Changing Life in Egyptian Alexandria: The Testimony of the Islamic Cemetery on Kom el-Dikka

The volume is a study of a massive set of funerary data from an

important site in a city in Egypt, Alexandria, that remains

comparatively little known archaeologically for the Islamic period. More

than 60 years of research at the cemetery on Kom el-Dikka, carried out

by a couple of generations of Polish researchers, have resulted in the

exploration of up to 1000 graves, yielding more than 2500 skeletons for

anthropological examination.
The bioarchaeological data have been

analyzed comprehensively in search of evidence for the quality of life

in Alexandria between the 9th and 12th centuries. The changing living

conditions of the local population, observed over some 400 years, are

discussed in the context of historical and archaeological evidence,

supplying a useful frame for putting into perspective the results, minor

and major, of the osteological study. The author also addresses the

controversial issue of the phasing of the cemetery, delivering a

conclusive argument for distinguishing just two phases of burial at Kom

el-Dikka in the Islamic period.