Roman castrum of Narmouthis - update

Archaeogate Egittologia

Thanks again to Pierfranco Dotti for pointing me to another English-language article on the Italian archaelogy website Archaeogate, which has an Egyptology section. There is an update about the site of Narmouthis dating to November 2007, but not previously listed here.

The archaeological Mission of the Pisa University - with Prof. Rosary Pintaudi, Messina University has effected a mission during the month of November 2007, in the archaeological concession of the Pisa University at Medinet Madi in Fayum, in continuation with that of April 2007.

Inside the fortress has been continued the exploration in the lodgings of the soldiers, in the South half of the camp and the West-North area. The long wall, is confirmed as the raised base or bema; on the axle of the door North, existed the "Chapel" for the imperial cult, flanked by two rooms; the colonnade that departed from the door North (on the model of Kasr Qarun) arrived near the long wall, and the raised zone of bema was reached by 4-5 steps.

Outside of the castrum, in the north zone, has been discovered a "forno", maybe industrial maybe for alimentary aims.

In April 2007 had been discovered inside the castrum a complex hydraulic system and till now without parallel, certainly worthy example of the hydraulic engineering of the Romans, a square cistern (side: m. 3,35) inside the castrum cut in the rock, and entirely covered by a vault in fired bricks.

See the above site, with a site plan and photographs, for more details.