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DONGOLA REACHTHE SOUTHERN DONGOLA

REACH SURVEY, 1998

Bogdan Żurawski

1 The SDRS is a joint mission of the Research Center for Mediterranean Archaeology of the PolishAcademy of Sciences, National Corporation of Antiquities and Museums (NCAM), Polish Cen-ter of Archaeology of Warsaw University, Poznań Archaeological Museum, and Faculty of Medi-terranean Archaeology of Jagiellonian University.

Expedition staff comprised the following: Dr. Bogdan Żurawski, archaeologist, director; Prof.Krzysztof Ciałowicz, archaeologist; Dr. Jackie Phillips, ceramologist; Dr. Mahmoud El-Tayeb, ar-chaeologist. The NCAM was represented by senior inspector Miss Amel Awad Mokhtar. Six stu-dents of archaeology from Warsaw University were attached to the surveying team as volunteers(and performed beyond all expectations under the harsh conditions of the survey): Misses JoannaBogdańska, Anna Błaszczyk, Beata Kołodziejek and Paulina Terendy, Messrs Kazimierz Kotlewskiand Paweł Rurka). The progress of the survey was patiently documented on celluloid tape by Mr.Piotr Parandowski.

2 B. Żurawski, PAM IX, Reports 1997 (1998), pp. 181-193.

The initial season of the Southern Dongola Reach Survey (SDRS)1 was conducted onthe right bank of the Nile between Old Dongola and Khor Makhafour near Ez-Zumain January-March 1998. (It was preluded by a short reconnaissance in February 1991,carried out in the desert east of the Istabel fortress.2

The 1998 season of the SDRS had to comply with some prerequisites. In accor-dance with NCAM suggestions, the entire concession area was inspected on a low-intensity survey basis, the vulnerability of the sites was examined and rescue opera-tions initiated where necessary. The architectural chef-d'oeuvres of the SouthernDongola Reach, the Christian strongholds of Bakhit, Deiga and Istabel, were photo-graphed from the air and their condition carefully documented. All activities wereintroductory in character. A high-intensity survey will begin in the next season, start-ing from the southern end of the abandoned village of Old Dongola and continuingupriver to Diffar.

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Despite the above-said limitations, the sur-vey so far has recorded over 50 sites andsub-sites, ranging in date from the MiddlePaleolithic through the Islamic periods, andin scale from small sherd or lithic scattersto major jebel fortress sites. Artifact collec-tion and study, in addition to site record-ing, has already provided some initial con-clusions regarding the development of en-vironmental and human exploitation pat-terns and changes in settlement patternthroughout this period of time. Whilst anumber of major sites have long beenknown and occasionally reported by earlyClassical and later Arabic authors and morerecently by European travelers in the pastthree centuries, surprisingly little has ac-tually been recorded even for the mostprominent man-made features. Of the pres-ently surveyed sites, the majority was pre-viously unknown. Most of them cluster intwo areas of the concession: a 10 km stretchsouth (i.e., upriver) of Old Dongola be-tween the abandoned village and the areaof Banganarti, and some 50 km farther up-stream around the Soniyat temple and theIstabel fortress. Thus, the survey has the po-tential to fill a major gap in our knowledgefor a region vital to most links between theMediterranean world and the African in-terior on the one hand and between the RedSea ports and African central Africa on the other.

A prominent feature of the concessionarea are the dunes, constantly drifting

* * *southwards to be trapped in the so-calledDebba Bend of the Nile. The result is a con-stantly changing riverbed as the Nile con-tinues to cut through the altered landscape.Many sites and features are visible onlyfrom the river itself, and the survey teamhas been obliged to explore the concessionfrom both land and river. Major changes inthe riverbed can be inferred once a thor-ough high-intensity survey is made and thesites are mapped according to their occu-pation date.3

The first site to be visited and docu-mented (air photography included) was theenormous fortress site of Helleila, locatedhalf way between the villages of Bakhit andMagal [Fig. 1].

