B R I T I S H M U S E U M P U B L I C A T I O N S O N E G Y P T A N D S U D A N 1

THE FOURTH CATARACT AND BEYOND

Proceedings of the 12th International Conference for Nubian Studies

edited by

Julie R. ANDERSON and Derek A. WELSBY

PEETERS

LEUVEN – PARIS – WALPOLE, MA

2014

CONTENTS

CO�TE�TS .............................................................................................................................................. V

CO�TRIBUTORS ...................................................................................................................................... XV

PREFACE ................................................................................................................................................ XXIII

ACK�OWLEDGEME�TS ............................................................................................................................ XXV

ABBREVIATIO�S ...................................................................................................................................... XXVII

I�TRODUCTIO�

YUSUF FADL HASAN and Derek A. WELSBY

Opening Session .................................................................................................................................... 1

SALAH MOHAMED AHMED

An Introduction to the Merowe Dam Archaeological Salvage Project (MDASP) ....................................... 5

THE FOURTH CATARACT A�D BEYO�D - MAI� PAPERS

PREHISTORY

Piotr OSYPIŃSKI

Prehistory of the Fourth Cataract ............................................................................................................. 9

Matthieu HONEGGER

Recent Advances in Our Understanding of Prehistory in Northern Sudan ................................................. 19

Donatella USAI

Recent Advances in Understanding the Prehistory of Central Sudan ......................................................... 31

Maria Carmela GATTO

Recent Advances in the Understanding of Nubian Prehistory in Lower Nubia, Upper Egypt and the Deserts 45

THE KERMA PERIOD

Henryk PANER

Kerma Culture in the Fourth Cataract of the Nile ..................................................................................... 53

Charles BONNET

Forty Years Research on Kerma Cultures ................................................................................................ 81

VI CONTENTS

Brigitte GRATIEN

Kerma North of the Third Cataract .......................................................................................................... 95

Dominique VALBELLE

International Relations between Kerma and Egypt ................................................................................... 103

THE KUSHITE PERIOD

SALAH MOHAMED AHMED

Kushites at the Fourth Cataract  ............................................................................................................... 111

Vincent RONDOT

The Island of Meroe  ............................................................................................................................... 119

Angelika LOHWASSER

Kush and her Neighbours beyond the Nile Valley .................................................................................... 125

THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD

Bogdan ŻURAWSKI

The Fourth Cataract in the Medieval Period  ............................................................................................ 135

Włodzimierz GODLEWSKI

The Kingdom of Makuria ........................................................................................................................ 155

David N. EDWARDS

Medieval Nobadia ................................................................................................................................... 171

Derek A. WELSBY

The Kingdom of Alwa ............................................................................................................................ 183

THE ISLAMIC PERIOD

ABDELRAHMAN ALI MOHAMMED

The Islamic Period in the Fourth Cataract ................................................................................................ 201

INTISAR SOGHAYROUN ELZEIN

Islamic Archaeology in Northern Sudan  .................................................................................................. 209

Michael MALLINSON

The Red Sea Littoral since the Arrival of Islam  ....................................................................................... 217

YUSUF FADL HASAN

The Islamic Sudan and the Outside World, c. 1317-1821 ......................................................................... 227

CONTENTS VII

REPORTS A�D RESEARCH PAPERS

PREHISTORY

Elena A. A. GARCEA

The Evolution from Large Social Units with Loose Networks into Small Social Units with Tight Networks

from the Khartoum Variant to the Abkan and the Pre-Kerma at Sai Island ............................................. 235

Sandro SALVATORI, Donatella USAI, MOHAMED FAROUG ABDELRAHMAN, Antonietta DI MATTEO,

Paola IACUMIN, Veerle LINSEELE and MONGEDA KHALEB MAGZOUB

Archaeology at el-Khiday: New Insight on the Prehistory and History of Central Sudan ........................... 243

Andrea ZERBONI

The Geoarchaeological Contribution to the el-Salha Project: From Site to Landscape at el-Khiday

(Central Sudan) ..................................................................................................................................... 259

Tina JAKOB

A Bioarchaeological Appraisal of the Human Skeletal Remains from e l-Khiday 2, Central Sudan ............. 271

ABDELRAHIM M. KHABIR

Typological and Technological Examinations of Neolithic Pottery from Khartoum Province, Sudan ......... 279

AZHARI MUSTAFA SADIG

Child Burials: A Funerary Practice in the Middle Nile Region. Evidence from the Late Neolithic Site

of es-Sour  ............................................................................................................................................ 285

Przemek BOBROWSKI, Agnieszka CZEKAJ-ZASTAWNY and Romuald SCHILD

Gebel el-Muqaddas (site E-06-4). The Early Neolithic Tumuli from Nabta Playa (Western Desert, Egypt) 293

HEBA-TALLAH A. A. IBRAHIM

Megalithic Architecture and the Nubian Desert ........................................................................................ 303

KERMA A�D CO�TEMPORARY CULTURES

George HERBST and Stuart Tyson SMITH

Pre-Kerma Transition at the Nile Fourth Cataract: First Assessments of a Multi-component, Stratified

Prehistoric Settlement in the UCSB/ASU Salvage Concession  ............................................................... 311

Magdalena WŁODARSKA

Kerma Burials in the Fourth Cataract Region – Three Seasons of Excavations at Shemkhiya .................... 321

