Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (14.2002(2003))

OLD DONGOLA

SUDAN

Amphora mudstoppers constitute
another important category of finds coming
from the rubble. One of the stoppers bears
an inscription in ink: op11 or “wine”, beside
the stamped seal impression.9)
Needless to say, the rubble also yielded
potsherds mostly attributed to the Late
Christian Period. Local amphorae were

extremely numerous. One curious pottery
object deserves special attention (Fig. 3).
It may be a double-pot stand made up of
two open-ended cylinders joined at the
middle with a bird-shaped vessel. The
object was slipped yellow and painted with
red bands. It has no parallels in Nubian
pottery.

BUILDING NW-E

Building NW-E is actually part of the
main monastery building bordering the
Northwestern Annex on the east. It was
connected with the Annex on the upper-
floor level, but the architectural evidence
so far had seemed to exclude any con-
nection between them on the ground floor.
The present excavations, continuing the
previous campaign’s effort to reduce pres-
sure on the building's west wall which is
adjoined by the Annex,10) were to resolve
this issue once and for all. A row of rooms
running from north to south (43, 44, 36,
34, and partly 33 & 32) was uncovered at
ground-floor level, enclosed within com-
mon walls.
Rooms 28B and 30 in the Annex area
were also excavated to the original level,
revealing in the process the original
southwestern corner of the NW-E Build-
ing on the axis of the southern outer wall
of the Annex complex. The earliest yard of
the Annex had once been entered through
an arched entrance comprising the full
breadth of the later southern wall of room
30. Another arched doorway (Fig. 4)
closed off the yard on the north, having
been built between the outer southeastern
corner of room 28A (which appears to be at
the same time the outer southeastern
corner of the NW-S Building in its earliest
9) To be studied and published by J. Swigcicki.
10) Cf. S. Jakobielski, PAM XII, op. cit., 267 and Fig. 2.

phase) and the outer western wall of
NW-E. It led to room 28B, which in this
period formed an open corridor leading in


Fig. 4- Arched doorway between outer southeastern
comer of annexed Building NW-S and the
Main Monastery Building, leading to pas-
sageway 28B. View from the south
(Photo S. Jakobielski)

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