Church of the Granite Columns
The Church of granite columns at Old Dongola (mostly Old Dongola, at the lower end of the large Nilbogens in today's Sudan ) was one of the largest churches in the medieval - Nubian state of Makuria .
In the 6th century, the ancient states of Nubia in what is now Sudan were Christianized. They remained predominantly Christian for the next 900 years and developed rich architecture and art.
The Church of the Granite Columns was very likely the bishopric and thus the cathedral of Old Dunqula, the capital of Makuria. Her real name is unknown. It was excavated by a Polish team in four campaigns from 1964 to 1968 . The building was probably the main church of the Empire of Makuria and united Nubian with Syrian-Armenian elements in the style.
Previous building: the old church
The church of the granite columns had a previous building from the sixth century, the old church . The Old Church was about 110 meters from the Nile and 120 meters from the walled city center of Old Dunqula. The relatively large distance between the church and the actual city center may be due to the fact that at the time of Christianization the city was already densely built up and outgrew the old city center with its city wall. New buildings could therefore only be created on the outskirts.
Not much has been preserved of the building itself, as it was built over by the later church. Most of the time, only the foundation walls could be captured by the excavations, so that it is even difficult to locate the old entrances. The old church was laid out as a three-aisled basilica with an apse in the east. The interior of the church was divided into three naves by four rectangular pillars on each side. In front of the apse was a transept, the length of which exceeded the width of the main room. The main entrance was to the south of the east-facing church. It was probably designed monumentally with a staircase in front, with eleven steps through the actual entrance into the south aisle and from there into the wider nave of the church. To the west of the entrance steps was a staircase that led to the roof or an upper floor. A Byzantine dimension, a foot 308 millimeters long, was used as the basis for the design and construction of the church . According to this, the building was 60 feet wide and 70 feet long. The same foot measurement was also used in the construction of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople .
The building was made of air-dried clay bricks, but later additions or repairs were also carried out with fired bricks. A baptistery was located south of the apse and could be entered from the extension of the transept. The location of the baptistery was typical for church buildings of this period in Nubia, but also in Egypt. In the rectangular room was the actual baptismal font, carved into the rock and reinforced with fired bricks . It was about six feet deep and had two flights of stairs that led down four steps from the east and west. On the waterproof plastering of the baptismal font there were remains of wall paintings that reproduced an imitation marble.
The old church is the oldest church building in the city. Based on ceramic finds, its construction period can be narrowed down to the years 550 to 650. The building has apparently been rebuilt several times. In particular, the baptismal font in the baptistery was changed at an unspecified time. The stairs leading down into the depths were roofed over at the edge of the pool. The whole pool was made smaller by a cladding made of fired bricks.
There were some other buildings around the church, but only some of them were excavated. Maybe they belonged to a monastery. In the seventh century the old church was torn down and replaced by a new building.
Role models of the building
The Old Church is of some importance for the history of church building in Nubia, as it is one of the oldest churches in this region. Various influences can be identified in the architecture of the old church . The arrangement of the eastern part of the church with its two rooms to the side of the apse and the walk-in gusset behind the apse recurs in churches in Egypt , for example in Taposiris Magna , and Palestine , for example in et-Tabgha . The transept in front of the apse is also well known from these areas as well as from North Africa. The same applies to the shape of the three-aisled basilica itself, the Sbiba in Tunisia , the southern church of Khirbit Hass (Syria), or in church No. 2 in Androna (al-Andarin, Syria), or the church of Casa Herrera finds its parallel at Mérida in Extremadura ( Spain ). Closely related examples from North Africa (e.g. Haidra in Tunisia) can be named for the construction of a staircase outside the central building, as encountered in the old church .
The Church of the Granite Columns
The old church was demolished in the seventh century and a new building was erected. The reasons for this are unknown. However, Alt Dunqula was attacked and besieged by Arabs in the seventh century. There are indications that at least other church buildings fell victim to the city siege. Obvious signs of destruction, however, are missing on the old church . It seems certain that the new church was built before 707, as it served as a model for the Cathedral of Faras, the construction of which is attested to starting this year. The Church of the Granite Columns very likely became the Cathedral of Old Dunqula, a function that the stone floor church apparently previously had .
The church of granite columns , built of burned, red bricks, was 29 × 24.4 meters in size. It was a five-aisle building. A transept inserted in the middle corresponded to the extended central nave of the main room, resulting in a cross-shaped arrangement of the main rooms. A large apse closed off the main nave to the east, while the transept ended in two apses. The main entrance to the church was in the southwest. From there one came into a narrow vestibule that took up almost the entire west side. Three doors led further into the main room. The outside of the church building was apparently hardly designed. There was a small entrance and high but small windows. The actual church interior was divided by 16 columns made of gneiss and granite . They stood in groups of four and left lines of sight along the main and transepts open.
