Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (18.2006(2008))

MtoM - MEROWE SHERIQ, TANQASI, ZUMA

SUDAN

agglomeration, although of subsidiary
importance with regard to MSh.l. We thus
have in one complex a double set of
fortifications with the southern part being
obviously the dominating feature.
An examination of wall construction
revealed that the outer part built of broken
stone was not connected structurally with
the original fortifications of the settlement.
The preserved western and southern
stretches of the wall were built directly on
the rocky ground. They were 4.50 m wide
at the base, the bottom parts — up to 1.50 m
in the southern stretch and 2.20 m in the
western one — being constructed of irregular
sandstone blocks bonded in mud mortar.
Above that, the walls were erected of mud
brick. Today, they stand to a maximum
height of 3.70 m, but they must have been

higher; the original walls of the south gate
tower rise to 5.00 m in height.
The west curtain, 90 m long, had two
round towers at the corners and a square one
midway [cf. Figs 1, 2}. Regular sandstone
blocks salvaged from a Napatan temple
were used in their construction. The square
tower shows good building technique, but
the northwestern corner tower appears to
have been erected quite hastily, blocks from
the temple walls and polychromed column
drums being thrown in without any special
guiding idea.
The ruins of the south curtain have
a length of c. 75 m today. A corner tower
resembling the standing southwestern one
may have occupied the destroyed
southeastern end. Midway in this face of the
fortifications there was a gate. It was built


Fig. 3■ Fort MSh.l. Inside south face of the
south gate in Trench 1
(Photo W. Godlewski)


l_i_i_i_L

Fig. 4· Fort MSh.l. Cross-section through the
southern curtain wall: la - first-phase
wall of broken stone, lb - first-phase
mud-brick wall, 2 - second-phase stone
wall, 3 - late mud-brick structures,
4 - fill inside the fortifications
[Orawing W Godlewski and E. Kli-
maszewska-Drabot)

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