Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (16.2004(2005))

OLD DONGOLA

SUDAN

culture, where they are used in initiation
ceremonies of tribes living in the Western
Sudan.9 Batons are used to make music in
ritual and war dances from central Africa.10
The tunic, skirts, trousers and headscarves
with fillets are encountered in Arab tribal
dress, and are seen frequently not only in
local folklore, but also in illuminated manu-
scripts. Summing up, it should be said that
this highly unique painting, combining two
different folkloristic traditions, gives us an
idea of the social differentiation of Nubia
of the times. The question remains how to
fit in this very secular representation with
the other monastic paintings. Its direct
neighborhood with the icon of the Virgin
and Child, as well as its artistic homo-
geneity with the latter, could testify to
a link between the two. Perhaps it was
meant to depict some Marian feast, a festival
of joy, thanksgiving to Mary, rainmaking?
(Dances of this kind in Africa usually have
something to do with rainmaking.) Un-
fortunately, until the texts are read, we will
have to remain in the sphere of conjectures.
The dance scene is not the only one
escaping identification and consequently
interpretation. On the south wall of
room 6, an equally mysterious depiction
was discovered. It is composed of a number
of episodes, but the key scene depicts
a financial transaction of some kind (inv.
no. P 39/SW6N). In an interior, which is
revealed to our eyes behind curtains that
have been drawn aside, we see two men
sitting on a wide anghareb bed. One of the
men holds a purse and is actually giving
the other man a handful of gold coins.
Standing between them, behind the bed, is
a dark-skinned slave or servant, waiting for
orders [Figs. 8,11']. To the left, another

servant is slaughtering a ram; the other
animals are crowded in a round zeriba
nearby. Right above the main scene, there
is yet another man sitting on a semicircular
couch, apparently addressing in greeting
an approaching couple, a man and woman
dressed in white.
The two sitting figures in the main
scene appear to be differentiated inten-
tionally by their skin color: one has red face
and hands, the other is yellow-orange in
color, as is also the third man on the couch.
All three are dressed in similar fashion:
caftans with characteristic collars and wide
trousers and shawls. Thus, the dress needs
to be classified as entirely Arabic in charac-
ter. The men are seated cross-legged, under-
lining the folkloristic aspect of the repre-
sentation. The approaching pair is also dres-
sed in Arab manner: the man in a white
galabiyah, the woman in a top covering
her head.
What is the significance of this scene?
Some financial transaction was undoubt-
edly intended: a sale of some kind or a pur-
chase, perhaps marriage negotiations? The
ram being slaughtered at the side suggests
the transaction has been sealed. But what
was the deal in question?
The room, where the mural was found,
was part of a monastery. The murals found
next to it and directly below it were of a dif-
ferent, religious content. Hence, this scene
should have a similar intent; perhaps it is
a Biblical scene, but it is too early to speak
of any specific ideas on the subject. None-
theless, this genre scene is very much like
the dance scene discussed above in that it is
full of expression and folkloristic elements,
the style and composition betraying the
same painter's hand.

9 R. Goldwater, in: Bambara Sculpture from the Western Sudan. The Museum of Primitive Art (New York I960).
10 Africa. The Garland Encyclopaedia of World Music, 1, ed. R. M. Stone (New York, London 1998), 674-677; P. Cellaer,
J. Eisner, "Nord Africa1', in: Musikgeschichte in Bildern, ed. W. Bachmann (Leipzig 1983), 124, Abb. 119-

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