Conservation of a commemmorative monument to the Emperor Commodus in House H21c in Marina el-Alamein

Abstract

Current maintenance conservation work by the Polish–Egyptian Conservation Mission in Marina el-Alamein occasions a revisiting of the history of the archaeological discovery, interpretation and original conservation and anastylosis of a commemorative monument dedicated to the Roman Emperor Marcus Antoninus Commodus. The monument, a rectangular masonry structure with colonnaded front, was built inside a presumed dining or reception hall of building H21c near the harbor of the ancient Graeco-Roman town. The original project took place between 2000 and 2007 (Czerner and Medeksza 2010). Maintenance conservation after a decade created the opportunity for a more in-depth analysis of the dimensions of the monument and the individual architectural elements of which it was composed.