Geoff EMBERLING, Bruce B. WILLIAMS, Megan INGVOLDSTAD and Thomas R. JAMES

Peripheral Vision: Identity at the Margins of the Early Kingdom of Kush  ................................................ 329

Enrico DIRMINTI

Between Kerma and Avaris: The First Kingdom of Kush and Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period 337

Pernille BANGSGAARD

Nubian Faunal Practices – Exploring the C-Group “Pastoral Ideal” at Nine Cemeteries ............................ 347

VIII CONTENTS

Petra WESCHENFELDER

Linking the Eastern Desert and the Nile Valley: Pan-Grave People from the Late Middle Kingdom to

the Early New Kingdom  ....................................................................................................................... 357

PHARAO�IC

Florence DOYEN

Sai Island New Kingdom Town (Northern Sudan): 3rd and 4th Seasons (2009-2010) ................................. 367

Giulia D’ERCOLE, Giacomo ERAMO and Italo M. MUNTONI

Archaeometric Approaches to Ceramic Manufacture and Traditions at Sai Island, Northern Sudan  ........... 377

Lauriane MIELLÉ

Nubian Traditions on the Ceramics Found in the Pharaonic Town on Sai Island ....................................... 387

Giacomo CAVILLIER

Soleb 2010 Project: Amenhotep III’s Fortified Complex Research  ........................................................... 393

W. Vivian DAVIES

A Statue of Amenhotep III Rediscovered ................................................................................................. 399

Kate SPENCE and Pamela ROSE

Fieldwork at Sesebi 2010 ........................................................................................................................ 409

Philippe RUFFIEUX

Early 18th Dynasty Pottery Found in Kerma (Dokki Gel).......................................................................... 417

Stuart Tyson SMITH and Michele R. BUZON

Colonial Entanglements: “Egyptianization” in Egypt’s Nubian Empire and the Nubian Dynasty ................ 431

Doris PEMLER

Looking for Nubians in Egypt. Taking a Look at the Iconographic Evidence from the 1st Intermediate Period

and Middle Kingdom ............................................................................................................................ 443

Natalie A. POMERANTSEVA

Images of the Foreigners in Egyptian Art  ................................................................................................ 451

Neal SPENCER

Amara West: Considerations on Urban Life in Colonial Kush .................................................................. 457

Michaela BINDER

Cultural Traditions and Transitions During the New Kingdom Colonial Period and Its Aftermath – Recent

Discoveries from the Cemeteries of Amara West ................................................................................... 487

Danièle MICHAUX-COLOMBOT

Pitfall Concepts in the Round of ‘Nubia’: Ta-Sety, Nehesy, Medja, Maga and Punt Revisited ................... 507

Alfredo CASTIGLIONI and Angelo CASTIGLIONI

À la recherche de la terre d’Amou ........................................................................................................... 523

CONTENTS IX

KUSHITE

EL-SAMANI AL-NASRI MOHAMMED AHMED

The Emergence of Kush .......................................................................................................................... 531

Jean REVEZ

The Role of the Kings’ Brothers in the Transmission of Royal Power in Ancient Egypt and Kush: A Cross-

Cultural Study ...................................................................................................................................... 537

Friederike JESSE

On the Borders of Kushite Power – The Gala Abu Ahmed Fortress in Lower Wadi Howar, Northern Sudan 545

Michael H. ZACH

The Army and Military Dictatorship in Meroe? ....................................................................................... 557

Stanley M. BURSTEIN

The Satrap Stela and the Struggle for Lower Nubia  ................................................................................. 573

Jeremy POPE

Meroitic Diplomacy and the Festival of Entry .......................................................................................... 577

Maria Iride PASQUALI

On the Traces of Nubians: Notes on the Relations between Romans and Meroites .................................... 583

IKHLAS ABDUL LATIEF

The K3 Symbol in Kushite Civilization ................................................................................................... 587

Amarillis POMPEI

Delivery of Nubian Royal Insignia: The Crowns ...................................................................................... 591

Katarina ALDENHOVEN

Kushite Barque Stands ............................................................................................................................ 601

Julie R. ANDERSON and SALAH MOHAMED AHMED

Early Kushite Royal Statues at Dangeil, Sudan ........................................................................................ 613

László TÖRÖK

Quality, Style, and Nubianness. Prolegomena to a History of Meroitic Sculpture ...................................... 621

MURTADA BUSHARA MOHAMMED

The Possible Royal Tomb of Eltameer Merowe ....................................................................................... 635

Julia BUDKA

Egyptian Impact on Pot-Breaking Ceremonies at el-Kurru? A Re-examination ......................................... 641

Brigitte BALANDA

Protecting the Mummy – A Reinterpretation of Shabtis in Napatan Funerary Customs  ............................. 655

Timothy KENDALL

Reused Relief Blocks of Piankhy from B 900: Toward a Decipherment of the Osiris Cult at Jebel Barkal 663

X CONTENTS

Svetlana BERSINA†

Sabazios dans les pays de la vallée du Nil. Variétés régionales de l’image et du culte ............................... 687

Emanuele M. CIAMPINI and Grażyna BĄKOWSKA-CZERNER

Meroitic Kingship and Water: The Case of Napata (B2200) ..................................................................... 695

Tracey SWEEK, Julie R. ANDERSON, SALAH MOHAMED AHMED and Satoko TANIMOTO

Conservation of an Amun Temple in the Sudan ....................................................................................... 703

