The early 1980s were an important pause in the history of the Polish Centre. In 1986, excavations started in Naqlun in Fayoum Oasis and in Dakhla Oasis in the Western Desert. Marina Al-Alamein on the Mediterranean coast was another ancient town to be protected from the bulldozers of building contractors. Polish teams carried out several seasons of excavation and restoration there to uncover the extensive ruins of the ancient town of Leucaspis, and a site management project is now underway so the site can be opened to the public.
Szafrañski says the SCA is turning the focus of its scholarly interest to the threatened sites of the Nile Delta and Sinai, and their appeal has raised a response from the PCMA. In 1993 the centre undertook the documentation of a Roman theatre in Pelusium (Tel Al-Farama). In 2003, a Polish-Egyptian mission began work on the site. The main objective of the work in this famous town, which was destroyed by time and recent military conflict in the region, was the protection of the theatre. Probes dug on the site resulted in the unexpected discovery of a Late Roman mosaic which, after conservation, can now be seen on display in the museum in Al-Arish on the north Sinai coast.
The last few seasons of the mission's field work have been spent at Tel Al-Farkha in the eastern Delta. The site is of particular importance for research on pre-dynastic and early dynastic Egypt in the second half of the fourth millennium BC. The discoveries have demonstrated the position of the Delta in relation to Sinai, Palestine and Upper Egypt, and its role in the emergence of the powerful dynastic state at the dawn of Egyptian history.
See the above page for the full story, which offers a real insight into the type of archaeological work carried out in Egypt, past and present.
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