Helleila constitutes an important linkin the chain of right-bank Christian strong-holds linking the majestic stronghold in ElKab with Old Dongola via Deiga, Diffar,Abkur, and possibly Selib (?) and Sinada (?).All reveal many affinities in general layoutand construction features. The use of un-dressed stone bonded in mud mortar ispredominant, as are rounded, elongatedtowers. The affinity of general layout andstructural features (e.g. gates) betweenHelleila and the Byzantine stronghold atPelusium (Tall Al Farama) is striking.4

The ceramics found on the surfacewithin, the girdle walls suggest that Helleilawas settled at the very onset of the Chris-tian period. A few Meroitic potsherds hint

3 This technique has already been demonstrated by the Northern Dongola Reach Survey (NDRS)project (directed by Dr. Derek A. Welsby) almost immediately to the north where, for example,the abundance of Kerma-period sites and the almost total lack of Christian period occupation isin stark contrast to the situation in the SDRS concession, and where the existence of Nile "paleo-channels" has been amply demonstrated by period/site plotting on present-day maps. It is pos-sible that the SDRS Kerma sites lie under the present dune-covered areas of the concession ornear the present riverbank where even a low intensity survey has not been conducted yet.

4 M. Abd El-Maksoud, M. El-Taba'i, P. Grossmann The Late Roman army castrum at Pelusium(Tell al-Farama), CRIPEL 16 (1994), pp. 95-103.

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at earlier occupation. However, the girdlewalls are certainly Christian. The fortresswas designed to shelter the local popula-tions (living mostly on the left bank) fromnothing more than nomadic attack. Withthe riverside virtually unprotected, it wasapparently not intended to withstand aregular siege laid by forces employing boats,siege machines etc. The vast interior of thefortress measuring 230 x 130m was com-pletely ravaged by sebakhin. The only build-

ing to survive is the fortress church. It is amud-brick structure preserved in places upto 4 m high. Its eastern passage, apse andtripartite division of the western end arestill visible, with fired vault bricks scatteredabout. Why had the church only been leftalone by the sebbakh diggers? Had it beena Christian cult place long after the collapseof the Christian monarchy in Dongola?More plausibly, the sebbakhin knew that thekenisat were never inhabited and the mea-

Fig. 1. Bird's eye view of Helleila fortress. Computer image composed of five low-altitude airphotographs . (Photo B. Żurawski)

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ger layer of natural fertilizer was not worththeir effort.5

The Christian cemetery of Helleila,built of huge well-baked bricks and locatedon hills overlooking the fortress, was totallydismantled in 1988. Soon after the cata-strophic flood of that year, the local resi-dents turned to the ancient structures forbadly needed building material to recon-struct their homes.

Compared to the Helleila structure, theMagal church located nearby, right on theriverbank, looked quite grandiose. An em-bankment directly opposite the church hada set of stairs leading down to the water.When Lepsius visited it (on the same 7thof June), one of the six granite columns thattoday are scattered about the site was stillstanding.6 It was topped by a granite capi-tal now half buried in the soil [Fig. 2].

The church was much destroyed by thesakia installed within its walls. Nothing can

be said of the church layout and construc-tion, but the sakia pit contains much redbrick and lime plaster. Potsherds are scarce,as on other church sites. The date of theMagal church seems to correspond with theearliest ceramics from Helleila, that is, the7th century.

The location pattern of the Middle Nilestrongholds seems to be uniform. Whatevertheir present position with respect to theNile, originally they had all stood close tothe river. This is certainly true of the Deigafortress, for example, as its lower section hasbeen destroyed by flooding.

The ceramic dating of the Deiga for-tress is much later than in the case ofHelleila. In size (60x80 m) and general lay-out, it resembles the fortress of El Kab (situ-ated 180 km upstream). The stronghold'sfive meter thick outer walls, made of mud-bonded stone, are masterly executed andremarkably well preserved [Fig. 3].

Similarly to Helleila, the gates visiblein the ruins are simple, unflanked openingsin the walls (there is no trace of any en-trance pillars, spur or shield walls etc.).However, the pace of modern deteriorationis alarming. The mud-brick church, whichLepsius saw inside the fortress, has all butdisappeared now, as have the fragments ofgranite capitals and columns.

