Archaeologists
working in Old Dongola (Sudan) found the remains of what may be the
largest church known from medieval Nubia. It could have been the seat of
an archbishop governing the church hierarchy over a 1000 km-long
stretch along the Nile, between the 1st and 5th cataracts. The
archbishop of Dongola oversaw the bishop of Faras, whose cathedral with
its famous wall paintings was discovered by Prof. Kazimierz Michałowski
60 years ago.
According
to, Assist. Prof. Artur Obłuski, the head of the Dongola expedition and
the director of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the
University of Warsaw (PCMA UW), this discovery changes not only our
knowledge about the city itself, but also the way we reconstruct the
history of the Nubian church.
Dongola was the capital of Makuria, one of the three Christian Nubian
kingdoms. Archaeologists from PCMA UW have been working there since
1964, continuing the research initiated by Prof. K. Michałowski after
the success of his work in another Nubian center – Faras, the capital of
Nobadia. Since 2018, work in Dongola has been carried out under the
European Research Council (ERC) grant "UMMA – Urban Metamorphosis of the
community of a Medieval African capital city", headed by Assist. Prof.
Obłuski.
In 2021, archaeologists cleaned the wall of the church’s apse, together
with an adjacent wall and the nearby dome of a large tomb. The
structures are located in the very center of the city. The walls of the
apse, which was the most sacred place in the church, are decorated with
paintings depicting two rows of monumental figures. It is the largest
apse so far discovered in Nubia: it has a diameter of 6 m, and the width
of the church to which it belonged is approx. 26 m.
“If our estimates based on the known dimensions are confirmed, it is the
largest church discovered so far in Nubia,” – says Obłuski, adding -
“It’s size is important, but so is the location of the building – in the
heart of the 200-hectare city, the capital of the combined kingdoms of
Nobadia and Makuria. Just to the east of the apse, a large domed
building was added. We have a great analogy for such an architectural
complex: Faras. There too, the cathedral stood in the center of the
citadel, and to the east of it was the domed tomb of Joannes, the bishop
of Faras. However, there is a major difference in the scale of the
buildings. The dome over Joannes’ tomb is 1.5 m in diameter, while the
dome over the Dongolese building is 7.5 m.”
Archaeologists assume that, just like in Faras, the large church in
Dongola served as a cathedral, next to which a tomb of dignitaries,
probably bishops, was erected. The confirmation of this hypothesis will
have significant consequences for Nubiology. Until now, another church
located outside the citadel was considered to be Dongola’s cathedral, a
building whose features would influence the religious architecture of
Nubia over the centuries. "If we are right, it was a completely
different building that set the trends,” – says Obłuski.
The newly discovered building stands in the middle of the citadel
that is surrounded by a wall about 10 m high and 5 m thick. The
excavations have shown that this was the heart of the entire kingdom in
the Makurian period as all structures uncovered there were of a
monumental character: churches, a palace, and large villas belonging to
church and state elites. Test trenches dug in the building have yielded
promising results.
“The sounding in the apse is approx. 9 m deep. This means that the
eastern part of the building is preserved to the impressive height of a
modern three-storey block of flats. And this means there may be more
paintings and inscriptions under our feet, just like in Faras," – says
the archaeologist.
Therefore, among the team members are conservators from the
Department of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art of the
Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, working under the supervision of Prof.
Krzysztof Chmielewski. Their immediate task is to secure the discovered
paintings on an ongoing basis, and in the long term, to prepare them for
display. Unlike at Faras, they can be left on the church walls.
“In order to continue the excavations, the weakened and peeling wall
plaster covered with painting decoration must be strengthened, and then
carefully cleaned of layers of earth, dirt and salt deposits that are
particularly harmful to the wall paintings. When a suitable roof is
erected over this valuable find, it will be possible to start the final
aesthetic conservation of the paintings," – explains Prof. Chmielewski,
adding that this type of rescue conservation requires the involvement of
considerable resources, time, and skilled specialists.
The next excavation seasons in Dongola are planned for the fall of this year and winter of 2022.
Source: Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the University of Warsaw.
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