DOI issue:
Sudan
DOI article:Jakobielski, Stefan: Old Dongola: season 2000
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41368#0279
OLD DONGOLA
SUDAN
outside the building, may have been used
generally for storage of provisions and
other goods, because a few masonry
containers were originally constructed in
its interior.21) Room 11, separated out in
the northwestern part, became part of the
commemorative complex. To judge by its
furniture (large low bench for the body of
the deceased?) and decoration - a series of
murals connected with the prothesis
ritual,22) it must have been connected
somehow with the funeral practices. The
space in the middle was not paved and
served in all likelihood the purposes of
sewage or garbage removal. The room was
accessible through a small opening in the
outer wall of the western “tower”. Room
10, formerly one of two rooms flanking the
former entrance to the Annex, was changed
into a staircase, which seems to suggest
that the newly constructed rooms were
storied.
The only outer entrance to Building
NW-S (and practically to the whole
Annex) at this time led from the south
through a semicircular “tower” (room 35)
added to the facade in line with the
entrance vestibule (rooms 23-22). The
former main doorway now led to room 19
(a former yard that had been barrel-
vaulted), which may have been a sort of
waiting room, in turn giving access to
a new reception hall (20) to the west23)
and, to the north, through a passage (18) to
the chapel (13) or via rooms 12-10 to the
commemorative complex (NW-NW).
The function of the buildings remained
apparently unchanged, becoming merely
more developed in Georgios1 times. The
complex was prepared to admit a much
larger number of visitors than before.
Rooms of a liturgical character were added
as well and the walls decorated with
murals. A separate storeroom accessible
exclusively from the outside (21) was built
to accommodate the growing number of
offerings brought to the monastery. The
incorporation of the crypts in the times of
Georgios and a clear tendency, emphasized
by later architectural development, to
connect the building with the commemo-
rative part and the veneration of the persons
buried there, including Georgios himself,
are indicative of an attempt to imitate
Byzantine monastery-related institutions,
like the xenon or xenodocheion,24)
The evidence for the functioning of
such a faith-healing complex, where the
sick received spiritual consolation, as well
as medical treatment, in the neighborhood
of the Monastery at least in the 12th and
13th centuries has been growing gradually.
It now includes proof of an archaeological
nature from the buildings themselves: the
furniture required to receive Holy
Communion in urgent and exceptional
cases; a funerary-commemorative complex
incorporated in the building; small empty
rooms for meditation or for spending the
night close to the crypts; last but not least,
the iconography of the wall decoration in
the interiors.
21) In this room, curiously enough, a big ink inscription in Greek and Old Nubian was written in the southwestern corner.
A. Lajtar, who succeeded in reading it this season, believes it records, beside the names of several monks, the full text of the
Pater Noster prayer in Greek, as well as the Creed of St. Epiphanios.
22) B. Zurawski, “Old Dongola 1984-1993- The Mortuary Complex. A preliminary report”, ET 17, 352, and M. Martens-
Czarnecka, African Reports I, op. cit., 100ff., 105. Cf. also ead., in: CRIPEL 17/11, 212-218.
23) B. Zurawski is of the opinion that it served as a dormitory for patients or pilgrims (pers. comm.).
24) On these institutions recently, cf. Zurawski, “Faith Healing...”, op. cit. Also, St. Longosz, Ksenodochium - hospicjum
wczesnochrzescijanskie, WoxPatrum 16 (1996), 273-336.
277
SUDAN
outside the building, may have been used
generally for storage of provisions and
other goods, because a few masonry
containers were originally constructed in
its interior.21) Room 11, separated out in
the northwestern part, became part of the
commemorative complex. To judge by its
furniture (large low bench for the body of
the deceased?) and decoration - a series of
murals connected with the prothesis
ritual,22) it must have been connected
somehow with the funeral practices. The
space in the middle was not paved and
served in all likelihood the purposes of
sewage or garbage removal. The room was
accessible through a small opening in the
outer wall of the western “tower”. Room
10, formerly one of two rooms flanking the
former entrance to the Annex, was changed
into a staircase, which seems to suggest
that the newly constructed rooms were
storied.
The only outer entrance to Building
NW-S (and practically to the whole
Annex) at this time led from the south
through a semicircular “tower” (room 35)
added to the facade in line with the
entrance vestibule (rooms 23-22). The
former main doorway now led to room 19
(a former yard that had been barrel-
vaulted), which may have been a sort of
waiting room, in turn giving access to
a new reception hall (20) to the west23)
and, to the north, through a passage (18) to
the chapel (13) or via rooms 12-10 to the
commemorative complex (NW-NW).
The function of the buildings remained
apparently unchanged, becoming merely
more developed in Georgios1 times. The
complex was prepared to admit a much
larger number of visitors than before.
Rooms of a liturgical character were added
as well and the walls decorated with
murals. A separate storeroom accessible
exclusively from the outside (21) was built
to accommodate the growing number of
offerings brought to the monastery. The
incorporation of the crypts in the times of
Georgios and a clear tendency, emphasized
by later architectural development, to
connect the building with the commemo-
rative part and the veneration of the persons
buried there, including Georgios himself,
are indicative of an attempt to imitate
Byzantine monastery-related institutions,
like the xenon or xenodocheion,24)
The evidence for the functioning of
such a faith-healing complex, where the
sick received spiritual consolation, as well
as medical treatment, in the neighborhood
of the Monastery at least in the 12th and
13th centuries has been growing gradually.
It now includes proof of an archaeological
nature from the buildings themselves: the
furniture required to receive Holy
Communion in urgent and exceptional
cases; a funerary-commemorative complex
incorporated in the building; small empty
rooms for meditation or for spending the
night close to the crypts; last but not least,
the iconography of the wall decoration in
the interiors.
21) In this room, curiously enough, a big ink inscription in Greek and Old Nubian was written in the southwestern corner.
A. Lajtar, who succeeded in reading it this season, believes it records, beside the names of several monks, the full text of the
Pater Noster prayer in Greek, as well as the Creed of St. Epiphanios.
22) B. Zurawski, “Old Dongola 1984-1993- The Mortuary Complex. A preliminary report”, ET 17, 352, and M. Martens-
Czarnecka, African Reports I, op. cit., 100ff., 105. Cf. also ead., in: CRIPEL 17/11, 212-218.
23) B. Zurawski is of the opinion that it served as a dormitory for patients or pilgrims (pers. comm.).
24) On these institutions recently, cf. Zurawski, “Faith Healing...”, op. cit. Also, St. Longosz, Ksenodochium - hospicjum
wczesnochrzescijanskie, WoxPatrum 16 (1996), 273-336.
277