Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (13.2001(2002))

OLD DONGOLA

SUDAN

SITE SW.N

Work on the site started in 1999, when the
stone entrance to Building B.I was
identified along with the tops of walls in
the southern facade.2) The aim of the
current investigations was to gain an
understanding of the nature of the
architecture in this part of the town and to
establish a provisional chronology for the
settlement. Explorations covered an area
30.0 by 22.0 m, but an effort to reach
foundation levels or original occupational
layers was made in only a few chosen
sections of the buildings.
The assumption, following this year's
research, is that the architecture in this
part of the town, presumably connected to
some extent with the local river port, came
into being in three successive stages. First,
the fortifications on the river side were
erected, followed by a palace (B.I) and
Building B.III in the intermediary stage
and B.II in the ultimate one, when

military defenses were constructed in
response to the Mamluk wars raging in the
last quarter of the 14th century and the
sieges that Arab raiders laid to the capital
city of Dongola {Fig. 1).
FORTIFICATIONS
Excavators followed a wall c. 2.70 m thick
for a distance of 23 m. It turned out to be
constructed of two parallel structures — an
inner one and an outer one, 170 and 100 cm
thick respectively — founded on underlying
bedrock. The wall presumably paralleled
the line of the cliff edge, which is now just
about 2 m away from its outer face. It was
built of large-sized mudbrick (35-6 x 16 x
7.5-8 cm). Once structure B.I started being
built, this wall was incorporated as its west-
ern wall. Its southern end was subsequently
dismantled. The later building (B.II) from
the times of the Mamluk wars was founded
on its surviving top surface.


Fig. 2. Site SW.N. Palace building B.I. General view of the site from the southeast
(Photo W. Godlewski)
2) W. Godlewski, PAM XI, Reports 1999 (2000), 204-206.

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