DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.47598#0111
windows seems to have not been in use since the conversion of the upper part into the mosque.
Plan shown here (plan II) concerns this (ground) level of the edifice. The spatial lay-out shows
a row of long vaulted rooms and the corridors on both sides. It is not excluded that the original
floor of the building was much lower or there was an underground part of the building, because
on the walls the position of arches of windows or doorways can be observed lower than the
present level of the floor. The original entrance to the ground floor of the building was not yet
located. This part was not yet excavated by the Expedition. The excavations comprised only the
main staircase (plan III).
After the campaign of ‘71 when the arched doorway below the second flight of steps was located, it
had been suggested that the entrance to the yet not accessible part of the building led from the
staircase down to the underground floor8. This hypothesis, as appears now, was completely wrong,
the mentioned doorway gave access only to the elongated room used later as a depository of
rubbish, and has been walled up in the time when the latest layer of plaster was applied
throughout the whole staircase and the mosque proper (15th—16th century?). So the main, still
existing entrance to the building from the southwestern side never gave access to the ground and
underground floors and leads only through the staircase to the upper storey of the building. The
representative function of the staircase, which, as it seems, was built so great to impress the
entering people, found further confirmation in the fact that its interior was twice decorated with
mural paintings. The murals were long ago checked beneath the actual plaster in the main hall of
the upper storey9, now the remains of them also have been located on each landing’s walls of the
staircase. Colours of the latest Christian layer of painted plaster are fairly well preserved. The
total uncovering of the murals was postponed to the next seasons of the fieldwork.
The excavations also embraced the hollow newel of the staircase (cf. plan III), which formed
a square shaft over ten metres deep, without any openings in the elevated part except of small
arched window at the foot of the shaft. No clue was still found as to the original destination of this
space and it is not excluded that the purpose was purely constructional. The whole shaft which was
excavated from the top (by the roof) layer by layer had been filled in with rubble and rubbish of all
sorts. This fill seems to be a result of the clearing of rooms of the edifice’s interior while the
rebuilding or subsequent renewals occurred. The finding in the lowest stratum of a fragment of a
1 o h wooden tablet with Quranic inscription seems to indicate Post-Christian period as the time
of filling up. On the other hand, among the mass of the pottery found in the fill no specimen of
distinctive Terminal Christian Ware were found. The material is mostly Classic with few samples
of Late Christian pottery.
Among the finds in this particular spot were fragments of two pages of parchment book in Old
Nubian. The text is to me still unclear, but it was not yet properly studied as the cleaning and the
conservation is not yet finished.
The excavations in the staircase brought first indication as to the dating of the building itself
(based on the pottery evidence)—the beginning of the Classic Christian Period. Underneath the
West corner of the staircase the remains of another earlier mud-brick structure were found
together with a mud floor. The pottery associated with this structure indicates that it had been built
in the Early Christian Period.
The main field of the excavations during the last three seasons was the site of the Cruciform
Building (or Cruciform Church) (fig. 8, plan see p. 55). When I was discussing the results of the
first trial-pits made on this site on 1969 two possibilities of the hypothetical plan of this church
were suggested10. Both were too modest. Now the unusually elaborate plan that red-brick building
provided, with columns of pink and grey granite, planned to form a Coptic cross, is nearly totally
8 Cf. J. Leclant, in: Orientalia, XLII (1973), p. 432.
9 S. Clarke, Christian Antiquities in the Nile Valley, Oxford 1912, p. 44; J. W. Crowfoot, Christian Nubia, JEA, XII
(1927), p. 144; U. Monneret de Villard, Nub. Med. I, Cairo 1935, p. 246-8; O. G. S. Grawford, The Fung Kingdom
of Sennar, Gloucester 1951, p. 35-6.
10 Jakobielski, in: Nubische Kunst, p. 175, fig. 13.
74
Plan shown here (plan II) concerns this (ground) level of the edifice. The spatial lay-out shows
a row of long vaulted rooms and the corridors on both sides. It is not excluded that the original
floor of the building was much lower or there was an underground part of the building, because
on the walls the position of arches of windows or doorways can be observed lower than the
present level of the floor. The original entrance to the ground floor of the building was not yet
located. This part was not yet excavated by the Expedition. The excavations comprised only the
main staircase (plan III).
After the campaign of ‘71 when the arched doorway below the second flight of steps was located, it
had been suggested that the entrance to the yet not accessible part of the building led from the
staircase down to the underground floor8. This hypothesis, as appears now, was completely wrong,
the mentioned doorway gave access only to the elongated room used later as a depository of
rubbish, and has been walled up in the time when the latest layer of plaster was applied
throughout the whole staircase and the mosque proper (15th—16th century?). So the main, still
existing entrance to the building from the southwestern side never gave access to the ground and
underground floors and leads only through the staircase to the upper storey of the building. The
representative function of the staircase, which, as it seems, was built so great to impress the
entering people, found further confirmation in the fact that its interior was twice decorated with
mural paintings. The murals were long ago checked beneath the actual plaster in the main hall of
the upper storey9, now the remains of them also have been located on each landing’s walls of the
staircase. Colours of the latest Christian layer of painted plaster are fairly well preserved. The
total uncovering of the murals was postponed to the next seasons of the fieldwork.
The excavations also embraced the hollow newel of the staircase (cf. plan III), which formed
a square shaft over ten metres deep, without any openings in the elevated part except of small
arched window at the foot of the shaft. No clue was still found as to the original destination of this
space and it is not excluded that the purpose was purely constructional. The whole shaft which was
excavated from the top (by the roof) layer by layer had been filled in with rubble and rubbish of all
sorts. This fill seems to be a result of the clearing of rooms of the edifice’s interior while the
rebuilding or subsequent renewals occurred. The finding in the lowest stratum of a fragment of a
1 o h wooden tablet with Quranic inscription seems to indicate Post-Christian period as the time
of filling up. On the other hand, among the mass of the pottery found in the fill no specimen of
distinctive Terminal Christian Ware were found. The material is mostly Classic with few samples
of Late Christian pottery.
Among the finds in this particular spot were fragments of two pages of parchment book in Old
Nubian. The text is to me still unclear, but it was not yet properly studied as the cleaning and the
conservation is not yet finished.
The excavations in the staircase brought first indication as to the dating of the building itself
(based on the pottery evidence)—the beginning of the Classic Christian Period. Underneath the
West corner of the staircase the remains of another earlier mud-brick structure were found
together with a mud floor. The pottery associated with this structure indicates that it had been built
in the Early Christian Period.
The main field of the excavations during the last three seasons was the site of the Cruciform
Building (or Cruciform Church) (fig. 8, plan see p. 55). When I was discussing the results of the
first trial-pits made on this site on 1969 two possibilities of the hypothetical plan of this church
were suggested10. Both were too modest. Now the unusually elaborate plan that red-brick building
provided, with columns of pink and grey granite, planned to form a Coptic cross, is nearly totally
8 Cf. J. Leclant, in: Orientalia, XLII (1973), p. 432.
9 S. Clarke, Christian Antiquities in the Nile Valley, Oxford 1912, p. 44; J. W. Crowfoot, Christian Nubia, JEA, XII
(1927), p. 144; U. Monneret de Villard, Nub. Med. I, Cairo 1935, p. 246-8; O. G. S. Grawford, The Fung Kingdom
of Sennar, Gloucester 1951, p. 35-6.
10 Jakobielski, in: Nubische Kunst, p. 175, fig. 13.
74