Zankor
Zankor refers to an ancient city in what is now Sudan. It is located about 5 km west of Wadi el-Melek in the Kordofan region .
The city is built partly from stone and partly from adobe buildings. A round city wall surrounds the central settlement, which measures around 300 m in diameter. There is also a lower town with an area of around 4 km², which is also partly surrounded by individual walls. The city complex experienced its heyday probably parallel to the Meroitic period , but the very independent ceramic style shows that the dominant culture here was essentially independent of the Nile valley.
There is currently no evidence of a later settlement phase for the urban area itself, but numerous extensive tumulus cemeteries in the area, some of which date back to the 13th and 14th centuries AD , suggest that it could be used until the Middle Ages .
The ruined city was discovered in 1924 by the British colonial official AED Penn . Systematic excavations, however, only took place between 2002 and 2005 under the direction of Brigitte Gratien .
literature
- Brigitte Gratien: Prospection dans le Kordofan occidental, autour de Zankor et d'Abou Sofyan (2002–2005) . In: Godlewski, W., Łajtar, A. & Zych, I. eds .: Between the Cataracts. Proceedings of the 11th Conference of Nubian Studies, Warsaw. PAMS 2, 2010. pp. 237-246.
- Brigitte Gratien: Abou Sofyan et Zankor - prospections dans le Kordofan occidental (Soudan). Villeneuve-d'Ascq, 2013
Individual evidence
- ^ Penn, AED: The Ruins of Zankor, with plates . In: Sudan Notes and Records 14.2, 1931, pp. 179-184
Coordinates: 13 ° 51 ′ 33 " N , 27 ° 57 ′ 47" E