DOI issue:
Sudan
DOI article:Żurawski, Bogdan: Dongola Reach: the Southern Dongola Reach survey report on fieldwork in 2000
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41368#0288
DONGOLA REACH
SUDAN
sculptures is astonishing. They represent
motifs that might have been inspired by
Egyptian-Kushite iconography. Reliefs,
sculptures and murals seen among the
ruins could have been a source of
inspiration for the Usli sculptor. This is
made even more plausible, considering
that the temple was quarried for stone
until modern times. Some column drums
reveal traces of recutting, e.g. a drum made
into a millstone.
The story of the discovery of a Bastet/
Sekhmet figurine, in some way perhaps
authenticated by the discovery of a Kushite
temple in exactly the same spot, brings to
mind the toponym Cadata/Radata known
from Bion's list in Pliny's “Natural
History”, where a golden cat was worship-
ped. The place is usually identified with
Fig. 3- Column drums of the Usli temple
(Photo B. Zurawski)
Tare, known from the Harsjotef Annals,
year 35, and from the stele of Nastasen.
The assumption that Usli is Tare makes
more sense than one might expect and
makes the fragments of the Harsjotef and
Nastasen stelae more comprehensible. The
temple complex of Amun of Tara (on) ensi,
where Harsjotef was instructed to “go
down”8)), might be the huge temple in
Hugeir that sits directly on the opposite
bank. Harsjotef might easily have gone
down to it as the text says, since it is
situated on a bank that is markedly lower
than the high bank in Usli. Plausibly, the
mammoth temple in Hugeir might be
dedicated to Amun. If the identification is
correct, then we shall have a most precise
date for the completion of the Hugeir
temple.
.
8) Fontes Historiae Nubiorum II (78, 23), 443.
286
SUDAN
sculptures is astonishing. They represent
motifs that might have been inspired by
Egyptian-Kushite iconography. Reliefs,
sculptures and murals seen among the
ruins could have been a source of
inspiration for the Usli sculptor. This is
made even more plausible, considering
that the temple was quarried for stone
until modern times. Some column drums
reveal traces of recutting, e.g. a drum made
into a millstone.
The story of the discovery of a Bastet/
Sekhmet figurine, in some way perhaps
authenticated by the discovery of a Kushite
temple in exactly the same spot, brings to
mind the toponym Cadata/Radata known
from Bion's list in Pliny's “Natural
History”, where a golden cat was worship-
ped. The place is usually identified with
Fig. 3- Column drums of the Usli temple
(Photo B. Zurawski)
Tare, known from the Harsjotef Annals,
year 35, and from the stele of Nastasen.
The assumption that Usli is Tare makes
more sense than one might expect and
makes the fragments of the Harsjotef and
Nastasen stelae more comprehensible. The
temple complex of Amun of Tara (on) ensi,
where Harsjotef was instructed to “go
down”8)), might be the huge temple in
Hugeir that sits directly on the opposite
bank. Harsjotef might easily have gone
down to it as the text says, since it is
situated on a bank that is markedly lower
than the high bank in Usli. Plausibly, the
mammoth temple in Hugeir might be
dedicated to Amun. If the identification is
correct, then we shall have a most precise
date for the completion of the Hugeir
temple.
.
8) Fontes Historiae Nubiorum II (78, 23), 443.
286