Gebel Adda

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Gebel Adda (Egypt)
Gebel Adda
Gebel Adda
Location in Egypt

Gebel Adda , also Jebel Adda ; was a mountain on the bank of the Nile near the southern border of Egypt with a settlement at its height, which was developed into a fortified city in the Meroitic period and was important as a defensive fortification until the end of the Christian period in the 15th century. The oldest surviving monument was an ancient Egyptian rock temple on its flank, which was recovered before the entire area sank in the rising Lake Nasser at the end of the 1960s .

location

Gebel Adda was in Lower Nubia , on the right, eastern bank of the Nile between the 1st and 2nd cataracts, five kilometers southeast across from Abu Simbel . There were several smaller settlements from Christian times in the vicinity, the church of Kaw was preserved from the place 20 kilometers downstream on the same river bank , exactly opposite were Abdallah Nirqi and Tamit . The current border with Sudan runs 20 kilometers south. The burial grounds of Qustul halfway between were flooded, as were all other places in the late 1960s to early 1970s.

The Gebel Adda rose from the flat surroundings directly on the banks of the Nile as a table mountain with steep slopes on all sides. The Egyptian temple is often named after the modern village of Abahuda (Abu Hoda), which was located at the foot of the mountain. The mountain fortress appears in Arabic sources under the name Daw . The place was probably the capital of the late Christian Nubian kingdom of Dotawo .

history

At the beginning of the New Kingdom in the 16th century BC BC Egyptian pharaohs conquered the Nubian part of the Nile in several campaigns against the kingdom of Kerma and had temples built in several places and immortalized in inscriptions by the 12th century. A rock temple at Gebel Adda comes from Haremhab (ruled around 1319–1292).

A box from Gebel Adda with decorated ivory inlays, 4th century AD

During the later Kushitic empire (from the 3rd century BC) the existing settlement was surrounded by a defensive wall, the simple construction of which was changed and expanded several times until the Christian era. After Egypt became a Roman province , Gebel Adda was located within a protected zone called Triakontaschoinos , which was administered by an Egyptian governor. From the middle of the 3rd century AD, the area was exposed to attacks by the Blemmyes from the south, who controlled Lower Nubia in the following century. Between the 2nd and 4th centuries, Gebel Adda was an important provincial center together with Faras . Graves of a large cemetery have been preserved in the plain from the X- Gruppe period (around 350 to 550).

The spread of Christianity in the Byzantine period and the construction of the first churches in the region began in the middle of the 6th century. At this time, a Christian influence can also be demonstrated in Gebel Adda: amphorae decorated with Christian graffiti in the form of Greek crosses came to light in a grave belonging to the X group . It was not a Christian burial site, but the find provides an indication of the spread of the Christian symbol. In the late Christian period through the 16th century, Faras, Qasr Ibrim, and Gebel Adda were the largest fortified cities in Lower Nubia. A building complex at this time could possibly have been the Palace of the Kings of Dotawo. Large parts of the village were rebuilt in the 13th century, and next to the palace area, other larger buildings and a church were built. In the 14th century the palace and the defenses were expanded again. The kingdom of Dotawo is best known for its inscriptions from Gebel Adda and Qasr Ibrim. In 1155 a bishop of Selim and a king of Dotawo are mentioned in a text from Qasr Ibrim. A letter from Gebel Adda dated 1484 mentions King Joel as well as nobles and church leaders.

From the 13th century onwards the Mamluks attacked the Nubian Christian empires. In response to previous Nubian raids, Sultan Baibars I sent a force in 1276 to overthrow the Makurian king David in Dongola . On the way there were fights at Gebel Adda and Meinarti , up to the decisive battle in Dongola, which was victorious for the Egyptians. From this time on, the Egyptian Muslims increasingly dominated the politics of the Nubian empires. The Makurian rulers in Lower Nubia also suffered from raids by nomadic tribes. With Egyptian support they succeeded in 1364 at Gebel Adda a victory against the insurgents. Presumably the mountain fortress became their refuge from which they ruled the Dotawo Empire. In the 1560s, the Ottomans established a garrison in the fortress city of Qasr Ibrim and on Sai Island . Dotawo had disappeared before.

Research history

European travelers of the 19th century described the striking rocky mound visible from afar and the ruins of the former city next to the village of Abahuda. Count Anton von Prokesch-Osten counted 70 small burial mounds ( tumuli ) made of stones and mud bricks in the sand hollows at the foot of the mountain , which the locals believed to be the graves of Islamic martyrs (saints) who perished during the conquest of the Christian settlement. Prokesch-Osten considered the place to be a Roman foundation. On the rocky slope he discovered the "rock tomb of Abahuda", the pharaonic temple that was later converted into a church, to which he dedicates a paragraph in his travelogue. Arthur Weigall also dated the graves with underground vaulted chambers during his stay in 1906 to the Islamic period ( Fatimid , 10th – 12th centuries).

Ugo Monneret de Villard carried out excavations in Lower Nubia from 1932–33 on behalf of the Egyptian Antiquities Authority and with the support of the Italian Foreign Ministry. He wrote the first detailed account of the fortress and the graves. Monneret, who was mainly interested in the remains of the Christian Middle Ages, uncovered three church buildings in the south of the fortress hill.

In 1959, Mustafa el-Amir started an expedition from the University of Alexandria with the first systematic excavations. In a three-month campaign they uncovered a large part of the Christian cemetery (cemetery 2), as well as six large barrows from the X-group period (cemetery 1), some houses from the late Christian period on the hill and the church that Monneret had already examined 1. The excavations led by Nicholas B. Millet on behalf of the American Research Center built on this. This most extensive work was carried out in four campaigns from 1962 to 1965 between December and April.

