Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (14.2002(2003))

OLD DONGOLA

SUDAN

the Monastery and attached to it. The wall
of the former enclosure running from the
northwestern corner tower to the south-
western corner tower was then totally in-
corporated into the building, the free space
between the already existing northern and
southern parts inside the enclosure having
been overbuilt as well (including rooms
48, 49, 50, 58 and possibly some other
ones further to the east). It is now clear
that the western part of this structure (west
of the enclosure) comprised originally an
elongated hall, divided later into rooms
42, 43, 44, 36 and 34, and a room (or
rooms) underneath structure 32 & 33
located at the southern end of this building
(cf. Plan I, Figs. 7,8 and pages 219-223
above). On the ground floor, a long narrow
passage (i.e., rooms 46, 45 and 51),

running along the earlier enclosure,
connected room 42 through a doorway in
its north wall directly with the rooms in
the southern part of the building, both in
the old and the newly added sections of
Building NW-E.
The original layout of the building can
still be deciphered in the ruins of the upper
floor despite building activity in the
Terminal Christian period which largely
obscured the evidence. A superficial exam-
ination of the area east of the described
complex also suggested heavy overbuilding
of a large part of the alleged monastery yard.
These structures were likely additions or
perhaps even integral parts of the building
in question. Only methodical excavations
of the ground floor of the building can
provide answers in this regard.

PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION

BUILDING NW-E
All holes in ground-floor vaults, visible in
the paving, mud floors and exposed fill
below floor level, were repaired. Bricks and
mud (in some cases mixed with gum
Arabic) were used. Over rooms *45 and l46
a roof was built in conformity with the
standard applied previously in the western
part of Building NW-E. The rest of the
excavated rooms were left unroofed, but
pavements and mud floors were covered
with sloped layers of sand or rubble to
prevent accumulation of water, in case
rainfalls occurred.
MONASTERY CHURCH
The tribune in the apse was covered with
a protective layer of new mud brick,
especially in places where the inner part of
the wall or an original rubble fill had been
exposed. No attempt was made, however,
to reconstruct the tiers as their exact
number is not known. Two sections of the

east wall were reconstructed to a height of
some 35 cm where the original plaster was
still standing high but the wall had been
dismantled. All surviving pavement edges
were reinforced with mud and all the holes
in the pavement were filled in.
The walls with paintings, once the lat-
ter had been preserved, were protected
with walls of reused bricks built against
them with an intervening layer of sand.
Appropriate profiling of the ground sur-
face will remove an excess of rainfall water,
should it occur.
The conservation of murals in the
Monastery Church concerned a gross area of
3 sq. m. The paintings had been executed
on a layer of whitewashed mortar plastering
the eastern and southern mud brick walls of
the structure. Their condition is typical:
cracking of the wall, surface holes and the
degradation of the binding agent. After
mechanical and chemical cleaning of the
surface, all decrements were filled in using

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