Catacombs offer insight into ancient Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, Cairo (DPA) - Archaeologist Jean-Yves Empereur

compares his latest discovery to a Swiss cheese: a complex of

catacombs cut into rock near the Egyptian city of Alexandria.

The underground passages are part of a city of the dead constructed in the

city's Hellenistic period and long forgotten until it recently came to light.

Empereur, best known for his underwater research, swapped his wet-suit for a

hammer and chisel to find out more.

"These tombs are of enormous significance to the world's cultural heritage,"

the Frenchman said.

Engineers extending a superhighway from Cairo to Alexandria's western docks

stumbled on the ghostly tunnels three years ago, finding stairs leading into a

seven-storey necropolis containing around 200 loculi, as the Hellenes of

Alexandria called the niches where they placed the sarcophaguses of their

dead.

The passageways had been chiseled as far as 40 meters into the rock.

The cemetery in which the catacombs are located is mentioned by the ancient

Greek geographer Strabo, who lived from 64/63 BC until after 23 AD

On a visit to Alexandria in 25 BC, he described it thus: "The city of the dead is

full of flourishing gardens among the countless tombs." As recently as 1831, a

member of the Academie Francaise, Michaud, toured the cemetery,

describing a maze of twisting alleys.

"Suddenly here and there one comes on a wide, open space flanked by pillars

and domes. There are also countless graves chiseled into the rock and

containing stone sarcophaguses," he wrote.

Then came the bombardment of a couple of wars and urban sprawl, and the

site disappeared under a sea of modern buildings.

Empereur, 47, who gained worldwide attention when he discovered remains of

the foundations of the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria at the bottom of the

harbor, is convinced the necropolis goes back nearly to Alexandria's

foundation by Alexander the Great in 331 BC.

"If it is not from the first generation, then it is definitely from the second," he

insists, basing his argument on grave gods characteristic of the Ptolemaic era

that ran from 323 to 30 BC.

Among them is a plaster head of Medusa, the Greek goddess who had

serpents for hair and face so ugly that it turned all who looked on her to stone.

It was evidently left to frighten off grave robbers.

Other rare finds date from the subsequent Roman period. Some are decorated

with figures from Greek mythology such as Eros, the god of love, or Thanatos,

the god of death.

The names of the dead are engraved on the pediments - the triangular gables

over each tomb - often with expressions of devotion, such as "Dionysia, you

wonderful wife, farewell".

Empereur says the dead in the necropolis were middle-class Hellenes, well

able to pay tradesmen to provide luxuriant decoration.

The archaeologist has found well over 100 skeletons, which have been

preserved by their burial in stone, and wants to subject their DNA to genetic

analysis to reveal hitherto unknown details of Greek life.

Anthropologists can also tell from the skeletons whether the Greeks were

short or tall or died young or in old age, whether their teeth had caries,

whether they ever had measles and even whether any had had their appendix

out.

According to Strabo's account, Alexandria was unique in its beauty, vastness,

prosperity and luxury. Following its foundation it quickly developed into a

major political, economic and intellectual center of the ancient world.

Its officials kept on papyrus detailed records of births and taxes paid.

Unfortunately none of the papyri have survived: the city's damp climate saw to

that.

By Empereur's estimate the city had a population of 400,000 at its peak, far

more than the imperial capital Rome.

Average life expectancy was only about 30 years, he believes, so undertakers

had plenty of business. To make optimal use of space underground they used

to reopen tombs, push the previous occupant to one side and bury the next

one.

The Empereur team has found one loculus with 10 skeletons in it.

Just outside the underground complex, stonemasons chiseled benches into

the rock for mourners to spread mattresses on during wakes or to sit on while

they ate during visits to the cemetery.

Empereur has so far excavated one fifth of the 200-metre expanse of tunnels

and is under a certain amount of time pressure. The superhighway will

eventually cross the site, and although no date for construction of this section

has been set, the site will change.

The highway authorities have agreed to build a low bridge over the excavated

graves so they can still be visited. Piles will have to be sunk to support the

bridge and it is hoped these will not damage other graves that have not yet

been excavated. Empereur finds little consolation in the engineers'

assurances, saying he is worried he will not have time for even a sketchy look

at the many other passages before the construction equipment arrives and he

has to move out.