The region around the fortress hadbeen inhabited densely in Christian times.There is another church-site inland fromthe fortress. On top of the Jebel Deiga, thereis the holy shrine of Sheikh Ibn Auf, a wellknown pilgrimage center, marked on the

5 Lepsius visited Helleila on June 7, 1844. The heat was apparently responsible for an embarrassingmistake made by the Prussian measuring team. While the spans between the towers were exact toa centimeter, the length of the fortress extending along the Nile was estimated scores of metersshort (Denkmäler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien, Text V (Leipzig 1913), p. 252 (Fol. IV,4 194° 195,the perfect rectangle published there is in reality a trapezium).

6 Denkmäler, op.cit., V, p. 251.

Fig. 2. Fallen granite columns and capital ofthe Magal church. (Photo B. Żurawski)

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Sudan map Sheet 45-F with the annotationthat it had been visited by pilgrims from Egypt.

The so-called Debba Bend begins a fewkilometers beyond Deiga. Throughout a48 km reach of the river between the estuaryof Wadi Moggadam and Wadi El Melik, theNile flows in a latitudinal direction. Interms of geomorphology and early history,it is the most interesting area in the wholeconcession. The most important landscape-

shaping factor is the southward shift of thehuge dunes from the Nubian Desert.Basins like Affad were formed and dulysanded up, and the huge agricultural areasat Tergis are barely visible in modern aerialphotographs.

Nothing can be said at the moment ofthe layout of the huge Diffar fortress thatnow shelters a few houses. Diffar was vis-ited and drawn by Linant de Bellefonds in

Fig. 3. Bird's eye view of Deiga fortress. Computer image composed of seven low-altitude airphotographs. (Photo B. Żurawski)

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18217 and by Baron von Muller in 1847.8

Compared to the present shape of the kom,the two drawings reveal rapid deteriorationin the most recent times. Today the Diffarfortress is a shapeless mound of sand andstones, although a church site with somegranite column bases still in situ can beseen among the ruins of the eastern, low-ermost part. A granite column shaft liesnearby and a ferrocrete capital a hundred

meters away. Another stone church was re-ported by Linant de Bellofonds oppositeDiffar on Gigernarti Island.9

Oral testimony collected in severalplaces within the concession area (Abkurand Selib), indicates that within the past200 years the Nile bed has been movingcontinuously southwards.

The hamlet of Soniyat (where in 1997a Napatan temple was surveyed, drawn and

Fig. 4. Plan of the Soniyat temple after the 1998 season(Drawing B. Żurawski)

7 Linant de Bellefonds, Journal d'un Voyage a Méroé dans les Années 1821 at 1822 [=SASOP No.4](Khartoum 1958), p. 38, Pl. IX.

8 Johann Wilhelm Baron von Müller, Sitzungsberichte der Kais. Ak. der Wiss, II (1849), p. 333.9 Linant de Bellefonds, op.cit., p. 37.

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photographed from the air) is situated 2250 meast (that is upstream) from Istabel for-tress (the temple temenos is located some600 m south of Soniyat). It was first ob-served and briefly mentioned by LordPrudhoe in 1829.10 Then it must have beenconcealed by dunes, since it escaped theattention of other European travelers.

The temple lies opposite the Tamba-xnarti Island, some 1000 m or so north ofthe Nile. However, there is ample evidenceto suggest that originally the main axis ofthe temple was square with the course ofthe Nile, which then ran significantly closerto it.

The temple sits within a temenos ofwhich only the huge foundation stones of

the gate remain. The stones in questions,set parallel to each other, measure respec-tively 277 x 110 cm and 354 x 110 cm.A test trench dug by K. Ciałowicz in Febru-ary 1998 has revealed small fragments ofthe temenos wall contiguous to the gate[Figs 4-5].

