DOI issue:
Sudan
DOI article:Żurawski, Bogdan: Dongola Reach: the southern Dongola Reach survey, 1998
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41273#0162
DONGOLA REACH_
SUDAN
found on top of the Jebel Abu Elem rising
high in the flat desert (N: 18°04'24.5",
E: 31°14'20.6").
The most schematic settlement pattern
in a wadi was found in Khor Jerf Al Mardi
leading to the Nile at Hamur: Middle
Paleotlitic sites inside a 3-6 km perimeter
from the river, a Neolithic site within 2-4
km, a post-Meroitic tumuli field at a dis-
tance of 1-2 km and a Christian settlement
guarded by a fortified enclosure at the
wadi's, estuary.
Some of the right-bank sites were acces-
sible only from the river due to the
encroaching dunes which reached to the
river bank itself. There is an interesting
fortified site guarding a granite ridge
crossing the river halfway between Ed
Debba and Old Dongola. Judging by the
ceramics, it was settled in the Early
Christian Period and abandoned before the
characteristic Late Christian wares had
appeared.
Apart from Girra, Buros and Tangasi,
the Nile islands were generally not visited
during the first season. A lack of time and
diving equipment prevented us from clos-
er investigation of the most mysterious
structure in the Middle Nile Region. Two
huge pillars rising from the river between
Buros Island and the left bank were first
noticed by Edmond Combes in 1834. They
are built of fired bricks bonded by hard
lime mortar. There are many plausible
explanations for the Buros pillars enigma,
but the final verdict should be postponed
until the next season, when a professional
diver will test the surrounding river bed.
The historic process of a southward
shift of the Nile bed is observable today in
Tangasi-Hamur. Both islands have merged
into one and were incorporated into the
right bank, after blocking the right Nile
channel. It is only the final episode of
a long process. Within living memory, the
right bank mantiqa of Banganarti was an
island, as both name and local oral tradi-
tion suggest. The fortress of Sinada, recog-
nizable by the rounded towers and three-
meter thick outer wall, once sat on the
river bank at the mouth of a wadi, and is
still partly submerged during a high Nile
flood. The Hamur Abbasiya village lies
astride the wadi. The SDRS concession
area ends at the southern border of the so-
called Abandoned Village of Old Dongola
that lies within the limits of the Polish
archaeological concession.
160
SUDAN
found on top of the Jebel Abu Elem rising
high in the flat desert (N: 18°04'24.5",
E: 31°14'20.6").
The most schematic settlement pattern
in a wadi was found in Khor Jerf Al Mardi
leading to the Nile at Hamur: Middle
Paleotlitic sites inside a 3-6 km perimeter
from the river, a Neolithic site within 2-4
km, a post-Meroitic tumuli field at a dis-
tance of 1-2 km and a Christian settlement
guarded by a fortified enclosure at the
wadi's, estuary.
Some of the right-bank sites were acces-
sible only from the river due to the
encroaching dunes which reached to the
river bank itself. There is an interesting
fortified site guarding a granite ridge
crossing the river halfway between Ed
Debba and Old Dongola. Judging by the
ceramics, it was settled in the Early
Christian Period and abandoned before the
characteristic Late Christian wares had
appeared.
Apart from Girra, Buros and Tangasi,
the Nile islands were generally not visited
during the first season. A lack of time and
diving equipment prevented us from clos-
er investigation of the most mysterious
structure in the Middle Nile Region. Two
huge pillars rising from the river between
Buros Island and the left bank were first
noticed by Edmond Combes in 1834. They
are built of fired bricks bonded by hard
lime mortar. There are many plausible
explanations for the Buros pillars enigma,
but the final verdict should be postponed
until the next season, when a professional
diver will test the surrounding river bed.
The historic process of a southward
shift of the Nile bed is observable today in
Tangasi-Hamur. Both islands have merged
into one and were incorporated into the
right bank, after blocking the right Nile
channel. It is only the final episode of
a long process. Within living memory, the
right bank mantiqa of Banganarti was an
island, as both name and local oral tradi-
tion suggest. The fortress of Sinada, recog-
nizable by the rounded towers and three-
meter thick outer wall, once sat on the
river bank at the mouth of a wadi, and is
still partly submerged during a high Nile
flood. The Hamur Abbasiya village lies
astride the wadi. The SDRS concession
area ends at the southern border of the so-
called Abandoned Village of Old Dongola
that lies within the limits of the Polish
archaeological concession.
160