Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (14.2002(2003))

OLD DONGOLA

SUDAN

THE MONASTERY CHURCH ON KOM H
IN OLD DONGOLA 2002

Daniel Gazda

In the southwestern part of the monastery,
fieldwalking revealed the presence of
a rectangular building, better visible in
B. Zurawski's aerial (kite) photographs.
The ground was strewn with pieces of red
brick and granite, as well as potsherds. The
building had been presumed to be the
monastery church, but without any hard
evidence. The western wall and the south-
western corner had been cleared during the
1990 and 1993 campaigns when the
adjacent Unit S was being excavated A
In 2002, during two field seasons in
January-February and in November 2002
through January 2003, some testing was
carried out in the area of this structure.
A fragment of the apse was uncovered and
work was continued in the eastern end of
the building and in the western part of the
north aisle {Fig. 1).
The apse uncovered in the eastern end
of the building was rectangular, measuring
5.10 by 4.10 m with a synthronon, of which
the three lower steps have been preserved
(originally six-stepped?) {Fig. 2). Two
mastabas had been built, one on the north
side of the apse (0.43-0.46 by 3-14 m), the
other on the south (0.43 m wide, length

unexcavated as yet). In the east wall of the
apse, close to the northeastern corner,
a heavily sooted niche for lamps, 0.63 by
0.64 m, was recorded. Behind the apse
there runs a passage 1.35 m wide, which
was not separated from the lateral
pastophoria.
The prothesis, 2.35 by 5.35 m, was
separated from the north aisle by a wall
and entrance with a stone threshold (0.73
by 0.34 m). Two basins were located in the
southeastern corner of the room. The
smaller one, 0.33 by 0.27 m, adjoined the
apse wall and was found filled with ashes
and numerous fragments of flint. The
larger one adjoining the east wall of the
church, 0.65 by 0.25 m, revealed a com-
pact layer of ashes at the bottom with oil
dripping on top. Just by the eastern wall of
this room there is a stone socket set in the
floor base under a presumably wooden altar
foot measuring 13 by 11-13 cm.
The diakonikon on the south was 2.80 m
wide and has yet to be explored in its
entirety. In the southeastern corner it
preserves a pit, 1.20 by 0.60 m big, some
70 cm deep. It was covered with ceramic
tiles of a different kind than elsewhere in

1) For the results of this work, cf. S. Jakobielski, “Old Dongola 1991-1992", PAM IV, Reports 1992 (1993), 106-107;
S. Jakobieski, “Salvage works”, KUSH XVI (1994), 306-309; id., K. Pluskota, B. Zurawski, "Polish Excavations at Old
Dongola. The twenty-fifth season 1991/1992”, KUSH XVI (1994), 296-298; S. Jakobielski, “35 Years of Polish Excavations
at Old Dongola. A Factfile”, in: Dongola-Studien, 35 Jahre der polnischen Forschungen in Zentrum des makuritischen
Reiches, eds. S. Jakobielski and P.O. Scholz, Bibliotheca nubica et athiopica VII, (Warsaw 2001), 23.

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