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The Journal has served in its primary role of a platform for presenting the annual input of new archaeological data from Polish excavations in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East for the better part of 30 years. Nothing can stay what it is too long and the journal has also undergone an evolution and transformation in an effort to rise to new challenges while sustaining the best of a long-standing and successful tradition. This is about the changing face of the Journal, the newest of which readers now hold in their hands.

A review article collecting obscure publications and mentions of finds of lamps (made of clay and glass, some of stone and metal as well) and lighting accessories, like wicks, wick holders and lamp stands and holders (polycandela) scattered in reports and papers of the archaeological excavations carried out or under the auspices of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw, published in the past 60 years since the Centre’s founding in 1959. The article draws upon finds presented conjointly with reports from excavations, often including significant contextual information about the discoveries, which are still to see their final publication. This data is summarized in relevant cases, the author contributing, wherever possible, new insight and interpretations, citing new parallels and introducing occasional corrigenda.

Excavations by the American–Polish project in Berenike on the Red Sea, co-directed from 2008 by Steven E. Sidebotham (University of Delaware) and Iwona Zych (PCMA University of Warsaw), have aimed at uncovering and reconstructing the ancient landscape of the southwestern embayment, tentatively identified as the harbor of the Hellenistic and early Roman city, and its immediate vicinity. A review of the evidence from the excavation of several trenches in this area paints a picture of the bay—still incomplete—and contributes to a reconstruction of the cultural and economic landscape, the "lived experience" of the town's inhabitants and incoming merchants and sailors during the heyday of "Imperial" Berenike, that is, in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.

The report brings a comprehensive summary of archaeological fieldwork and survey carried out in Berenike on the Red Sea coast of Egypt and in the Eastern Desert hinterland over the course of two seasons in 2014 and 2015. The completed magnetic map of the site is discussed in some detail, assessing the potential for future excavations. The report covers the most important discoveries of the two seasons, which include fragments of Middle Kingdom Pharaonic stelae, possibly pushing back the foundation of the harbor, archaeological evidence of a rock-cut watercollection system forming part of the Hellenistic-age fortifications and two inscribed stone bases, one of which records a secretary of an aromatics warehouse at Berenike, discovered undisturbed in the courtyard of the Great Temple of Berenike (also called the Serapis Temple). A previously unknown religious(?) complex was discovered on the western outskirts of the site thanks to work with Corona satellite imagery. In turn, analysis of the magnetic mapping of the city revealed an administrative(?) complex in the northern part of the town; the later, 5th and 6th century layers were examined inside a chamber with niche forming part of this complex. Work also continued in the early Roman harbor, uncovering among others a complete timber ship frame, and a collection of garnets in subsidiary buildings in the late Roman temenos located in the entrance to the southwestern bay.

Brief overview of two seasons of archaeological survey and excavation carried out in 2012 and 2013 at the site of Berenike on the Red Sea coast and in two sub-projects in the Eastern Desert: the prehistoric cattle cemetery at Wadi Khashab and the Roman-era emerald mines at Sikait and Nugrus. Highpoints of the work at Berenike included discovery of the Hellenistic fort and fortifications that mark the original settlement of the site in the third quarter of the 3rd century BC, continued clearance of harbor-related structures in the southwestern bay interpreted as the early Roman harbor of Berenike and the uncovering of an earlier phase of the late Roman harbor temple (so-called Lotus Temple) of the 5th–6th century AD in the harbor.

A portrait of Professor Wiktor Andrzej Daszewski (who died on 17 January 2021), his life achievement and scientific output, presented to the jubilarian on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Daszewski directed the Polish excavations at Nea Paphos in Cyprus from 2006, continuing his studies there even when retired, discovered and excavated for 20 years the Graeco-Roman harbor site at Marina el-Alamein on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, and published a number of books on the mosaic art. He acted as Director of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw from 1980 to 1989, and contributed to saving and restoring the archaeological heritage of Carthage under the UNESCO umbrella.

The results of a 1998 and 1999 geophysical survey conducted at the site of Marina el-Alamein, using two methods, magnetic prospection and ground-penetrating radar surveying, are discussed in the paper. Herbich and van der Osten-Woldenburg also assess the feasibility of the two methods in the specific geological (limestone bedrock and beach sand) and environmental (high ground salinity) of the site. The surveys were carried out in three different areas, chosen specifically to investigate: A – northern part of the necropolis; B – urban district among residential remains in the northern part, close to the harbor; and C – urban area on the eastern fringes of the city. The GPR method was found to be the most effective in this particular kind of setting, especially with regard to locating subterranean features like burial chambers. The magnetic method was more useful in the urban areas where higher magnetic susceptibility resulted in streets being mapped and archaeological units being traced in outline. Zych contributed a discussion of the results of archaeological truthing of the geophysical findings, including an unfinished tomb S26 and a few hypogea that were located and excavated thanks to information from the geophysical prospection.

The purpose of the article is to examine the surprisingly extensive and varied evidence of Cretan finds in the archaeological record of the PCMA UW excavations at the site of the ancient Graeco-Roman harbor in Marina el-Alamein on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt and to propose an interpretation going beyond the usual and obvious, for this period and place, trade exchange. The evidence includes pottery, mainly amphorae, a numerous group of so-called Cretan or Ivy-leaf terracotta oil lamps, a tentative Cretan-sourced custom of using gold plaques with Orphic symbolism placed into the mouths of initiates in preparation for burial, as well as a female name in Doric Greek carved on one of the pillar tombs, which could have belonged to a woman of Cretan origin. The distribution of the Cretan amphora in Egypt, as reviewed by Majcherek, merits attention in the light of what it says about consumers and their individual and collective preferences. In turn, the Cretan lamps, which are otherwise not found in Egypt and the bulk of which were found as grave goods in burials, were most probably valued possessions of a specific group, a mark of cultural belonging, a memento of home, perhaps even a religious attribute. The finds from Marina el-Alamein must be considered in the context of Crete's bilateral relations with Egypt—political, cultural and commercial—and the integration of Crete in the pan-Mediterranean economic system of Roman times. The conclusion is that the assemblage in question rests well within the frame of this overall picture of mutual contacts, but one could go further and propose to view the finds as proof of tentative Cretan colony, whether mercenaries/veterans with their families or merchants and their agents.