Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (16.2004(2005))

OLD DONGOLA

SUDAN

nave, forming a passage c. 2.70 m wide.
This was narrowed down to 1 m with the
same kind of mud-brick walls that were used
to partition off the nave from the aisles.
The southern entrance to the church, un-
covered in the western end of the southern
aisle, where it joined the staircase, was found
to have been narrowed down to 0.66 m from
the initial width of c. 1.10 m. The sandstone
blocks used for this purpose were laid directly
on top of the original stone threshold.
The presence of an ambit, at least on
the south side, was determined in trial pits
dug near the southeastern corner of the
church. A trench was also excavated to
bedrock from the south wall of the church
to the monastery girdle wall in order to get
an idea of the intervening ground. The
ambit, presumably about 4.40 m wide,
was laid with a ceramic-tile floor, which

passed into bricks and stone by the south-
ern church entrance. Traces of a thick hard
lime floor were observed in places.
Testing in the area east of the church
revealed several heterogeneous stmctures,
which will be the object of further fieldwork
in the coming seasons. Meriting mention is
tomb G4 discovered in the southern part
of the area (see below) and a room with
a mixed stone and red-brick pavement
(HCW3) {Fig. 7].
Contextual dating evidence provided by
pottery found under the sandstone slabs of
the pavement points to the 6th-7th century.
The pottery underlying the brick-paved
part of the room's floor, mixed with large
amounts of ashes, dated to the Classic (later)
period. Two tamped earth floors were also
noted above this floor (possibly Classic and
Post-Classic).

THE TOMBS

Four tombs were discovered and explored
inside the church [cf. Fig. 1].
The tomb in the northwestern corner of
the presbytery (Gl) appeared to have been
disturbed, presumably already after the church
had been abandoned. The fill contained
various stone and ceramic elements from the
structure and furniture of the church. The
burial itself was at a depth of 1.60 m below
the late church pavement {Fig. 8].
Tomb G2 was located on the main axis
of the church, between the altar and the
passage from the presbytery into the nave.
The grave pit was 1.95 m long, 0.50 m
wide and 1.25 m deep below the pavement,
the bottom part being already excavated in
bedrock {Fig. 10}. The threshold of the pas-
sage overlay the western end of the struc-
ture. Two massive stone slabs making up
the covering were supported on a brick
ledge running around the pit. They were

found c. 0.23-0.40 m below the pavement,
which was quite severely damaged in this
spot. The burial consisted of a single skele-
ton (anthropological examination remains
to be carried out) and no tomb equipment of
any kind. The evidence indicates that this
was an early burial.
The third tomb (G3) was located in the
eastern end of the southern aisle. The total
destruction of the pavement above it could
indicate the presence of some kind of super-
structure that was robbed out in later times.
The pit was 2.20 m long, from 0.90 to 1.05
m wide from east to west, and c. 1.70 m
deep. The actual chamber was a red-brick
structure with gabled roof, built c. 0.80 m
below the pavement. The entrance, which
was from a shaft on the west, was found
blocked with bricks {Fig. 9 top}. The skele-
ton lay in a 20-cm deep layer of clean sand
at the bottom of the chamber. Traces of

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