The temple itself lies 95 m south of thetemenos gate. It sits on an alluvial terracecovered by aeolian sand. The geologicalsection exposed in the matara hole dugnearby produced an alluvium continuumgoing down at least 8 m. Abandoned fieldssome 900 m east of the temple were irri-gated once by a rectilinear channel systemseen on a Sudan Survey Department AirPhotograph (taken in 1994). Nothing can

Fig. 5. Excavations in the Soniyat temple in 1998(Photo B. Żurawski)

10 Unpublished typewritten copy of Prudhoe's Journal kept at the Griffith Institute in Oxford. Ac-cess to the typescript was kindly granted by Dr. Jaromir Malek, director of the Griffith Institute.

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be said at the moment about when thesefields were deserted.

The surface potsherds include a con-spicuous amount of Early Christian wares,some with scratched monograms. In thesubsurface layers, Kushite wares stronglypredominate.

Near the passageway linking thepronaos with the hypostyle, a total of over140 bizarre-shaped stones were recovered(in 1997 and in 1998).

The hermeneutics of this extraordinaryfind are ambiguous. At first glance, thestones (together with the celt) resemble"rain stones" used in rain magic by theNilotes of Southern Sudan. However, themore plausible reason for the gathering ofthese stones is the ease with which theycould be tied with a string or rope. Mosthave one or more natural "waistings" to pre-vent a rope tied around it from slipping off.Thus, it seems logical to me that they aresimply fishnet sinkers, the more so sincesome Soniyat stones imitate the Egyptiansinkers published by Oric Bates in HarvardAfrican Studies I.11 At some unspecifiedtime the temple ruin standing on the riverbank started serving local fishermen as aplace to store equipment (hence the depositin question would be additional proof thatthe temple had once stood closer to the river).

Roofing at the southern end of thetemple was supported mostly on columns,of which four have been located. The col-umns were raised on round flat basesplaced directly on the mud-brick floor. Theotherwise regular pattern of this flooringis disturbed in some places as a result of

multiple repairs. (The paving was recordedin a test trench dug this year by Ciałowiczin the middle section of the hypostyle.)

The surviving columns (only the low-est drums preserved) have an averagediameter of c. 70 cm (badly eroded surfaceshave made measurement inadequate). Thecolumn base unearthed further south,which had been covered by a layer of sandmixed with Nile silt, survived in quite goodshape. It preserved some interesting details,namely the graffiti which covered its up-per surface. Multiple unintelligible designsresembling Meroitic script are dominatedby a Meroitic hieroglyph repeated at leastsix times. The same sign was found paintedon the shoulder of a fragmentary wheel-made jar from the Temple of Taharka atKawa.12 It is worth noting that both graffitiand hieroglyphs were scratched on the baseafter the column shaft standing on it hadbeen overturned. It provides stronggrounds for thinking that the building hadbeen damaged severely well in the Meroiticperiod. The Soniyat temenos is located atthe north end of the Tergis mantiqa (theborder between the mantiqas of Abkur andTergis lies halfway between the temple andthe Istabel fortress). The archaeologicalevidence gathered so far, augmented by theliterary sources, strongly suggests that theSoniyat temenos is the religious nucleus ofa bigger urban center located southwest ofthe Istabel fortress, west of the cultivablelands of Tergis and Affad basins and oppo-site the agricultural district on the left bank.The topographical situation of the Soniyattemenos leaves no doubt that it is part of

11 O. Bates, Ancient Egyptian fishing, Varia Africana I (1917), Pl. XXII, nos 193-197, 202-204.

12 M.F.L. Macadam, The Temples of Kawa. II: History and Archaeology of the Site (London 1955),pp. 77, 73, 161 (fig. 53).

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an agglomeration identifiable with Pliny'sTergedum, mentioned in the itinerary ofthe Neronian expedition to the sources ofthe Nile.13 The location of Tergedum inTergis had already been suggested in 1971by Karl-Heinz Priese,14 who calculated thedistances comprised in Pliny's text.

