Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (15.2003(2004))

OLD DONGOLA

SUDAN

Fragments of painted corners of walls
decorated with a variety of geometric
motifs were also discovered in the fill.
The color range appears virtually
unlimited. Yellow, both warm and cold,
ocher from vivid warm oranges through
sienna and umber to violets of a warm and
cold (pink) shades, as well as blues, emerald
greens and olive hues. The preserved
fragments clearly demonstrate the use of
pigment mixed on a palette during
painting in order to obtain the exact shade
desired at any given moment. The resulting
color splashes are not uniform and the
colors are quite varied.
There is an equally obvious difference
in how the landscape is treated compared
to the figures. Elements of the background
are painted softly, without any contours,
merging with the surroundings, occasion-
ally differing only slightly in shade or color
warmth.
Human figures were distinguished from
the background with a black, distinct but
varied contour line. The contoured parts
demonstrate varied coloring and a soft
SECOND LAYER
The second layer of plaster from Building
B .111.1 was of definitely better quality. It
was a compact, hard and uniform lime
plaster (lime-chalk/gypsum) with an excep-
tionally well smoothened surface.5-1
The program of painted wall decoration
also changed with the plaster coating.
Surviving pieces of the plaster from the
building corners indicate that the walls
were covered with uniform illusionist de-
coration right up to the spring of the vaults.
Rows of regular, downturned arches of
grayish-blue on a white background suggest

delicate modeling. The shadowing of the
faces was achieved through colder shades of
the same color instead of by mixing with
black. Some parts of the lights were painted
with white on a darker background, others
with a lighter shade of the color.
The robes were treated in graphic man-
ner with a fondness for ornamentation
meant to emphasize the nature and decora-
riveness of particular elements of the dress.
Judging by the preserved remains, the
painted decoration from the first layer of
the plaster represents a different workshop
and painting school than the examples
known from Nubia so far. Foremost, color
use and treatment is absolutely unique.
Color is not only considered in this case in
its symbolic or informative role. It is not
applied flatly to fill in a contour, as is
common in the known Nubian murals.
Here, it has an impression value and the
color is matched on a palette, not reduced
to a few primary colors.
The landscape representation also fails
to find close parallels among examples of
murals from Nubian territory.
OF LIME PLASTER
a painted imitation of marble or a curtain.
The lines move smoothly from one plane of
the wall into the next. A fragment of the
same kind of decoration but in cinnabar-
grayish-blue colors was found in the fill.
Fragments of illusionist pilasters were
also preserved below the later floor in the
western arm. The base, modeled additionally
in stucco {Fig. 4), continued as a painted
band, delimiting the illusionist decoration
some 30 cm above the floor. Preserved
fragments indicate that this could have served
as the base of the wall in the entire interior.

5) Samples of the plaster, pigments and binders were subjected to laboratory examinations and the results are published
in this volume in an appendix to the report by W. Godlewski.

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