The smooth column shafts , only notched at the top and bottom, stood on undecorated, truncated pyramid-shaped bases and carried ornate capitals made of granite. The shafts were worked very irregularly. The granite bases were set into the brick floor of the church without any further anchoring or reinforcement. In one case, an upside-down unfinished capital was used as the base. The capitals were loosely based on those of the Corinthian order . Narrow stems grew out of simple, stylized wreaths of leaves and rolled up into volutes at the corners of the capitals. The centers of the capital sides occupied different types of crosses. Each capital had its own decoration. The columns were about 5.2 meters high with bases and capitals. The church is one of the few buildings in Christian Nubia in which granite was used on a large scale. However, its name is misleading, as the column shafts consisted of different types of gneiss, while only the capitals were made of granite in the geological sense. The granite for all capitals appears to have come from the same, as yet unidentified, quarry. It is an excellent stone in a greenish-olive hue with crystalline veins, which may have been chosen because of its resemblance to marble.
The floor of the church was largely made of bricks. In the area in front of the main apse, stone slabs were also laid. Of the rising architecture, only the southern wall is still preserved to a significant height. In its upper area, recesses for wooden beams are visible.
In the southeast corner of the church building - and separated from the main apse by another room - was the baptistery, an elongated room that ended in a small apse in the east. In the middle of the room, slightly to the south, a baptismal font in the shape of a Greek cross was set into the floor.
The shape of the roof of the church is unknown. Different solutions are conceivable and verifiable for the Nubian region. The simplest solution would be a simple, flat wooden roof. Another possibility would be that the building had a wooden roof and that there was a dome in the middle, where the main and transepts intersect. Other possibilities are vaults that stretched between the pillars and formed the roof.
The church design is based on two different basic units, a Byzantine foot 323 millimeters long and another 316 millimeters. The outer dimensions of the church took up the larger dimension of 50 × 60 feet, while the smaller foot dimension was used for certain inner walls. Over time, a cemetery developed around the church.
Furnishing
The richly decorated and varied window grilles made of ceramic should be mentioned in particular from the furnishings of the church. Six of them could be completely reconstructed. The windows were therefore usually rectangular, about 51-57 centimeters wide and 75-78 centimeters high. But there was also another grille, which was significantly higher at 95–98 centimeters. In addition, there was at least one grille with an arched top. Maltese crosses , four-pointed stars and cross-shaped fish were found among the decorative patterns on the grids . Every window seems to have had its own pattern.
Fragments of a terracotta tabernacle were found . The church building was partially plastered and probably also painted, but the corresponding remains were extremely poorly preserved.
In 883, the Eparch of Gaderon , an otherwise unknown place, called John, was buried in the Baptistery . He was the son of a Zacharias, probably of Zacharias I , the king of Makuria, and consequently a brother of Giorgios I. A small mastaba with a gravestone was set up for the burial . The associated grave pit only contained a human skeleton, in which the mortal remains of the named John can certainly be recognized.
Models of building and influence on later buildings
The Church of the Granite Pillars brings together different architectural traditions. The outer layout of a relatively uniform rectangle corresponds to Nubian traditions, which in turn have their origins in Byzantine-Coptic church buildings. The interior of the church, on the other hand, is mainly structured by the three apses and the columns. According to Gartkiewicz, the author of the excavation report, this arrangement can be found above all in numerous Armenian churches. So far there are hardly any examples of Coptic churches that could serve as a model for the church of granite pillars. Gartkiewicz therefore clearly sees Armenian role models. He uses the churches of Bagaran , Echmiadzin and Dvin as comparisons, which all have a main and at least two side apses. Derek A. Welsby , on the other hand, is more cautious and mainly names role models in the Syrian region, but also notes that there are no parallels in Egypt. W. Godlewski, however, remarks that the church was built at a time when large parts of the Christian world had been conquered by Muslims and suspects a completely independent creation. In any case, there are no earlier dated examples in Nubia of the cruciform internal spatial structuring.
The Armenian or Syrian influence cannot be easily explained. It may have been mediated by Nubian travelers who got to know such churches in Armenia or other countries. Nothing comparable is known from Africa. However, foreign workers are attested in Egypt and there is nothing to prevent foreign builders or architects from working in Nubia. Even Byzantine builders are attested in writing for the construction of the church of Ikhmindi in Lower Nubia.
The church was probably a model for other church buildings in Nubia. First of all, the Cathedral of Faras should be mentioned. Even the poorly preserved cathedral of Sai seems to follow the building type of the church of granite columns . The same applies to a church in Lower Nubian Aksha , which was built into the local pharaonic temple.
The church with the brick pillars
The Church of the Granite Columns was completely rebuilt - probably at the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries. The resulting structure is called the church with the brick pillars . 22 additional pillars made of fired bricks were erected within the main and transepts. They rested on a square base and had smooth round shafts. They were covered with thick plaster and were about three feet in diameter. The main apse was raised, and semicircular steps were integrated. An altar made of burnt bricks was erected in front of it. The quality of this work is described as rather negligent. John's grave was leveled in the baptistery. His tombstone was walled up as part of the floor. The baptismal font was covered. A new, now round baptismal font was created in the room south of the main apse. Next to it stood an altar, which is a re-turned stone block bearing the inscription of the Nubian pharaoh Taharqa .
