DOI article:
Jakobielski, Stefan: Old Dongola, 1991-1992
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26425#0104
even Terminal period. Whether or not the whole unit originally
had an upper storey is an open question thus far, but certainly
some kind of premises existed above Rooms 10 and 11 in the
Late period.
The building's location outside the walls of the monastic
compound could perhaps suggest a kind of hospice for those
coming from afar to the monastery or for secular personnel
employed there.
Excavations in a 20 x 20 m. area in the northerwestem
part of the uncovered two apses in the girdle wall at the
northwestern comer of the main monastic building complex
(Fig. 3). Only some units (la, lc, Id, 7) were cleared to the well
preserved floor level which was made up of red-brick or
terracotta tiles. The walls were built of mudbrick, founded on
bedrock and plastered with tine gravel-mud plaster; in places two
layers of it were applied thus marking the rebuilt portions of the
building.
On the walls nine fragmentary mural paintings were preserved
and recorded. Murals also decorated the northern part of Room
11, but were left covered. Hundreds of painted plaster fragments
were found in the rubble including parts of a representation of the
Holy Trinity and a Nubian bishop (?). Four of the paintings
extant on the walls are better preserved: no. NW7.E1 (in Room
7) - a half-figure of Christ, no. NWlb.Nl - lower part of a figure
of a saint, no. NWlb.Sl - a composition comprising the standing
figure of a saint and a monk in the gesture of an orant and also
a kneeling figure below, and no. NW2.S1 a figure of a flying
Angel. On stylistic grounds, the murals can certainly be dated not
earlier than the 10th century, and most probably in the mid 11^
century.
102
had an upper storey is an open question thus far, but certainly
some kind of premises existed above Rooms 10 and 11 in the
Late period.
The building's location outside the walls of the monastic
compound could perhaps suggest a kind of hospice for those
coming from afar to the monastery or for secular personnel
employed there.
Excavations in a 20 x 20 m. area in the northerwestem
part of the uncovered two apses in the girdle wall at the
northwestern comer of the main monastic building complex
(Fig. 3). Only some units (la, lc, Id, 7) were cleared to the well
preserved floor level which was made up of red-brick or
terracotta tiles. The walls were built of mudbrick, founded on
bedrock and plastered with tine gravel-mud plaster; in places two
layers of it were applied thus marking the rebuilt portions of the
building.
On the walls nine fragmentary mural paintings were preserved
and recorded. Murals also decorated the northern part of Room
11, but were left covered. Hundreds of painted plaster fragments
were found in the rubble including parts of a representation of the
Holy Trinity and a Nubian bishop (?). Four of the paintings
extant on the walls are better preserved: no. NW7.E1 (in Room
7) - a half-figure of Christ, no. NWlb.Nl - lower part of a figure
of a saint, no. NWlb.Sl - a composition comprising the standing
figure of a saint and a monk in the gesture of an orant and also
a kneeling figure below, and no. NW2.S1 a figure of a flying
Angel. On stylistic grounds, the murals can certainly be dated not
earlier than the 10th century, and most probably in the mid 11^
century.
102