Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (14.2002(2003))

OLD DONGOLA

SUDAN

Most of the renovated rooms were
plastered anew (as *48) or at least
whitewashed (]52, *53).
Some rooms were used for a fairly long
period; several Terminal Christian layers
were observed there (e.g. !56, *57 and *5 3).
Many other structures were erected on top
of the destroyed eastern part of the
building, where some existing rooms were
re-shaped (!58, !54, !55) and new rooms
were constructed on the sand dunes filling
the destroyed vaults of the ground floor. It
looks as if some rooms were then used as
goat yards (e.g. room *57). Most of the
rooms were found without any furnishings
or installations. The one exception was
room !50, used obviously as a storage-room
for provisions, where traces of two round
containers (qesseba) for grain or dates were
found. In room r54, two globular pots were
found inserted into the mud floor; both
seem to be of Early Christian date.l6)
Architectural analyses indicate that
Building NW-E was made up of individual
sections built in different periods. The
oldest apparently is the southern part of
the building, erected17) along the inner
side of the western section of the enclosure
wall, more or less in its center, extending
for about 19 m and not reaching either the
southwestern or the northwestern corner
towers. It is fairly difficult at this stage of
the excavations (limited mostly to the area
of the preserved part of the upper floor) to
demarcate, even hypothetically, the eastern
outer wall of this building; the original
course of the northern and southern walls
also needs to be further examined. This
part of the building undoubtedly included
rooms 52-57, the north walls of rooms 52,
53 and 57 likely being the building's

north facade. At this stage of the
investigations, it would be risky to propose
a more precise date for the erection of this
part of the building, but a general date in
the Early Christian period (based on
potsherds extracted from the mortar) is to
be considered.
The next to be constructed was likely
the northern part adjacent to the northern
section of the enclosure and the north-
western tower (room 60), but not actually
adjoining the southern part of the building.
Included here were rooms 47a, 47b, and
59, as well as several rooms further to the
north (not plotted on the plan in Fig. 8),
most probably filling completely the area
up to the northern section of the enclosure
wall. The mud brick used in the construc-
tion of this part of the building is much
smaller (28 x 16 x 6.5 cm). As to the date,
an important indication was given by a set
of large Early Christian vessels, thirteen in
number, which were found extraordinarily
placed in the fill of the eastern haunch of
the vault in room 47b (Fig. 13a,b). Three of
these were so-called 'beer-jars' with
elongated necks, another four were early
amphorae of local production and a fifth
most notably an import. The latter vessel
had been provided with an apparently
Coptic inscription in yellow paint on the
upper part of the body: ntn is.kcob fr xpx,
“from Iakob, archpresbyter”. The ceramic
evidence is thus in favor of a relatively early
period of construction for the northern part
of building as none of the vessels in this
deposit was manufactured later than in the
8th century.
The part of the NW-E building to be
erected next, and not much later, was
a section outside the outer western wall of

16) A circular brick feature in the southwestern corner of room *49 (cf. Fig. 8), strongly suggestive of the kind of round
seat that was typical of refectories, turned out to be an attempt to repair a damaged vault.
17) The entire building is of mud brick, the average brick size in this part being 35 x 17.5 x 7-8 cm.

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