Early on the morning of Saturday April 14, shortly after the call to prayer, residents of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum heard mortar and artillery fire as intense fighting broke out between the state army of country, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) inspired by a rival general named Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The fierce street fighting has put the African country’s transition to democracy in grave danger. But the violence also threatened something else precious. For deep in the country’s desert sands, a Polish-led team of archaeologists are working feverishly at Old Dongola, an ancient city in what is now Sudan’s Northern State. There, archaeologists have uncovered a unique trove of ancient Christian art, including examples of Christian iconography that have never been seen before.
In the 6th century, Old Dongola was the heavily fortified urban center of the Coptic Kingdom of Makuria, a Nubian dynasty that at its height was as large as Spain and France combined. The city was a thriving cultural citadel fueled by close trade ties with the Egyptian Empire, whose merchants arrived on ships along the Nile. It was considered a seat of power for Christian archbishops.
“The site is not threatened, at least for now. But you never know which direction a situation like this will go in Sudan,” says Polish archaeologist Artur Obłuski. “Old Dongola is about 300 km north of Khartoum, the main theater of the power struggle in this impoverished country. We built a campus next to the site and offered it to the families we know from Khartoum. They can seek refuge there.
Find a hidden tomb
Obłuski is a specialist in Christian Nubia and director of the Polish Center for Mediterranean Archeology at the University of Warsaw (PCMA UW). Over the past few months, his team has uncovered a hidden complex of rooms filled with ancient Christian iconography. He thinks the art may have been created to aid the King of Makuria in times of need.
The rooms were “unexpectedly discovered” as Obłuski’s team excavated under what were once private homes from the Funj period (16th-19th centuries). The houses were located close to the largest Nubian Christian church ever found in the area. The church was discovered only three years ago through the use of remote sensing techniques and has since been identified as a Great Church of Jesus.
“We believe the chambers could have been a memorial complex devoted to the Makurian elite, if not the royal family,” says Obłuski.
One of the chambers is shaped like a tomb and is decorated with wall paintings and inscriptions suggesting that the chamber was originally part of the church, a place where Eucharistic offerings were carefully stored. “They include Greek inscriptions containing the liturgy of the presanctified gifts,” says Obłuski, referring to the Christian ritual of Lent, during which communion is received from gifts that represent the body and blood of Christ.
The ruins of Dongola, where the murals were found in underground chambers © PCMA UW
To the south, archaeologists have discovered two other rooms covered with wall paintings and, to the west, a larger room once covered with a dome. Work is underway on each room, and Obłuski hopes to excavate each one by fall if archaeologists are able to resume their work safely.
Obłuski’s priority is a mural in the tomb room that has never been seen in Christian iconography anywhere in the world. According to Obłuski, the painting is unique and could change our understanding of how Makuria, and the Christian faith as a whole, rose and fell in what is now modern Sudan.
“Most scholars of the Byzantine period and the art of that time ignore the Nubian civilization as an African periphery that does not deserve wider attention,” says Obłuski.
The mural depicts the Archangel Gabriel embracing a royal figure who himself kisses the hand of Jesus, emerging from a cloud. “When mortals are in contact with saints or Christ, especially in late antique art, the contact is not direct. Mortals hold a cloth or shawl through which contact is maintained,” explains Obłuski.
A unique prayer to God
Next to the paintings are inscriptions that archaeologists have deciphered. The inscriptions make several mentions of a king named David and plead with God to protect the city.
The town mentioned is probably Old Dongola, while King David is probably the royal figure depicted. David was one of the last rulers of Christian Makuria – his reign marked the beginning of the end of the kingdom. In 1275, he decided to launch a crusade-like attack on Egypt, for unknown reasons.
The Mamluk Egyptian army retaliated by invading Nubia, and in 1276 Old Dongola was sacked for the first time in its history. Obłuski says the painting can be dated precisely to when the Mamluk army arrived in Old Dongola in 1276, devastating its people and culture. It is possible that the painting was created as the Mamluk army approached the city – or as they besieged it – in hopes of divine intervention.
“They tore down the Great Church of Jesus and replaced King David with a new leader,” says Obłuski. “It triggered a steep decline of the Makurian kingdom and the Christian faith in the region.”
King David escaped from Dongola and made his way to the kingdom of al-Abwab, where he was captured by his king and delivered to the Mamluks. He would have died in a Cairo prison.
For nearly a century after, the kingdom of Makuria was ruled by puppet kings crowned by the Mamluks. Power struggles saw the rise of Islam and the persecution of Christianity. Today, it is estimated that more than 90% of Sudan’s population is Muslim, while only 5% is Christian, according to recent data from the Pew Research Center. “In 1317, the first Muslim ruler of Makuria established a mosque in the city. It remains the oldest preserved Muslim place of worship in Sudan,” says Obłuski.
The find at Old Dongola is part of the Urban Metamorphosis of the community of a Medieval African Capital City (UMMA) project, funded by the EU’s European Research Council. The project, which began in 2018, will continue to fund the excavation and conservation of Old Dongola artifacts, allowing us to better understand the region’s transformation from a Christian capital to the epicenter of Islamic faith in Sudan, a country that is still struggling to find out how people of all beliefs and faiths can live together side by side.