Tergedum was situated most favorablyon the right bank, opposite the highly cul-tivated stretch of the left bank and the is-lands. It probably was also a flourishingtrade center, controlling the huge estuaryof Wadi El Melik, which was a very impor-tant trade route for African products as itsits exactly opposite where the Wadi ElMelik issues into the Nile. Since one of thedetermining factors in the Kushite settle-ment pattern was suitability for trade,15

Tergedum was in a most advantageous po-sition. Since the Nile cargo boats could notsail northwards against the northern windand the swift river current, Tergedum wasthe furthest upstream point that they couldreach, lying as it does at the southernmostpoint of the Debba Bend (the river simplydoes not allow navigation further up-stream).16 This brings to mind an "epigraphi-cal episode" from the Psammetich II expe-dition to Nubia. The Greek graffiti in Doricdialect scratched on the left leg of theRamses II statue at Abu Simbel suggeststhat Psammetich's armada reached a placebeyond Kerkis, as far as the river allowed.

Is the place-name Kerkis to be identifiedwith Tergis=Tergedum? I would welcomesuch an identification. However, furthersurveying in the region might bring to lightother data. Of crucial importance seems tobe the Argi "island", now part of the rightbank but a true island as late as 1905.17 A.J.Arkell reported there a Napatan/New King-dom cemetery lying 3 km east of the river.18

During the first season, the existence of aNapatan cemetery at Argi (N 18°07.92E 30°49.28) was fully confirmed. The burialground, robbed by the Bedouin, extendswestwards (riverward) from the gubba ofWad Idris. It is marked on the surface bylarge quantities of crushed bones, stonesand crude Napatan ceramics.

In the new topographical reality, onequestion should be asked: If Tergis =Tergedum lies at the southernmost reach-able point of the Nile at the ultimate pointachieved by Psammmetik's armada, whythen not identify Tergedum with the place-name Trgb known from the Tanis stela asthe southernmost point reached byPsammetik's army (FNM I 284)? The like-ness of the two names is astonishing, as arethe topographical realities. The archaeo-logical, topographical and epigraphic datagathered so far implies that the place-names Krtn, Kerkis, Tergis and Tergedumdenote one (or two) centers lying nearby.The royal residence of Kwr attested in the

13 Book VI.XXXV. 184-185 (Pliny, Natural History (ed. and transl. H. Rakham) Vol. II (Libri III-VI)(Cambridge 1947), pp. 474-477.

14 K-H. Prieze, Zur Ortsliste der römischen Meroe-Expeditionen unter Nero, Meroitica 1 (1973).15 D.A. Welsby, The Kingdom of Kush (London 1996), p. 139.16 Count (Lord Albert Edward Wilfrid) Gleichen, The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Vol. I (London 1905),

p. 34.17 Gleichen, op. cit., p. 31.18 A.J. Arkell, Varia Sudanica, JEA 36 (1950), pp. 35-36.

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Irike-Amannote text and the Tanis stelacould have found a perpetuation in thename Abkur, the locality nearest to Soni-yat.

Since no Meroitic occupation is attestedat Soniyat, all objects found on the site shouldbe labeled indiscriminately as Napatan. Thesistrum handle (from a well-defined context)in the shape of a nude girl with raised handssupporting a frieze topped by a squatting catalso should be designated as Napatan [Fig. 6].

Bronze objects are abundant at Soniyat.The chemical composition of the alloy in gen-eral complies with results obtained from the

Kawan bronzes. Analyses made at the Cen-tral Laboratory of the Institute of Archaeol-ogy and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sci-ences in Warsaw, reveal the following. Thesistrum handle is cast of a bronze with 12%tin and a considerable, practically 3% contentof lead. A similar composition is revealed bythe Osiris figure (SDRS 36/98). The otherbronze objects tested are cast in bronze hav-ing a much lower percentage of tin, less than6%, down to 1.94%. Gold is low, less than 0.4%,same as arsenic which reaches a maximumlevel of 0.65% in the small Osiris figure (SDRS4l/98).19

Fig. 6. Sistrum handle (SDRS 46/98)(Drawing P. Terendy)

19 The analyses (Nos CL 11767 to 11772) were carried out by Mrs. E. Pawlicka in an EDS spectrometer.

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The numerous fragments of animal fig-ures found in the temple were made of stone-hard terracotta burned to dark brown andthen gilded. The terracotta face (SDRS 19/98,Fig. 7) was hand-modeled in drying clay.After firing, it was painted with a green paintresembling copper verdigris. Its present yel-lowish appearance is the result of a thick yel-low wash with which it was covered when inuse, perhaps as wall decoration. The face re-veals some portrait features, especially in theapparent lack of symmetry. The hole in theforehead was made on purpose before firing.At the back, the aperture is very small and itis hardly possible to pass a thread through it.Rather than a suspension hole, the apertureseems to be a socket for fixing a decorative orsymbolic element made of a material otherthan clay.