Karla KROEPER

Excavation of “Offering Chapel 360” in Naga ......................................................................................... 711

Pawel WOLF, Ulrike NOWOTNICK and Catharine HOF

The Meroitic Urban Town of Hamadab in 2010 ....................................................................................... 719

Eugenio FANTUSATI, Eleonora KORMYSHEVA and Svetlana MALYKH

Survey in Abu Erteila: Preliminary Results .............................................................................................. 739

Richard A. LOBBAN

Preliminary Findings at Abu Erteila: A Meroitic and Early Christian Site in Sudan  .................................. 759

Michel BAUD†

Downtown Muweis – A Progress Report (2007-2011) .............................................................................. 763

Marc MAILLOT

The Palace of Muweis in the Shendi Reach: A Comparative Approach  .................................................... 783

Vincent FRANCIGNY

An Elite Meroitic Cemetery at Sai Island  ................................................................................................ 797

MAHMOUD SULIMAN BASHIR

The Archaeological Material from the Meroitic Cemetery at Berber  ........................................................ 805

Tsubasa SAKAMOTO

Chronology of Meroitic Graves in Northern Sudan: Agency, Power and Society ...................................... 809

Serge FENEUILLE, Jean-Pierre LETOURNEUX and Marie BOUCHAR

Archaeological Information Extracted from a Comparative Study of Samples of Mortar Collected on

Various Ancient Monuments in the Nile Valley between the Third and the Sixth Cataracts .................... 827

MEDIEVAL

Marek CHŁODNICKI

The “Royal” Tumulus at Hagar el-Beida .................................................................................................. 833

Brenda J. BAKER

Tracking Transitions in the Fourth Cataract Region of el-Ginefab: Results of the Arizona State University

Fieldwork, 2007-2009 ........................................................................................................................... 841

CONTENTS XI

Eugen STROUHAL

Anthropology of Wadi Qitna and Kalabsha South .................................................................................... 857

Artur OBŁUSKI

Rank-Size Rule in Nubian Settlement Systems  ........................................................................................ 867

William Y. ADAMS

The Eparch at Meinarti............................................................................................................................ 875

Bogdan ŻURAWSKI

Meroitic to Medieval Occupation Upriver from Dongola. Excavations at Banganarti and Selib in 2010 ..... 887

Mariusz DRZEWIECKI

Banganarti – Fortifications ...................................................................................................................... 901

Marta OSYPIŃSKA

Animals in the Economy of Christian Makuria ........................................................................................ 909

Małgorzata MARTENS-CZARNECKA

Nubian Representations of Nativity Discovered in the Monastery in Old Dongola .................................... 917

Magdalena WOZNIAK

Royal Iconography: Contribution to the Study of Costume ....................................................................... 929

Dobrochna ZIELIŃSKA

The Iconography of Power – The Power of Iconography: The Nubian Royal Ideology and Its Expression

in Wall Painting  ................................................................................................................................... 943

Adam ŁAJTAR

A Survey of Christian Textual Finds from Gebel Adda in the Collections of the Royal Ontario Museum,

Toronto ................................................................................................................................................ 951

Giovanni RUFFINI

May God Increase Your Years: Unpublished Old Nubian Correspondence from Qasr Ibrim  ..................... 961

Grzegorz OCHAŁA

Old Nubian Lists of Goods and Money: A Preliminary Presentation  ........................................................ 971

Claudia NÄSER and Alexandros TSAKOS

From Bits and Pieces. A Corpus of Medieval Manuscripts from the Humboldt University (H.U.N.E.)

Concession in the Fourth Nile Cataract  ................................................................................................. 977

Alexandros TSAKOS and Henriette HAFSAAS-TSAKOS

A Note on the Medieval Period of Sai Island ........................................................................................... 985

Robin SEIGNOBOS

Nubia and Nubians in Medieval Latin Culture. The Evidence of Maps (12th-14th Century) ........................ 989

XII CONTENTS

ISLAMIC TO MODER�

NADA BABEKIR MOHAMMED

Fangool Archaeological Site: A Brief Note .............................................................................................. 1005

RAGEH Z. MOHAMED

Bani Ady, Darb el-Arbaiin’s Last Station between Upper Egypt and Nubia in the Islamic period .............. 1009

Alex DE VOOGT

The Introduction of Mancala to Sai Island ............................................................................................... 1017

HAIFA MOHAMMED HASSAN ELTAYEB Sudanese Beautification Ornaments between the Past and the Present  ...................................................... 1021

Armgard GOO-GRAUER

House Decoration by Nubian Women Prior to 1964 Resettlement ............................................................ 1025

Anne M. JENNINGS

The Changing Face of Tourism in West Aswan Village ........................................................................... 1027

Costanza DE SIMONE

Perceptions of Nubia in Museum Collections and Displays ...................................................................... 1031

Salomé ZURINAGA

The Preservation of the Documentary Heritage of the ‘Nubian Campaign’ kept at the Spanish National

Archaeological Museum, Madrid, Spain ................................................................................................ 1035

MULTI-PERIOD

KABBASHI HUSSEIN GISSEMA

The Merowe Dam Salvage Archaeological Project (Sudan) ...................................................................... 1049

FAWZI HASSAN BAKHEIT

Rock Drawing Studies: Four Seasons In The Middle Nile Region ............................................................ 1057

