Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (15.2003(2004))

OLD DONGOLA

SUDAN

RELATIVE CHRONOLOGY OF THE ARCHITECTURE
ON KOM A

A relative chronology of the architecture in
the southwestern part of the ancient town
(SWN) was established in the course of the
fieldwork. The sequence starts at the turn
of the 5 th century and can be traced
through the 17th century as follows:
1. Building IV and the riverside fortifi-
cations
2. Palace (B.I) and Cruciform Building
(B.III.l)
3. Building II
4. Cruciform Church (B.III.2)
5. Dwellings (H.1-H.4)
It is the second such chronological lad-
dering of the architecture inside the forti-

fications on Kom A, the first having been
established for the structures in the
northwestern corner of the defense walls
(NW). The latter also covered a period from
the end of the 5 th through the 17 th century.
The earliest stage, that is, the construction
of the fortifications was followed by some
early architecture identified only in test pits
(A.Ill), and successively by House A. 106
(House of the Ecclesiastics) which was
contemporary with the Palace (B.I). After
the house was abandoned, the area was long
used as a place for storing goods in silos and,
in the latest phase, for some kind of
economic activities.^

FORTIFICATIONS

The defense wall uncovered in 2001 now
continued to be excavated in a northerly
direction. Its destruction at this point
presumably dates to Post-Makurian times
(17th century), after which the ruins were
further washed out by rain water rushing
down the slopes of the kom towards the
river valley. The examined section was
32 m long and turned out to be homoge-

neous in construction, measuring a regular
2.70 m in width. The bedrock on which it
was founded fell away rather steeply to the
north, more than a meter over a distance of
30 m. No new dating evidence was
unearthed, but there is no doubt that the
defenses preceded the Palace (B.I), which
was built against the inside face of the
wall.

BUILDING B.IV

The remains of the southwestern corner of
this structure, dismantled down to the
floors, were found between the Palace (B.I)
and Cruciform Building (B.III.l). Both the
later structures were founded on bedrock,
disturbing in the process the pavement and
south wall of Building IV (Fig. 2).
A section of the pavement of this earlier

building was identified also inside the
staircase B.I.l.
The south wall of B.IV had rested on
bedrock. It was erected of baked red brick,
fairly soft and measuring at least +31-0 x
17.0 x 7.5 cm. One course of headers set on
edge, which had been used as a foundation,
was discovered to run for a distance of

4) 14., PAM XI, op. cit., 197-202; id., PAM XIII, op. cit., 214-216.

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