Two kilometers to the west of Istabel for-tress (Jebel El Gren), along the road from

Abkur to Argi and further north, there is ahuge post-Meroitic tumuli field (it is one ofthe biggest post-Meroitic cemeteries betweenthe Third and Fourth cataracts).

The tumuli field continues for a kilome-ter or so. Most of the mounds have the cra-ter-like depressions on top which are sugges-tive of robbing in the past. No pre-Christianremains have been found at the Istabel for-tress or anywhere in its nearest vicinity. Thegranite capital and granite column lying onthe southern (riverine) slope of the fortresshill are the earliest architectural remains inAbkur and its surroundings.

A few kilometers downstream fromIstabel fortress, the Nile turns sharply rightand continues northward until Selib, the siteof another fortified Christian-period settle-ment. The locals in Selib tell the same storyas the inhabitants of Abkur, namely that theNile once had passed close by the enclosure,

Fig. 7. Terracotta portrait head (SDRS 19/98)(Drawing J. Bogdańska)

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but had duly turned south a century or soago.

The banks of the wadis giving to theNile at its right bank between Abkur andOld Dongola were densely populatedfrom the Middle Paleolithic to post-Meroitic times. In the wadi estuaries, thequantity of lithics washed away from siteslocated further in the desert is enormous.During rescue operations on the post-Meroitic tumulus 1 in Hamur more thanthree hundred l ithic artifacts werefound.

On some prehistoric sites, shelter post-holes were found. One of the most promis-ing and most complex prehistoric sites wasfound on top of the Jebel Abu Elem risinghigh in the flat desert (N: 18°04'24.5",E: 31°14'20.6").

The most schematic settlement patternin a wadi was found in Khor Jerf Al Mardileading to the Nile at Hamur: MiddlePaleotlitic sites inside a 3-6 km perimeterfrom the river, a Neolithic site within2-4 km, a post-Meroitic tumuli field ata distance of 1-2 km and a Christiansettlement guarded by a fortified enclosureat the wadi's estuary.

Some of the right-bank sites were ac-cessible only from the river due to the en-croaching dunes which reached to theriver bank itself. There is an interestingfortified site guarding a granite ridgecrossing the river halfway between EdDebba and Old Dongola. Judging by theceramics, it was settled in the Early Chris-tian Period and abandoned before the

characteristic Late Christian wares hadappeared.

Apart from Girra, Euros and Tangasi,the Nile islands were generally not visitedduring the first season. A lack of time anddiving equipment prevented us from closerinvestigation of the most mysterious struc-ture in the Middle Nile Region. Two hugepillars rising from the river between EurosIsland and the left bank were first noticedby Edmond Combes in 1834. They are builtof fired bricks bonded by hard lime mor-tar. There are many plausible explanationsfor the Euros pillars enigma, but the finalverdict should be postponed until the nextseason, when a professional diver will testthe surrounding river bed.

The historic process of a southwardshift of the Nile bed is observable today inTangasi-Hamur. Both islands have mergedinto one and were incorporated into theright bank, after blocking the right Nilechannel. It is only the final episode of a longprocess. Within living memory, the rightbank mantiqa of Banganarti was an island,as both name and local oral tradition sug-gest. The fortress of Sinada, recognizable bythe rounded towers and three-meter thickouter wall, once sat on the river bank at themouth of a wadi, and is still partly sub-merged during a high Nile flood. TheHamur Abbasiya village lies astride thewadi. The SDRS concession area ends at thesouthern border of the so-called Aban-doned Village of Old Dongola that lieswithin the limits of the Polish archaeologi-cal concession.