Joanna THEN-OBŁUSKA

The Code of the Hidden Beads – From the Kerma to the Islamic Period According to the Fourth Cataract

Material from the Gdańsk Archaeological Museum Expedition Excavations ........................................... 1069

Ross THOMAS

Changing Societies in the Fourth Cataract: Identity Displayed through Ceramic Use and Consumption

Practices ............................................................................................................................................... 1091

YAHIA FADL TAHIR

Archaeology and Palaeoecology of el-Ga’ab Basin .................................................................................. 1099

ALI OSMAN MOHAMED SALIH

Archaeology and Settlement in the Third Cataract Region. Abu Fatma: A Nubian Settlement from the

Kerma Period to Modern Times  ............................................................................................................ 1107

CONTENTS XIII

Margaret JUDD

Growing Up in Gabati: An Overview of Health ....................................................................................... 1115

SIDDIG BABIKER AHMED

The Archaeological and Ethnographical Reconnaissance in the Sabaloka Area (Western Bank of the Nile,

North of Omdurman District) ................................................................................................................ 1125

Tim KARBERG

Rock Art from Wadi Abu Dom. Recent Discoveries of the W.A.D.I. Project (Münster/Germany) ............. 1135

KHIDIR ADAM EISA

The Recent Archaeological Survey and Salvage Excavations on the Eastern Bank of the White Nile,

8th Season – 2009 .................................................................................................................................. 1143

Andrea MANZO

Beyond the Fourth Cataract. Perspectives for Research in Eastern Sudan .................................................. 1149

YOUSIF ELOBEID ELSHEIKH SALIH

GIS in Archaeology ................................................................................................................................ 1159

LA�GUAGE A�D LI�GUISTICS

Claude RILLY

Language and Ethnicity in Ancient Sudan  ............................................................................................... 1169

Herman BELL

A World Heritage Alphabet: The Role of Old Nubian in the Revitalization of the Modern Nubian Languages 1189

A SURVEY OF CHRISTIAN TEXTUAL FINDS FROM GEBEL ADDA IN THE COLLECTIONS OF THE ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM, TORONTO

ADAM ŁAJTAR

Gebel Adda is a site in Lower Nubia, 50km north of the Second Cataract, more or less three quarters of the way between two major Lower Nubian centres: Qasr Ibrim in the north and Faras in the south. Located on the east bank of the Nile, Gebel Adda boasted a mag-nificent citadel surrounded by extensive cemeteries, a type of spatial organization characteristic of the most important Nubian settlements like Qasr Ibrim or Don-gola. The site was the object of archaeological excava-tions carried out by a mission of the American Research Center in Egypt under the direction of Nicholas Millet between 1962 and 1965. The excavations brought to light important discoveries testifying to the fact that Gebel Adda was a major political and cultural centre from the Meroitic to the Ottoman periods, playing a particularly prominent role towards the end of Nubian Christian civilization between the 13th-15th centuries (Millet 1963; 1964; 1967a). Unfortunately, except for the Meroitic inscriptions1 and some isolated finds,2 the results of the excavations were never published in a final form.3 Artifacts discovered during the archaeo-logical work were dispersed all over the world. The most important objects remained in Egypt and are housed in the Egyptian, the Coptic as well as the Islamic Museums in Cairo, and the new Nubia Museum in Aswan. The majority of the finds together with the documentation ended up in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto where Nicholas Millet was curator of the Egyptian collections from 1970 until his retirement in 1999. A small selection of objects was allotted to the National Geographic Society in Washington DC.

Recently, Krzysztof Grzymski, a senior curator in the Royal Ontario Museum and colleague of the late Nicholas Millet, launched the project of publication of the Gebel Adda finds under his care (Grzymski 2010).

1 Millet included them first into his doctoral dissertation submit-ted to Yale University (Millet 1967b). Later he undertook a new study of this material, which was published posthumously after a manuscript found among his papers (Millet 2005).

2 See especially a pottery shrine found in the medieval building on the citadel published in Millet 1987.

3 The reasons for that are explained by Krzysztof Grzymski in his contribution to the acts of the Warsaw Nubiological confer-ence (Grzymski 2010).

He invited me to work on the inscribed material per-taining to Christian Nubia. In August-September 2007, I spent one month in Toronto documenting this mate-rial. The expenses of my trip to Toronto and my stay there were covered generously from a grant arranged by Grzymski. I would like to thank him most warmly both for the invitation and for assuring the logistic side of my visit to Toronto.

Herewith I would like to present preliminary results of my work on the Christian inscribed material from Gebel Adda housed in the Royal Ontario Museum. However, firstly I would like to say a few words about the Christian inscribed material from Gebel Adda not housed in Toronto.

Among them is the Greek-Coptic document drafted in AD 1027 under King Stephanos. This document, mentioned by Nicholas Millet in one of his preliminary reports from the excavations (Millet 1967a, 59),4 is probably kept in the Nubia Museum in Aswan. Sec-ondly, Toronto does not have the Old Nubian document of AD 1483 with the protocol mentioning King Ioel. Considered to be the latest Old Nubian text known until now, it is kept in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo where it was preliminarily transcribed for me by my friend Dobrochna Zielińska. Thirdly, the Royal Ontario Museum has only one of two inscribed funerary shrouds found wrapped over the bodies buried in a crypt under Church 4 on the citadel;5 the other is kept apparently in the Islamic Museum in Cairo. Finally, lacking in the Toronto collection is the architectural block bearing the inscription naming a King Taanengo (?), otherwise unknown to us. Where the stone, mentioned by Millet, a photo of which he published (Millet 1964, 11, pl. VIII/23), is now kept I do not know.

