Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (16.2004(2005))

OLD DONGOLA

SUDAN

ening to collapse (in similarity to what the
excavators did during exploration)
[Fig. 13]. The same is true of the arcade
above the entrance from the west (with a
fine realistic rendering of a palm grove
[Fig. 13]). It had tumbled presumably and
an effort was made to salvage the rest by
buttressing the exterior of the wall and the
southern part of the vault with an extra
wall, not a bene, unsuccessfully.
Further argument for the Terminal
Christian, and perhaps the last use of the
Annex was provided by the burial of a man,
dug from the latest occupation level in
room 2. The pit cut across all layers,


Fig. 14. Ostracon: sketched faces on a potsherd oj
SW Annex (Photo H. Pietras)

including the original one, and partly
damaged the face of the west wall (where
the head of the deceased, oriented to the
west, had been placed) [Fig. 16].
No arguments for the function of the
Southwestern Annex have surfaced to date.
There is, however, one observation of signi-
ficance. All the dedication formulas found
on the murals refer to women as donors.
Assuming that the neighboring North-
western Annex was indeed a xenodocheion,
this part could be tentatively interpreted as
the women's quarters, in conformity with
a tradition10 requiring separate accommo-
dations for the genders.


Terminal Chistian date, found in Room 5 of the

10 For sources, see St. Longosz, Ksenodochium — hospicjum wczesnochrzescijanskie, Vox Patrum XVI, 30-31 (Lublin 1997),
273-336, esp. 280ff; Cf. also P.O. Scholz, Randbemerkungen zur liturgisch-kultischen Funktion des Xenodochiums des
Dreifaltigkeitskloster in Alt-Dongola, in: Dongola-Studien, 174 ff.; therein extensive bibliography.

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