Since this is the last significant construction phase of the church, even some parts of the church inventory have been preserved. A bronze incense burner is likely a Byzantine work. It is richly decorated and shows saints in raised relief on the outside. He was found hidden in the ground. Among the finds is a limestone foot that may have come from a throne, table or chair. The necropolis continued to develop around the church. In some cases, quite sophisticated tombs with mastaba-like superstructures were built.
The end
In the fourteenth century the Makurian Empire faced numerous problems. Old Dunqula was besieged several times by the Arabs and finally abandoned as the capital. During this time, a large part of the population also apparently converted to Islam .
The church with the brick pillars was destroyed during this time - possibly during a city siege - and not used again for an indefinite period of time. Layers of sand deposits were found. After that there are signs of a new Christian use, but on a very modest level. The roof of the now restored church was probably made of palm leaves. This poor phase did not seem to last long. The church was abandoned and used as a quarry. Remains of an Islamic residential building were found on the ruins, some of which used the still standing walls of the church. At that time, Alt Dunqula was the provincial capital in the Sultanate of Sannar .
Polish archaeologists excavated Faras Cathedral between 1961 and 1964 and were completely surprised by the rich findings. Kazimierz Michałowski , the then professor of archaeologist in the Mediterranean region at the University of Warsaw , decided to carry out further investigations in Sudan. In 1964 the excavations began in Old Dunqula. One of the first buildings to be examined was the Church of the Granite Pillars. So far it is the only one of the buildings explored during the excavations in this city that has been fully published in a monograph.
The remains of the church can be visited today. The columns were partially erected again after the excavation.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gartkiewicz: Cathedral in Old Dongola. Pp. 30-107.
- ↑ Gartkiewicz: Cathedral in Old Dongola. Pp. 73-74. The measure could be determined by placing a grid on the plan, whereby the church was exactly 60 feet wide and 70 feet long, but without the part of the building in the west with the small porch.
- ↑ Gartkiewicz: Cathedral in Old Dongola. Pp. 45, 63, fig. 27
- ↑ Gartkiewicz: Cathedral in Old Dongola. P. 38.
- ^ W. Godlewski Christian Nubia - after the Nubian Campaign, suspected destruction of the church during the Arab siege ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Włodzimierz Godlewski: The Role of Dongolese Milieu in the Nubian Church Architecture. In: Martin Krause, Sofia Schaten (Ed.): Themelia. Late Antiquity and Coptological Studies. Peter Grossmann on his 65th birthday (= languages and cultures of the Christian Orient. Vol. 3). Reichert, Wiesbaden 1998, ISBN 3-89500-063-9 , pp. 127-142, here p. 130.
- ↑ Gartkiewicz: Cathedral in Old Dongola. Pp. 110-262.
- ↑ Gartkiewicz: Cathedral in Old Dongola. Pp. 131-143, 185-203.
- ↑ Gartkiewicz: Cathedral in Old Dongola. P. 120, footnote 27 suspects tombos .
- ↑ discussed in: Gartkiewicz: Cathedral in Old Dongola. Pp. 234-246.
- ↑ Gartkiewicz: Cathedral in Old Dongola. Pp. 215-216.
- ↑ discussed in: Gartkiewicz: Cathedral in Old Dongola. Pp. 203-211.
- ↑ Gartkiewicz: Cathedral in Old Dongola. Pp. 258-259; see: Welsby: Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia. P. 93.
- ↑ Welsby: Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia. P. 155.
- ^ Włodzimierz Godlewski: The Role of Dongolese Milieu in the Nubian Church Architecture. In: Martin Krause, Sofia Schaten (Ed.): Themelia. Late Antiquity and Coptological Studies. Peter Grossmann on his 65th birthday (= languages and cultures of the Christian Orient. Vol. 3). Reichert, Wiesbaden 1998, ISBN 3-89500-063-9 , pp. 127-142, here pp. 139-141.
- ↑ Gartkiewicz: In: Paul van Moorsel (Ed.): New Discoveries in Nubia (= Egyptologische Uitgaven 2). Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1982, ISBN 90-6258-202-8 , p. 68, footnote 67; see: Welsby: Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia. P. 155.
- ↑ Welsby: Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia. P. 155.
- ↑ discussed in: Gartkiewicz: Cathedral in Old Dongola. Pp. 264-304.
- ↑ S. Jakobielski: Polish excavations in Old Dongola. In: Wilfried Seipel (Ed.): Faras. The cathedral from the desert sand. Skira et al., Milan 2002, ISBN 3-85497-042-0 , pp. 61-62.
literature
- Przemysław M. Gartkiewicz: The cathedral in Old Dongola and its antecedents. = Katedra w Starej Dongoli i poprzedzające ją budowle . Éditions Scientifique de Pologne, Warsaw 1990, ISBN 83-01-04459-4 (the excavation report, typographically not good and with poor image quality, but numerous detailed plans; the small finds are not presented here in detail).
- Derek A. Welsby : The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia. Pagans, Christians and Muslims on the Middle Nile . The British Museum Press, London 2002, ISBN 0-7141-1947-4 , pp. 150-151, 251-252 .
Coordinates: 18 ° 13 ′ 33 ″ N , 30 ° 44 ′ 31 ″ E