The collection of Christian texts from Gebel Adda in the Royal Ontario Museum consists of 57 items. Among them are 29 texts in Old Nubian, 13 in Greek and three in Coptic. In 12 cases, the language remains undeterminable due to either a lack of clear language

4 According to Millet, the text contained the last will and testa-ment of a woman named Ioasse.

5 For the conditions of the discovery, see Millet 1967a, 60. For a short description of the Toronto shroud, see below.

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952 ADAM ŁAJTAR

traits, e.g. when the text consists only of names, or the poor state of preservation of the object. One text is bilingual Old Nubian-Greek (the Greek text was added to the original Old Nubian one).

From the physical point of view the objects may be divided into six groups. These groups largely corre-spond with textual categories as the kind of surface on which a given text is written strongly influences its character.

1. INSCRIPTIONS ON STONE

The group contains three items. Two are epitaphs in Coptic. One, commemorating a man (ROM acc. no. 973.24.995), is composed with the formula “One is God, the helper”, the second, for a woman with the name Sara(?) (ROM acc. no. 973.24.996), with the for-mula “The day on which this and this died”, character-istic of the Coptic funerary inscriptions from the core of Lower Nubia (Qasr Ibrim-Faras area) (Plate 1). The third inscription is in Greek but is so fragmentarily pre-served that the determination of its contents is hardly possible (ROM acc. no. 973.24.2830). If it, as is likely, was funerary in character, its form strayed from known formularies of Nubian epitaphs in Greek. The Coptic inscriptions can be dated to the period prior to the 10th century, the Greek inscription is perhaps one or two centuries later.

2. INSCRIPTIONS ON POTTERY

This group of 13 items can be divided into four sub-groups.

a) Owners’ marks. The subgroup is represented by a fragment of a plate with an incised inscription of an eparch (name only partly preserved) (ROM acc. no. 973.24.2032). Most probably another inscription belongs to this subgroup. It is the name Isou (= Jesus) inscribed in black ink on a fragment of a big storage jar (ROM acc no. 973.24.2030) (Plate 2). As the name of Jesus Christ was normally written in an abbreviated form in Nubian literacy one can assume that it is not Him but a particular person (an owner or an addressee of the jar with its filling) who is referred to here.

b) Apotropaica and magica. Nine items can be assigned to this subgroup. One is a fragment of a plate with an incised cryptogram of the Archangel Michael (ROM acc. no. 973.24.2927), another is a sherd of a storage jar with the names of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel written in full in black ink (ROM acc. no. 973.24.2018) (Plate 3). Seven further objects are mag-ical ostraca, all inscribed in black ink. The simplest of them (ROM acc. no. 973.24.1181) has only magical signs. A more sophisticated example (e.g. ROM acc. no. 973.24.889) displays rows of letters and magical words. The most elaborate (e.g. ROM acc. no. 973.24.813; Plate 4) bear texts composed in Greek and fairly close to each other from the formal point of view. They start with the trinitarian formula (“In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”) and con-tinue with magical names and signs including vowels, repeated several times. At the end the conjuration “come, sit down, hear” is found, also repeated several times. The ostraca can be dated to the 12th-14th century on the basis of archaeological criteria. Formal similari-ties observable between their texts allow one to con-

Plate 1. Coptic stela of a woman, Sara(?) (ROM acc. no. 973.24.996).

Plate 2. The name Isou (= Jesus) inscribed on a fragment of a big storage jar, most probably an owner’s mark

(ROM acc no. 973.24.2030).

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A SURVEY OF CHRISTIAN TEXTUAL FINDS FROM GEBEL ADDA 953

sider that there was a local tradition in composing the spells of ritual power. This tradition went back to Late Antiquity as parallel texts from the Graeco-Roman world demonstrate. These magical ostraca could have been carried by persons referred to in the texts as their personal amulets or could have been put into a place,

e.g. near the door of a house or near a bed for personal protection.

c) Documents. Here belong two fragments of a thick plate of the Post-Classic period (12th-14th century), obviously coming from the same object but not con-joining (ROM acc. nos 973.24.897 + 973.24.2034) (Plate 5). They contain portions of a single Old Nubian text written in black ink, which may be described as a

list of deliveries of the same type as those occurring on paper (see below).

d) A school exercise (ROM acc. no. 973. 24.2035) (Plate 6). The text is inscribed with an untrained hand and contains an invocation “Michael, have mercy” with the word “in ages” repeated three times under one another in the left margin.

3. INSCRIPTIONS ON WOOD

The group is represented by an inscribed tablet and a fragment of another. The inscriptions were done in

Plate 3. An ostracon with the names of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel (ROM acc. no. 973.24.2018).

Plate 4. Magical ostracon (ROM acc. no. 973.24.813).

Plate 5. An ostracon with a list of deliveries (ROM acc. nos. 973.24.897).

Plate 6. An ostracon with a school exercise (ROM acc. no. 973. 24.2035).

