Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (18.2006(2008))

OLD DONGOLA

SUDAN

structure was leveled and another red-brick
wall (of smaller bricks than before) was
raised in its place, connected with the
construction of two mud-brick buttresses,
each 0.40 m wide, supporting the east wall
of the church from the outside. To judge by
the earlier structures observed in HCE, the
original idea calling for a longer body of the
church was abandoned at some point during
the construction. The part behind the east
wall of the church was rebuilt, ultimately
when the buttresses were added.
The wall separating this structure from
the church proper (i.e. the east wall of the
church) was built of red-brick on a higher
level than the outer walls, but evidently at
the same time. Another wall of red brick (in
the northern section) and qurba brick (in
the southern section), 0.30 m wide, was
built at a distance of 0.20 m from the first
one. The space in between was poured with
mud mortar over rubble fill. This is the
actual west wall of HCE. It, too, reveals
three building phases. The south and north
walls have been damaged extensively.
Building HCE was comprised of three
units, of which the southernmost contained
grave G4 (the construction of which
destroyed all vestiges of earlier architecture
here), the central one had a brick floor laid
on a thick layer of rubble (with the southern
buttress, which has survived to a height of
0.80 m, raised directly on top of it) and the
northernmost one a paved stone floor (in
Gazda 2005a: 290, this unit was designated
mistakenly as HCW3) [Fig. 7]. The floor
had been laid on a thick bedding of sand,
small rubble and large pieces of pottery
(dating from the 7 th century). The
sandstone blocks used for the paving were
several centimeters thick and up to 40 cm
long. The bedding, at least in the southern
end, lay on a floor of lime mortar, 2-3 cm
thick. The stone pavement extended north-
ward beyond the easternmost section of the

foundations of the north wall of the church,
running over it, covering also the place
where a narrow passage was previously cut
across the foundations.
The latest structure in this part of HCE
was the northern buttress erected on a thin
layer of rubble; it still stands to a height of
1.00 m. In the southeastern corner of the
room thus created, a brick paving replaced
the stone floor and underneath it, there was
a layer several centimeters thick, containing
ashes and pottery of the 8th-10th century.
No less than two occupational levels
were observed between the buttresses and to
the north of the northern one. The later of
the two yielded pottery of Post-Classic
Christian date and fragments of a window
grille with a cross motif {cf. Fig. 5}.
East of Building HCE, where ex-
ploration has only started, one should signal
the presence of a mastaba-like structure
standing on a brick pavement.
GRAVEYARD SOUTHEAST
OF THE CHURCH BUILDING
Walls appear to have separated this area
located southeast of the church from the
rest of the monastery enclosure. One was
a mud brick wall, which has now been
observed running eastward in line with the
south wall of the church, and the other
a mud wall that extends south from near
the southeastern corner of the church [cf.
Fig. 1]· The discovery of two tomb struc-
tures has confirmed the funerary character
of this area, which is estimated to cover
some 150 m2.
Tomb G5, lying just one meter away
from the south wall of HCE, comprises
a mastaba (2.50 by 1.15 m, 0.80 m high)
and a platform extending 1.10 m to the
west {Fig. 8; cf. Fig. 1}. The funerary
chamber lay under the mastaba, slightly off
to the north; it measured 2.20 by 1.00 m,
attaining a depth of 0.80 m. Qurba brick

357