Abstract
Abstract Excavations at Old Dongola in 2018/2019 led to the discovery of a quarter of wattle-and-daub houses located outside the town walls. The houses, dated to the 17th − 18th century, are arranged in compounds and visibly differ from other dwellings. This paper aims to identify the functional and social organisation of domestic space, based primarily on the analysis of access and activity areas. It sheds light on the relations of private and public space as well as gender divisions. The paper also addresses the question of the identity of dwellers and the social structure of the town in the Funj period.
Highlights
Archaeological Context and Historical Setting Old Dongola is located on the right bank of the Nile, almost halfway between the Third and the Fourth Cataracts, at the southern edge of the Letti Basin (Godlewski 2013: 7) (Fig. 1)
Objectives of This Paper The aim of this paper is the analysis of the use of space in wattle-and-daub houses in the 17th and 18th-century Old Dongola
An important question to address is whether this particular technique might have been related to certain economical or environmental conditions or was rather dependent on the building tradition of a particular group of people. This leads to another question concerning the relation of wattle-and-daub architecture to other houses in Old Dongola, which are built of sun-dried brick
Summary
Archaeological Context and Historical Setting Old Dongola is located on the right bank of the Nile, almost halfway between the Third and the Fourth Cataracts, at the southern edge of the Letti Basin (Godlewski 2013: 7) (Fig. 1). Already in the first half of the 16th century, the sultans of Funj dominated Nubia as far north as Dongola, and since the Ottoman Empire had expanded to the Third Cataract, the Kingdom of Dongola became the border zone between the Ottoman and the Funj territories (O’Fahley & Spaulding 1974: 25-26). In an attempt to reinforce their power over the north, the sultan established a Funj colony encompassing al-Dabba and Korti and appointed the first ruler over Northern Funj, the viceroy manjil Ibrahim (O’Fahley & Spaulding 1974: 67). The remedy implemented by the sultan turned out to be precarious, the colony diminished and the manjil of Northern Funj was hardly respected by the ruler of Dongola, who, according to Brevedent, was equal to him in power (O’Fahley & Spaulding 1974: 75). The end of the Funj Kingdom in the region came with the conquest of Nubia by the forces of Ismail Pasha and abdication of the last sultan of the Funj – Badi VI – in 1821 (Crawford 1951: 275)
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