DOI Heft:
Sudan
DOI Artikel:Jakobielski, Stefan: Old Dongola: Kom H
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41242#0165
walls respectively). In this part of the room, there is also a square
structure, built of brick against the east wall, suggesting a place
suitable for liturgical service. On the south wall, a large ink
inscription is preserved, containing a fragment of the intercessio in
Greek (viz. a prayer for the Church) from the liturgy of the Holy
Mass. Hence, it is presumably a small chapel that is involved in this
case. On the north wall, beside a small painting of an Angel, there
is yet another inscription - Psalm 97 (96), each verse in two
languages alternately, in Greek and Old Nubian. Psalm 128 (127)
was written on the south wall of Room 31 in the same manner.
Room 31 (3.60 x 1.70 m) has no furnishings. It might be
significant, however, that the wall paintings are restricted to
representations, on the east and the south walls, of local bishops
protected by Archangels. Originally, the room was accessible also
from the entrance hall through an arched doorway, which was later
blocked with a thin screen wall to create a kind of niche in the east
wall of the hall (Room 23). The text of the Creed (discovered last
season)2 was written inside it. Then the only entrance with
a painting of Christ Emmanuel embellishing the arch (fig. 4) gave
access to Room 31 from Room 29. In the last phase, the room
underwent a curious rebuilding, the purpose of which remains
obscure. Apparently, a roof on wooden beams was introduced
inside it, at a height of barely 1.20 m above the pavement.
In analogy to the southern part of the vestibule (23), the two
rooms described above were adjoined to an older part of building
which was founded on a slightly higher level. Only Room 27 (3.60
x 2.40 m) belonging to this earlier phase of the building (situated to
the east of the northern part of vestibule 22) was excavated this
season. After the rebuilding it was furnished in a way that most
certainly identifies it as a cell: along the western wall there is a tiled
2 Cf. S. Jakobielski, A. Lajtar, Ein Glaubensbekenntnis aus Alt Dongola (Sudan), JJP
(in print) and PAM VIII, 1996 (1997), p. 166.
163
structure, built of brick against the east wall, suggesting a place
suitable for liturgical service. On the south wall, a large ink
inscription is preserved, containing a fragment of the intercessio in
Greek (viz. a prayer for the Church) from the liturgy of the Holy
Mass. Hence, it is presumably a small chapel that is involved in this
case. On the north wall, beside a small painting of an Angel, there
is yet another inscription - Psalm 97 (96), each verse in two
languages alternately, in Greek and Old Nubian. Psalm 128 (127)
was written on the south wall of Room 31 in the same manner.
Room 31 (3.60 x 1.70 m) has no furnishings. It might be
significant, however, that the wall paintings are restricted to
representations, on the east and the south walls, of local bishops
protected by Archangels. Originally, the room was accessible also
from the entrance hall through an arched doorway, which was later
blocked with a thin screen wall to create a kind of niche in the east
wall of the hall (Room 23). The text of the Creed (discovered last
season)2 was written inside it. Then the only entrance with
a painting of Christ Emmanuel embellishing the arch (fig. 4) gave
access to Room 31 from Room 29. In the last phase, the room
underwent a curious rebuilding, the purpose of which remains
obscure. Apparently, a roof on wooden beams was introduced
inside it, at a height of barely 1.20 m above the pavement.
In analogy to the southern part of the vestibule (23), the two
rooms described above were adjoined to an older part of building
which was founded on a slightly higher level. Only Room 27 (3.60
x 2.40 m) belonging to this earlier phase of the building (situated to
the east of the northern part of vestibule 22) was excavated this
season. After the rebuilding it was furnished in a way that most
certainly identifies it as a cell: along the western wall there is a tiled
2 Cf. S. Jakobielski, A. Lajtar, Ein Glaubensbekenntnis aus Alt Dongola (Sudan), JJP
(in print) and PAM VIII, 1996 (1997), p. 166.
163