96798.indb 953 23/05/14 14:14

954 ADAM ŁAJTAR

black ink in both cases. The completely preserved tab-let (ROM acc. no. 973.24.891) has a Greek text in four long lines running lengthwise (Plate 7). The script has faded considerably hence the exact contents of the text are difficult to establish. It apparently was of a literary or sub-literary character and dealt with a New Testa-ment subject. The fragmentarily preserved tablet car-ried an inscription in Old Nubian of unknown charac-ter, also running lengthwise (ROM acc no. 973.24.2162). The completely preserved tablet with the Greek inscrip-tion was found hanging by means of a thread through the holes pierced near its upper edge around the neck of a man buried in a tomb under the so-called “Church 4” on the citadel. A similar use can be assumed for the other tablet, the more so as it also has a hole near its upper edge.6 The funerary content of the tablets sug-gests that their texts most probably had apotropaic functions protecting the buried person from evil forces. Both tablets can be dated to the 12th-14th century on the basis of archaeological criteria.

4. INSCRIPTIONS ON TEXTILE

This group is represented by only one item. It is a linen shroud found wrapped around the body buried in tomb 1039 (ROM acc. no. 973.24.2708). The shroud is in a lamentable condition, broken into numerous small fragments which are difficult to rearrange. They carry different parts of a long inscription in black ink, with a text in Old Nubian. The largest fragment of the text preserves (Plate 8) in its lower part rows of vowels, which show that we are dealing with a magical or apo-

6 In their external appearance, the two Gebel Adda tablets may be compared with a tablet discovered in Qasr Ibrim and now kept in the British Museum, inv. EA 71892 (1990.1–27.75). The inscription on this tablet contains Psalms 149–150 in Greek and Old Nubian. The object was published recently by Giovanni Ruffini (2009). Qasr Ibrim yielded several further examples of similar tablets. They remain unpublished; some are illustrated in Adams 2010, 215-216, pls 43c, d, e, f, with a short description on p. 210.

tropaic inscription destined to protect the person wrapped in the shroud. Archaeological criteria suggest a dating in the period between the 12th-14th centuries.

5. INSCRIPTIONS ON PARCHMENT

With 20 items this is the largest group. It contains texts in all three languages used in script in Christian Nubia, namely Coptic, Greek and Old Nubian. The pro-portion between texts in each of these languages is as follows: Coptic – one text, Greek – eight texts, Old Nubian – ten texts. One text is bilingual Old Nubian-Greek. Except for the Coptic text, which probably dates from the period prior to the 10th century or perhaps even much earlier, all remaining items apparently come from the 11th-13th centuries. All texts – at least when the determination of the contents is possible – are of a literary or sub-literary character. One can suppose that the parchment sheets on which they stand originally formed parts of codices belonging to Gebel Adda’s churches and/or monasteries. This supposition is fur-ther corroborated by the occurrence of pagination on some of the sheets. Several texts deserve to be men-tioned separately here. An irregular fragment from the middle of a sheet inscribed on both sides with big nice uncials preserves portions of Rev. 21.20-23 in Greek (ROM acc. no. 973.24.1161) (Plate 9). The lower outer corner of a sheet inscribed on both sides gives frag-

Plate 7. A wooden tablet with a Greek inscription (ROM acc. no. 973.24.891).

Plate 8. A funerary shroud with an

inscription in Old Nubian (ROM acc.

no. 973.24.2708).

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A SURVEY OF CHRISTIAN TEXTUAL FINDS FROM GEBEL ADDA 955

ments of a creed in Greek (ROM acc. no. 973.24.994) (Plate 10). The text is essentially the same as that found in the form of an ink inscription in the niche in the eastern wall of room 23 of the North-western Annex to the Monastery on Kom H at Old Dongola (Jakobielski and Łajtar 1997). The creed, which is a modified ver-sion of the so-called Symbolum Constanti nopolitanum, might have been the official baptismal creed of the Nubian Church. A tiny fragment of an outer corner of a sheet inscribed on both sides with small letters pre-serves fragments of a liturgical calendar in Greek with a Coptic intercalation (ROM acc. no. 973.24.2932). It lists feasts for the fourth, fifth and sixth days of an unknown month on one side, and the 16th day on the

other (Plate 11). Preliminary research showed that the find from Gebel Adda cannot be identified with any known Byzantine or Coptic calendar. The mention of saints Euphemia, Tryphon and Athenodoros the Bishop rather places it in a Byzantine tradition. Among Old Nubian texts one should mention a text with an Old Testament subject with the mention of the prophet Jer-emiah (ROM acc. no. 973.24.960) (Plate 12); a birth

narrative recognizable through the words Mary, virgin, Jerusalem (ROM acc. no. 973.24.889) and what seems to be a sermon about 24 Elders of the Apocalypse (ROM acc. no. 973.24.993).

6. INSCRIPTIONS ON PAPER

The group has 18 items (including fragments). All of them are in Old Nubian and are documentary in char-

Plate 9. Fragment of a leaf of parchment with Rev. 21.20-23 in Greek (ROM acc. no. 973.24.1161);

a. hair-side; b. flesh-side.

Plate 10. Fragment of a leaf of parchment with a creed in Greek (ROM acc. no. 973.24.1165); a. flesh-side; b. hair-side.

