Soba (Alwa)
Soba is called the capital of the last Christian medieval empire Alwa in Nubia . The city was on the east bank of the Blue Nile about 22 kilometers upstream from its confluence with the White Nile near Khartoum near the present-day village of Soba Sharq (Arabic sharq: "East"), hence also English: Soba East.
The beginning
There are almost no archaeologically relevant finds from the Meroitic period and hardly any traces from the period after the 15th century. Only a few spoils , such as a 1.5-meter-long ram with which the ancient Egyptian god Amun was depicted and which could have come from the 2nd century AD because of a partially preserved king's cartouche at its base, were found built into the foundation walls in 1821. According to Welsby, the discovery of a relief of the Cushitic goddess Hathor and a sphinx in Hill B support the thesis of a Meroitic origin. The excavation finds are spread over an area of approx. 2.75 km².
The oldest building remains come from the time after the fall of the Meroitic Empire and before the conversion of the state to Christianity. A stone pyramid could be excavated from this time. It is apparently a grave monument, but the burial chamber could not be found.
The Christian time
Around 580 the city and the state were converted to Christianity. The oldest church (church on hill C), which was the only one with granite pillars, probably dates from this time. The residential development at that time consisted mainly of round wooden huts. These were later replaced by rectangular ones made of clay. The first appearance of the sobaware is characteristic of this period.
To the north of Church C are the remains of the brick wall of the two interconnected churches A and B, whose size can be compared with the largest church buildings in Old Dongola and Faras . There are three construction phases for church A. Only the barrel-shaped crypt remains from the oldest church . The foundation walls of a five-aisled basilica with a large portal in the west and entrances on both sides come from phase two . In phase three these side entrances were bricked up and some partition walls were changed. In the area of the chancel, part of the floor made of irregular marble slabs was exposed. Church B was so badly looted that it is no longer possible to tell from the foundation walls whether it was also a five-aisled or a three-aisled basilica with side extensions. Between the nave (naos) and the chancel ( haikal ) , as is customary in Orthodox churches, there was a partition ( higab, see: Iconostasis ), initially bricked and later made of wood, as can be seen from the post holes in the marble floor. The floor in the Naos consisted of rows of triangular clay slabs, which were separated by alternating rows of rectangular slabs.
The city was at the exit of the insignificant Wadi Soba; a topographical advantage that spoke in favor of the founding of a capital at this point does not seem to be given, especially since fortifications apparently never existed. About 100 flat, up to two meters high mounds of earth are distributed over the urban area, which are now separated by some watercourses that serve to irrigate the surrounding fields. Apart from the hills covered with bushes and partly broken bricks, a few foundation walls and a few erected stone pillars, little remains of the city. Some of the hills are partly natural elevations and were probably built on to protect against periodic flooding. In some places simple huts seem to have stood in the plains between the hills.
Two types of settlement mound can be distinguished. Buildings made of unfired bricks came to light during excavations from hills covered with gravel. 17 to 29 of the hills are covered with brick rubble and contain building remains made of burnt bricks, although these are much poorer preserved as they were frequent targets of stone robbers. During excavations in the winter months of 1950–1952 and 1981–1983, several churches were excavated throughout the city. In one of the hills the remains of three churches were found, two other hills contained the remains of two churches each. In the center of the city were two large churches, a small church and a large residential building that may be a royal or episcopal palace.
The findings of the excavations testify to the prosperity of the city. Imported glasses, Islamic ceramics and shards of Chinese porcelain from the 9th to 12th centuries were found, which provide clues for dating the mound layers. The tombstone of Alwa ruler David from 1015 was discovered between the clay foundation walls in the floor of building D.
The Sakia bucket wheels , known from the north, were used to irrigate the fields, and the fields in the area were described by travelers. In general, however, it is difficult to get an idea of the structure of the city as it has only been little explored.
Contemporary descriptions
The city made a special impression on the few Arab travelers who came here. Ibn Selim describes that it has beautiful buildings and large monasteries, as well as churches that are richly decorated with gold and gardens. There should even have been a suburb where Muslims lived. Also in the 10th century, Soba is mentioned by al-Masudi as a "powerful city".
The end
In the thirteenth century there are signs of the city's decline. Some of the large churches were used as houses. Two of the churches that were excavated in 1982 and 1986 were probably in ruins by the beginning of the 13th century. Some rich tombs were looted at that time. According to the Funjchronik , the city was conquered by them in 1504 . The city had already been threatened repeatedly by Arab peoples from the eastern desert and Funj. The archaeological evidence suggests that the city was largely in ruins by 1500. David Reubeni , traveling north through Soba from Sennar, found only a few residents living in wooden huts in 1523. In the 17th century it was probably still a smaller place.
exploration
The city was first described in modern times by the French Frederick Caillaud in 1821 . In 1844, Karl Richard Lepsius saw a gravestone inscribed on both sides in Old Nubian , which was dated to the year 897, bronze vessels with similar letters and some classic Venus statuettes. For the entire 19th century there are reports that the place served as a quarry for Khartoum . The first excavations took place in 1903 on behalf of the British Museum by Wallis Budge , who considered Soba to be originally Meroitic, mainly because of the ram that was found. It is unclear whether this animal figure comes from a Meroitic temple at this point, or was only brought here later. Because of the discovery of Coptic crosses on stone pillars and some bronze crosses, Budge described his excavations as the remains of a Meroitic temple that had been converted into a church. This assessment was taken from Francis Llewellyn Griffith . Somers Clarke dug here in 1910, and there were further investigations from 1950 to 1952 by Peter Shinnie , who undertook experimental excavations at the church and three other mounds. Hill cuts and excavations took place from 1981 to 1992 under the direction of Derek A. Welsby ( British Museum , London).
After the excavation and documentation by Welsby, the field of ruins, which is located on the edge of irrigated fields, was left to its own devices. The excavation area is littered with pot shards and is recognizable between 300 meters and one kilometer from the Nile. Finds were made in an area of 2500 meters north-south and 1500 meters east-west. The same bricks that were used to build soba are still baked along the banks of the Nile.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Francis Llewellyn Griffith: Karanòg: the Meroitic inscriptions of Shablul and Karanòg. University Museum, Philadelphia 1911. Internet Archive
literature
- Derek A. Welsby: The Mediaval Kingdoms of Nubia. London 2002, pp. 120-21, ISBN 0-7141-1947-4
- Derek A. Welsby: Soba East . In: Derek A. Welsby / Julie R. Anderson (eds.): Sudan, Ancient Treasurers . British Museum Press, London 2004, pp. 227-229 .
- Mohi El-Din Abdalla Zarroung: The Kingdom of Alwa. African Occasional Papers No. 5, The University of Calgary Press 1991
Web links
- DA Welsby and CM Daniels: Soba. Historical summary. Arkamani. Sudan Electronic Journal of Archeology and Anthropology
- Jay Spaulding: The Fate of Alodia. Meroitic Newsletter, 15, 1974, pp. 12–39 (PDF file; 2.35 MB)
Coordinates: 15 ° 31 ′ 26.3 " N , 32 ° 40 ′ 51.4" E