DOI Heft:
Sudan
DOI Artikel:Żurawski, Bogdan: Banganarti: 2004 season including activities at the fortress of el-Deiga
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42090#0310
BANGANARTI
SUDAN
Dongola and Dar Shaiqiya. Reconnoiters in
1998 and 2000 intra and extra muros re-
vealed no trace of occupation prior to the
6th century AD, and the ceramic material
collected within the walls dated its con-
struction to the 7th-8th century. Ed-Deiga
is markedly different from its sister strong-
holds at Bakhit and ed-Diffar, probably due
to its different role in the Makurian de-
fensive system. Whilst at Bakhit and ed-
Diffar there were numerous settlements
within the walls, ed-Deiga apparently
housed only a church and military quarters,
with the stables being probably located in
the enclosed (lower) courtyard [Figs. 10,11}.
The curtain walls of ed-Deiga were
c. 5 m thick, constructed of ferruginous
sandstone bonded in mud mortar. The
mud-brick church, seen within the fortress
by Lepsius, Wilkinson, Linant de Bellefonds
and even Arkell in 1941, has now all but
disappeared, as have the fragments of granite
capitals and columns they reported seeing.
The two visits to ed-Deiga fortress, ef-
fected by the SDRS team in February 2004,
revealed the existence of a Meroitic temple
either inside the fortress or in its immediate
vicinity. The spolia from this temple were
used in the construction of the fortress
church probably at the very onset of the
Dongola Period. The evidence found on site
is strongly suggestive of the temple being
an integral part of the first defensive com-
plex raised on the site. One capital from this
temple was revealed, drawn and photo-
graphed [Fig. 8] (as were also some plas-
tered stone drums, unearthed earlier by
local inhabitants).
308
SUDAN
Dongola and Dar Shaiqiya. Reconnoiters in
1998 and 2000 intra and extra muros re-
vealed no trace of occupation prior to the
6th century AD, and the ceramic material
collected within the walls dated its con-
struction to the 7th-8th century. Ed-Deiga
is markedly different from its sister strong-
holds at Bakhit and ed-Diffar, probably due
to its different role in the Makurian de-
fensive system. Whilst at Bakhit and ed-
Diffar there were numerous settlements
within the walls, ed-Deiga apparently
housed only a church and military quarters,
with the stables being probably located in
the enclosed (lower) courtyard [Figs. 10,11}.
The curtain walls of ed-Deiga were
c. 5 m thick, constructed of ferruginous
sandstone bonded in mud mortar. The
mud-brick church, seen within the fortress
by Lepsius, Wilkinson, Linant de Bellefonds
and even Arkell in 1941, has now all but
disappeared, as have the fragments of granite
capitals and columns they reported seeing.
The two visits to ed-Deiga fortress, ef-
fected by the SDRS team in February 2004,
revealed the existence of a Meroitic temple
either inside the fortress or in its immediate
vicinity. The spolia from this temple were
used in the construction of the fortress
church probably at the very onset of the
Dongola Period. The evidence found on site
is strongly suggestive of the temple being
an integral part of the first defensive com-
plex raised on the site. One capital from this
temple was revealed, drawn and photo-
graphed [Fig. 8] (as were also some plas-
tered stone drums, unearthed earlier by
local inhabitants).
308