Plate 11. Fragment of a leaf of parchment with a liturgical calendar (ROM acc. no. 973.24.2932).

a

a

a

b

b

b

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956 ADAM ŁAJTAR

acter. All date probably from the latest period of Gebel Adda’s history, i.e. from the 12th-15th century. Three documents stand out in this group by virtue of their length and their contents. One is a contract of sale with payment indicated in gold pieces (ROM acc. no. 973.24.2915) (Plate 13), another is a letter from the Eparch of Nobadia with the name Marianou to the Anteparch Mena concerning fugitive slaves (ROM acc. no. 973.24.936) (Plate 14), and the third a list of slaves (ROM acc. no. 973.24.2916) (Plate 15).7 Six docu-ments form a subgroup on their own. They contain lists of deliveries of corn and wine to or by different per-sons. These lists are paralleled by the inscription on a plate described above, two paper documents from Qasr Ibrim (Browne 1991, nos 61 and 62), and three mural inscriptions: two in the Faras Cathedral and one in the church at Sonqi Tino.8 They are probably connected with the custom of bringing offerings to the church or, alternatively, with the charitable activity of the church.

7 The two latter documents are presented in more details at the end of this article.

8 The Faras and the Sonqi Tino inscriptions are unpublished. All this material is studied by Grzegorz Ochała in his contribution to the Proceedings of the 12th International Congress for Nubian Studies held in London 2010 (Ochala 2014).

In conclusion, the Christian inscribed material from Gebel Adda is both rich and multifaceted. It adds important elements to the picture of Nubian literacy of that period and provides us with information of imme-diate historical value.

Plate 12. A literary text in Old Nubian with an Old Testament subject (ROM acc. no. 973. 24.960); a. hair-side; b. flesh-side.

Plate 13. A contract of sale in Old Nubian (ROM acc. no. 973.24.2915).

a b

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A SURVEY OF CHRISTIAN TEXTUAL FINDS FROM GEBEL ADDA 957

the Makurian state. Its sender was an Eparch of Noba-dia, the highest authority of the Kingdom of Makuria in the north of the country, and its receiver an official designated as anteparch or vice-eparch. We know that Eparchs of Nobadia resided in Qasr Ibrim in the 11th-14th century (and perhaps also earlier),9 which means that the letter under consideration was most probably drafted in Qasr Ibrim. The discovery of the letter in Gebel Adda may suggest that this town was the seat of the vice-eparch unless we assume that the letter reached there by accident.

The addressee of the letter, Anteparch Mena, is a person otherwise unknown to us.10 But we know an Eparch of Nobadia with the name Marianou. He is commemorated by an epitaph in Coptic of AD 1092, once in the possession of the Institute of Egyptology of the University of Leipzig and now lost (Richter 1999, 298).11 If Marianou from the Gebel Adda letter is iden-tical with Marianou from the Leipzig epitaph, the letter can be dated to the second half of the 11th century. Although probable, this date cannot be taken for granted as Marianou was a very popular name in Chris-tian Nubia.

The letter is an order for the arrest of fugitive slaves belonging to a certain Teniellasi. Strangely, no descrip-tion of the slaves is given and even their names were omitted. Perhaps they were easily recognizable or were otherwise known to the people of the anteparch. It would be interesting to know where the slaves fled from and what their destination was. Since the letter was written in Qasr Ibrim and sent to Gebel Adda, one can suppose that they fled in a southerly direction. Per-haps the most interesting piece of information yielded

9 For Qasr Ibrim as the seat the Eparch of Nobadia, see especially Adams 1996, 245-246, and passim.

10 Unless we identify him with Mena, Eparch of Nobadia, the author of an Old Nubian letter (undated) found in Qasr Ibrim, whose addressee was a certain Koummid( ); cf. Browne 1989, no. 22. If so, he advanced from the office of the anteparch to that of the eparch, which seems to be a logical and plausible career progression.

11 Note that Marianou is called only κράτ(ιστος) παρχ(ος) = “the most powerful eparch” in the text of the epitaph, but it is near to certain that he was Eparch of Nobadia.

In addition to the above survey I would like to pre-sent two texts in more detail. The first is written on a sheet of paper, 60mm high and 180mm wide. The sheet is completely preserved except for the upper right-hand corner of the verso. The script is found on both sides of the sheet, whereby one side (verso) bears the main text and the other (recto) – the address. The hand writ-ing majuscules of Nubian type are well executed though not very careful. After the sheet had been inscribed, it was folded four times to be sent as a message.

Verso

Recto

Note. The reading is also possible.

With God. I greet (you). I inform you: Catch this fugi-tive slaves, catch the fugitive slaves of Teniellasi and send these slaves triumphantly to him. I Angelosinkouda, archi-notarios, greet and pay homage to Mena, chaltularios.

Marianou, Eparch of Nobadia, to Mena, Anteparch.

The folding of the sheet, the presence of the address on the recto and the contents of the main text on the verso indicate that what we are dealing with here is an official letter exchanged between two high officials of

Plate 15. A list of slaves (ROM acc. no. 973.24.2916).

Plate 14. A letter from the Eparch of Nobadia Marianou to the Anteparch Mena concerning fugitive slaves (ROM acc. no. 973.24.936); a. verso; b. recto.

a

b

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958 ADAM ŁAJTAR

by the letter is that the Eparch of Nobadia exercised police functions in addition to administrative and com-mercial ones. Apparently the owner of the fugitive slaves made a report to the eparch who reacted accord-ingly using the means to his disposal.

