem eksploracji (fot. A.B. Biernacki)

Two “Horned” Altars from the El Darazya Site 17

These cultural, artistic and everyday inuences obvi-

ously came from Alexandria. The artistic forms have

been conrmed to be signicantly similar to objects

from Marina.

At the same time, the type of functional solution and

the shape of the portable altar from El Darazya – low

and without any base or pedestal – is acknowledged

as unique, and perhaps characteristic of this place. The

reason for using such a simplied and therefore inex-

pensive form could have been provinciality, though not

necessarily. It is possible that here we have some un-

preserved elsewhere, yet widespread, simple household

items. Finally, it is worth noting that these altars, while

rather small, were handy and entirely portable. Would

this have some connection with the presence of a har-

bour and boat transport?

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven from the 17

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the authorities of the

Wrocław University of Science and Technology and the

Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities at the Minis-

try of Tourism and Antiquities for establishing the Pol-

ish-Egyptian Conservation Mission El Darazya – Ma-

rina el-Alamein, where the studies presented here were

conducted. I would like to thank the institutions partic-

ipating in the work: the Jagiellonian University and the

InterAcademy Institute for the Conservation and Resto-

ration of Works of Art. I would like to thank my colleagues

from the El Darazya mission and earlier from the Marina

mission for their help, advice and cooperation. I wish to

express my special thanks to jubilarian Professor Jacek

Kościuk, who was the rst to introduce me to the world of

ancient and modern Egypt with his colourful stories.

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Streszczenie

Dwa ołtarze z „rogami” ze stanowiska El Darazya w Marina el-Alamein w Egipcie

Relikty dwóch wykonanych z wapienia przenośnych ołtarzyków z „rogami” odnaleziono podczas pierwszego sezonu prac badawczych i konser-

watorskich, które rozpoczęto jesienią 2021 roku na stanowisku El Darazya – Marina el-Alamein. Zachowane tu pozostałości miasta z okresu hel-

lenistyczno-rzymskiego położone są na śródziemnomorskim wybrzeżu Egiptu 100 km na zachód od Aleksandrii. Oddalone o 4 km na wschód od

tego miejsca znajdują się dobrze znane ruiny starożytnego miasta na stanowisku archeologicznym Marina el-Alamein. Wiele podobieństw rozwiązań

architektonicznych oraz taka sama technika budowlana wskazują współistnienie obu osad w jednym okresie historycznym. Ich funkcjonowanie

w tym samym kręgu cywilizacyjnym i zasięgu tych samych wpływów może być potwierdzone przez podobne relikty kultury materialnej i ruchome

obiekty archeologiczne. Jednymi z nich są ołtarze, które z jednej strony poświadczają formy kultu, z drugiej zaś tradycje artystyczne. Te drugie,

pozostając też odbiciem w mniejszej skali form dekoracji architektonicznej budynków, umożliwiają analityczne spojrzenie również na nie.

Przedstawione w artykule konkluzje są wynikiem własnych badań terenowych autora na stanowisku El Darazya.

Słowa kluczowe: ołtarz z „rogami”, hellenistyczno-rzymski Egipt, Marina el-Alamein, kult domowy, architektoniczna dekoracja