Townscape

The ancient and medieval city lay on the summit of the steep hill, from which a somewhat flatter spur extended north to the banks of the Nile. Along this ridge, a narrow path led initially in the northern suburbs through a massive gate, which had been reinforced in the 14th century, up to the housing estate. Access was secured by an adobe tower, to the north of this the city wall from Meroitic times was lost when it was excavated under later Christian and Muslim ruins. The only access was steep and partly by stairs. At the north side was one of stone masonry rectangular platform, probably the base ( stylobat ) formed of a temple. From here the enclosing wall ran over the northeast tip of the hill and at some distance from the settlement along its east side. At least in some places, the mud brick wall was reinforced on the outside by an additional stone wall.

The residential buildings were built as close together as in Qasr Ibrim or Ikhmindi and could only be reached via narrow, winding streets. The walls consisted mainly of adobe bricks, the roofs, constructed as Nubian vaults .

One of the approximately seven churches in the area was preserved between the densely packed residential ruins. It was on the left side of the staircase when the height was reached. The hill reached its highest point in the southwest, where around 1900 scattered fragments of granite columns indicated the location of a larger church. In the rubble were fragments of capitals made of reddish sandstone, one decorated with large smooth leaves. One of the found consoles ends at the side in volutes . Directly above the Meroitic northern defense tower stood another church, which collapsed in the Middle Ages together with the northern outer wall of the tower.

Temple of the Haremhab

The temple in 1906

The small rock temple ( Speos ) was directly above the water surface (at the normal water level of the Nile at that time of 120 meters above sea level). The entrance gate of the temple carved into the sandstone was accessible via 13 steps. A small passage opened into the central hall (anteroom) , divided by four columns, with a rear-walled cella and two side rooms. It was dedicated to the gods Amun-Re and Thoth of Hermopolis , there are also depictions of the goddess Anuket and the falcon-headed Horus . All four Nubian forms of Horus, who are called the lords of the regions, are shown. Reliefs show Haremhab, how he sacrificed to the supreme god of Aniba , Buhen , Quban (Egyptian Baki, across from ad-Dakka ) and Abu Simbel (Egyptian Meha ).

The early Christians converted the temple into a church, covered the walls with a layer of plaster, under which the reliefs of the Egyptian gods disappeared, and painted them with frescoes . Prokesch-Osten describes walls richly covered by Egyptian hieroglyphs and pictures alongside Christian motifs such as Saint George with a red horse over the baptismal font. During the construction of the Aswan Dam , parts of the chapel were cut out of the rock and rebuilt near the temples of Abu Simbel .

literature

  • Dieter Arnold : The temples of Egypt. Apartments for gods, places of worship, architectural monuments. Artemis & Winkler, Munich et al. 1992, ISBN 3-7608-1073-X , p. 78.
  • Hans Bonnet: Real Lexicon of Egyptian Religious History. de Gruyter, Berlin 1952, p. 203.
  • Nicholas B. Millet: Gebel Adda. Preliminary Report for 1963. In: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt. 2, 1963, ISSN  0065-9991 , pp. 147-165.
  • Nicholas B. Millet: Gebel Adda. Preliminary Report, 1963-64. In: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt. 4, 1964, pp. 7-14.
  • Nicholas B. Millet: Gebel Adda. Preliminary Report, 1965-66. In: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt. 6, 1967, pp. 53-63.
  • Mirella Sidro: The rock temple of Abu 'Oda. An architectural and iconographic study. Dr. Kovač, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-8300-2181-X ( Antiquitates 38).
  • Arthur EP Weigall: A Report of the Antiquities of Lower Nubia. The first Cartaract to the Sudan Frontier and their Condition in 1906-07. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1907, p. 141.
  • Derek A. Welsby : The Mediaval Kingdoms of Nubia. London 2002, ISBN 0-7141-1947-4 , pp. 122f., 250, 252.

Web links

Coordinates: 22 ° 17 ′ 49.5 "  N , 31 ° 38 ′ 12.8"  E

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ian Shaw, Robert Jameson (Ed.): A Dictionary of Archeology. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford 2002, p. 249, ISBN 0-631-23583-3 .
  2. ^ Siegfried Richter: Studies on the Christianization of Nubia. Reichert, Wiesbaden 2002, ISBN 3-89500-311-5 , p. 145.
  3. ↑ Welsby, p. 122f.
  4. ↑ Welsby, pp. 250f.
  5. ^ Giovanni Vantini: Christianity in the Sudan. EMI, Bologna 1981, p. 174.
  6. ↑ Islam in Nubia. Nubia Museum.
  7. ^ Welsby, p. 254.
  8. ↑ A. Prokesch Ritter von Osten : The land between the cataracts of the Nile. Karl Gerold, Vienna 1831, pp. 23f., 153–155 ( online at Google Books ).
  9. ↑ a b Arthur EP Weigall, 1907, p. 141.
  10. ^ Nicholas B. Millet, 1963, p. 147.
  11. ↑ Geoffrey S. Mileham: Churches in Lower Nubia. Edited by D. Randall-Maciver. The University Museum, Philadelphia PA 1910, p. 5 ( Eckley B. Coxe Junior Expedition to Nubia. 2), ( online at Archive.org ).
  12. ^ Nicholas B. Millet (1963), p. 53.
  13. ^ Joachim Willeitner: Nubia. Ancient monuments between Aswan and Khartoum. Hirmer, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-7774-7500-9 , p. 46.
  14. ^ A. Prokesch Ritter von Osten, p. 153.