An interesting element of the letter is the greeting from an official called archinotarios to another official designated as chartularios. This archinotarios must have been the man who personally drafted the letter to the dictate or, simply, to the order of the eparch. He was an employee of the eparchal chancery in Qasr Ibrim or perhaps even its head.12 Chartularios was obviously the counterpart of archinotarios at the court of the anteparch in Gebel Adda.

The second text stands on a sheet of paper with the dimensions 172mm in width and 46mm in height. The sheet is quite well preserved. One observes only two small holes in the horizontal line of folding, and a tear along the vertical line of folding. The paper is very dirty. The sheet is inscribed on only one side with black ink. The script is Nubian type majuscules slightly inclined to the right. After the inscription was executed, the sheet was folded first horizontally four times and then vertically one time.

Peeinasse – a slave, Pirre – a slave, Garketa – a slave, Kajjenga – a slave, Appepe – a slave, Gelle – a slave, Mashkese – a slave, D[ . . . ]ti – a slave, Gushsheme – a slave, Shegame – a slave.

The document contains a list of slaves. The purpose of preparing such a list is unknown. Since it was sent as a message it probably contained names of persons known to the sender (the writer) but unknown to the receiver (the addressee). Perhaps it is a list of fugitive slaves accompanying the order of arrest sent after them. If so it could have been attached to the preceding doc-ument that speaks about fugitive slaves but does not give their names. However tempting this explanation of the purpose of the list cannot be taken for granted as other possibilities exist including a list accompanying

12 The office of Archinotarios of the Eparch (most probably of Nobadia) is otherwise attested in a Greek epitaph of Marianou, Bishop of Qasr Ibrim, who died in AD 1132. There it is stated that the dead man fulfilled the office in question at an earlier stage of his career. For the publication of the epitaph, see Łajtar and Van der Vliet 2010, no. 21.

a group of slaves transported from one place to another, a list of purchased slaves, a list of slaves appointed to do some work, a list of slaves belonging to one house-hold, etc.

Of the names occurring in this document only (written ) has been attested so far in an

Old Nubian document from Qasr Ibrim (Browne 1991, no. 34 i 16). All remaining names appear for the first time here. It should be observed that all names are of Nubian origin. Either the persons listed here were Nubians or, if black slaves, were given Nubian names.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adams, W. Y. 1996. Qasr Ibrim. The Late Mediaeval Period. Egypt Exploration Society. Excavation Memoir 59. London.

Adams, W. Y. 2010. Qasr Ibrim. The Earlier Medieval Period. Egypt Exploration Society. Excavation Memoir 89. London.

Browne, G. M. 1989. Old �ubian Texts from Qasr Ibrim II. Egypt Exploration Society. Texts from Excavations 10. London.

Browne, G. M. 1991. Old �ubian Texts from Qasr Ibrim III. Egypt Exploration Society. Texts from Excavations 12. London.

Grzymski, K. 2010. ‘Gebel Adda Revisited’, in W. Godlewski and A. Łajtar (eds), Between the Cata-racts. Proceedings of the 11th Conference for �ubian Studies, Warsaw University, 27 August - 2 September 2006, Part Two: Session Papers. PAM Supplement Series 2.2. Warsaw, 25-30.

Jakobielski, S. and A. Łajtar, 1997. ‘Ein Glaubensbek-enntnis aus Alt Dongola (Sudan)’, JJP 27, 7-26.

Łajtar, A. and J. Van der Vliet 2010. Qasr Ibrim. The Greek and Coptic inscriptions. JJP Supplement XIII. Warsaw.

Millet, N. B. 1963. ‘Gebel Adda Preliminary Report for 1963’, JARCE 2, 147-165, pls XLV-XLVII.

Millet, N. B. 1964. ‘Gebel Adda Expedition Prelimi-nary Report, 1963-1964’, JARCE 3, 7-14, pls I-VIII.

Millet, N. B. 1967a. ‘Gebel Adda Preliminary Report, 1965-66’, JARCE 6, 53-63.

Millet, N. B. 1967b. Meroitic �ubia. PhD thesis avail-able through the University Microfilms International.

Millet, N. B. 1987. ‘Nubian heraldry’, JSSEA 17, 33-35.

Millet, N. B. 2005. ‘The Meroitic Inscriptions from Gebel Adda’, JSSEA 32, 1-65.

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Ochała, G. 2014. ‘Old Nubian Lists of Goods and Money: A Preliminary Presentation’, in J. R. Ander-son and D. A. Welsby (eds), The Fourth Cataract and Beyond. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference for �ubian Studies. Leuven-Paris-Wal-pole, MA, 971-976.

Richter, T. S. 1999. ‘Die neun Stelen Ägyptisches Museum der Universität Leipzig Inv.-Nr. 680-688 mit der Herkunftsangabe Qasr Ibrim’, in S. Emmel, M. Krause, S. G. Richter and S. Schaten (eds), Ägypten und �ubien in spätantiker und christlicher Zeit. Akten des 6. Internationalen Koptologenkon-gresses, Münster, 20.-26. Juli 1996, Band 2: Schrift-tum, Sprache und Gedankenwelt. Sprachen und Kul-turen des christlichen Orients 6/1. Wiesbaden, 295-304

Ruffini, G. 2009. ‘Psalms 149–150: A bilingual Greek and Old Nubian version from Qasr Ibrim’, ZPE 168, 112-122.

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