DOI Heft:
Sudan
DOI Artikel:Jakobielski, Stefan: Old Dongola: excavations, 1998
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41273#0149
OLD DONGOLA
SUDAN
paint or whitewash. The surface was cleaned
mechanically with special sponges and glass
fiber brushes, and chemically using
a Kremer product known as Marsillian soap.
For protection of the painted surface a 2.5
per cent solution of Movilith 50 in ethanol
was used. Altogether 39 sq. m of painted
surface were treated.
For the sake of protecting the excavated
rooms of the Annex, a roof covering 240
sq. m was built, supported on a structure
made of 13,000 new red-bricks in order to
attain the desired height with proper slop-
ing to the west {Fig. 9). The work com-
prised erecting square piers and full walls
on top of, respectively, the surviving inner
and outer walls. The full walls have win-
dows which are temporarily blocked and
which can be opened whenever required.
The roof was made using 98 pieces of 6 m
long steel pipes (diameter 1.5 in), making
up a total of 588 m, covered with a mat of
palm leaf ribs and dacron. On this, layers
of dung mixed with mud {zibala) were put.
Nine rectangular openings for lighting the
interior were introduced in the roof and
temporarily covered with mats of palm leaf
ribs and a layer of zibala as well. To protect
the only well preserved painting in room
20, which failed to be included under the
roofed area, a provisory screening structure
was made. The surface of the painting,
measuring 2 x 2.5 m, was protected with a
mat of palm leaf ribs fixed vertically
between two pilasters built against the
wall. The surface of the mat was covered
with a layer of mud and gum arabic. In
Room 18, which was an entrance corridor
to the roofed part of the Annex, an iron
door was mounted.
KOM R
In the pottery manufacturing area, some
additional investigations were carried out
on site Rl, in Kiln Rl-E, which is one of
the latest, partly dug into the fill of waste
material from the earlier production. The
observation of individual strata in the kiln
fully confirms previous suggestions of this
particular site having been in use only in
the Early Christian and the beginning of
the Classic Christian periods (i.e., between
AD 600 and 850).14)
On site R3, a pottery kiln with a diam-
eter of 1.40 m, the hearth preserved to its
full height of 1.60 m, was excavated. It was
provided with only one opening on the
eastern side, an aperture used for ventila-
tion, as well as for controlling the firing
process. Two stages were distinguished.
The pottery material found in context with
the kiln permits the production center on
Kom R3 to be dated to the Terminal
Christian period (13th-14th cent.).
14) For bibliography of the previous works at this site cf. PAM IX, Reports 1997 (1998), p. 159, n. 4. More recent publi-
cations include: K. Pluskota, Old Dongola recent pottery finds, [in:] Proceedings of the 8th Conference of the International
Society for Nubian Studies, CRIPEL XVII, 2 (1997), pp. 235-245; cf. also K. Pluskota, Pottery from Old Dongola, [in:]
Akten d. 6. Internationalen Koptologenkongresses (Munster 1996), in print.
147
SUDAN
paint or whitewash. The surface was cleaned
mechanically with special sponges and glass
fiber brushes, and chemically using
a Kremer product known as Marsillian soap.
For protection of the painted surface a 2.5
per cent solution of Movilith 50 in ethanol
was used. Altogether 39 sq. m of painted
surface were treated.
For the sake of protecting the excavated
rooms of the Annex, a roof covering 240
sq. m was built, supported on a structure
made of 13,000 new red-bricks in order to
attain the desired height with proper slop-
ing to the west {Fig. 9). The work com-
prised erecting square piers and full walls
on top of, respectively, the surviving inner
and outer walls. The full walls have win-
dows which are temporarily blocked and
which can be opened whenever required.
The roof was made using 98 pieces of 6 m
long steel pipes (diameter 1.5 in), making
up a total of 588 m, covered with a mat of
palm leaf ribs and dacron. On this, layers
of dung mixed with mud {zibala) were put.
Nine rectangular openings for lighting the
interior were introduced in the roof and
temporarily covered with mats of palm leaf
ribs and a layer of zibala as well. To protect
the only well preserved painting in room
20, which failed to be included under the
roofed area, a provisory screening structure
was made. The surface of the painting,
measuring 2 x 2.5 m, was protected with a
mat of palm leaf ribs fixed vertically
between two pilasters built against the
wall. The surface of the mat was covered
with a layer of mud and gum arabic. In
Room 18, which was an entrance corridor
to the roofed part of the Annex, an iron
door was mounted.
KOM R
In the pottery manufacturing area, some
additional investigations were carried out
on site Rl, in Kiln Rl-E, which is one of
the latest, partly dug into the fill of waste
material from the earlier production. The
observation of individual strata in the kiln
fully confirms previous suggestions of this
particular site having been in use only in
the Early Christian and the beginning of
the Classic Christian periods (i.e., between
AD 600 and 850).14)
On site R3, a pottery kiln with a diam-
eter of 1.40 m, the hearth preserved to its
full height of 1.60 m, was excavated. It was
provided with only one opening on the
eastern side, an aperture used for ventila-
tion, as well as for controlling the firing
process. Two stages were distinguished.
The pottery material found in context with
the kiln permits the production center on
Kom R3 to be dated to the Terminal
Christian period (13th-14th cent.).
14) For bibliography of the previous works at this site cf. PAM IX, Reports 1997 (1998), p. 159, n. 4. More recent publi-
cations include: K. Pluskota, Old Dongola recent pottery finds, [in:] Proceedings of the 8th Conference of the International
Society for Nubian Studies, CRIPEL XVII, 2 (1997), pp. 235-245; cf. also K. Pluskota, Pottery from Old Dongola, [in:]
Akten d. 6. Internationalen Koptologenkongresses (Munster 1996), in print.
147