Soba (city)

Soba is called the capital of the last Christian medieval kingdom of Alwa in Nubia. The city lay on the eastern bank of the Blue Nile about 22 kilometers upstream from its confluence with the White Nile at Khartoum, near the present village of Soba Sharq (Arabic sharq " east" ), so also English: Soba East.

The beginning

In this place, there is almost no relevant archaeological finds from Meroitic period and also hardly any traces from the period after the 15th century. Only some spoils, like a 1.5 -meter-long ram with which the ancient Egyptian god Amun was depicted and the AD because of a partially preserved royal cartouche at its base from the 2nd century BC could originate is found incorporated in 1821 in foundation walls. The discovery of a relief of the Cushitic goddess Hathor and a sphinx in the Hill B support the thesis of a Meroitic origin According Welsby. The excavations made ​​spread over an area of ​​about 2.75 square kilometers.

The earliest architectural remains date from the period after the fall of the Meroitic Empire and before the conversion of the country to Christianity. From this time a stone pyramid was excavated. It appeared to be a grave monument whose grave chamber but could not be found.

The Christian Era

To 580 the city and the state was converted to Christianity. From this time well ( church on hill C) Its oldest church, which was the only one equipped with granite pillars. The residential development was at that time mainly of round wooden huts. These were later replaced by rectangular clay. The first occurrence of Sobaware is characteristic of this period.

North adjacent to Church C are the brick wall remains of two churches joined together A and B, which can be compared by their size, with the largest church buildings in Old Dongola and Faras. In Church A three phases can be distinguished. From the oldest church in the barrel-shaped crypt is still preserved. For phase two of the foundations of a five-aisled basilica comes with a large portal in the west and entrances on both sides. In phase three of these side entrances were bricked up and changed some partitions. In the area of the sanctuary is a part of the floor was exposed from irregular slabs of marble. Church B was so badly looted, that from the foundations is no longer recognizable, whether it is also constituted a five-aisled or a three-nave basilica with side extensions. Between the nave ( naos ) and chancel ( Haikal ) was, as usual, Orthodox churches, a partition ( higab, see: iconostasis ), initially bricked and, as can be seen in the post holes in the marble floor, and later of wood. The floor in the naos consisted of rows of triangular clay tiles that were deferred in the exchange of rectangular plate rows.

The city lay at the output of insignificant Wadi Soba; a topographical advantage, who spoke for the establishment of a capital at this point seems thus not given, especially since apparently at no time fortifications were available. Throughout the city there are about 100 flat, or two -meter-high mound of earth, which are now separated by some watercourses which serve to irrigate the surrounding fields. From the city apart from the covered with bushes and partly brick shards hills, some foundations and a few stone pillars erected little remained. Some of the hills are partly natural elevations and were probably built to protect against periodic flooding. In some places, simple huts seem to have been also in the plains between the hills.

We can distinguish two types of settlement mounds. From covered with gravel hills buildings of unbaked bricks were unearthed during excavations. 17 to 29 of the hills are covered with brick rubble and contain remains of buildings of burnt brick, which are obtained significantly worse, as they were frequent target of stone-robbers. During excavations in the winter months of 1950-1952 and 1981-1983 several churches were distributed throughout the city excavated. In one of the hills were found the remains of three churches, two other hills contained the remains of two churches. In the city center were two large churches, a small church and a large residential building in which it might be evidence of a royal or episcopal palace.

The finds from the excavations testify to the prosperity of the city. There were imported glasses, Islamic pottery and shards of Chinese porcelain dating from the 9th to 12th centuries that provide clues to the dating of the mound layers. Between the Lehmgrundmauern in the floor of Building D of the grave stone of the Alwa - ruler David was discovered by 1015.

Known from the north waterwheels Saqia were used for field irrigation, applied in the area fields have been described by travelers. In general, however, it is hard to get an idea of the structure of the city, as it is only poorly understood.

Contemporary descriptions

The city made ​​a special impression on the few Arab travelers who came here. Ibn Selim describes that she had beautiful buildings and large monasteries and churches, which are richly endowed with gold and gardens. It should even have been a suburb, lived in the Muslims. Also in the 10th century Soba is mentioned by al - Masudi as " mighty city ".

The end

In the thirteenth century there is evidence of a decline of the city. Some of the great churches were used as homes. Two of the churches, which were excavated in 1982 and 1986, were probably already at the beginning of the 13th century in ruins. Some rich grave sites were looted at that time. 1504 should have been according to the Funjchronik conquered by this town. Previously, the city was threatened by Arab peoples from the eastern desert and Funj over again. The archaeological evidence suggests that the city already largely lay in ruins by 1500. The of Sennar on the way to the north by traveling Soba David Reubeni found in 1523 only a few residents who lived in wooden huts. In the 17th century it would be after all have been even a smaller place.

Research

The city was first described in modern times in 1821 by the Frenchman Frederick Caillaud. Karl Richard Lepsius saw a 1844 on both sides inscribed in Altnubisch grave, which was dated to the year 897, bronze vessels with similar letters and some classical Venus statuettes. For the entire 19th century, there are reports that the place served as a quarry for Khartoum. First excavations took place in 1903 on behalf of the British Museum by Wallis Budge, the Soba held mainly due to the rams found for originally meroitisch. It is unclear whether this animal figure comes from a Meroitic temple at this point, or was brought here later. Because of the discovery of Coptic crosses on stone pillars and some bronze crosses described Budge as his excavations the remains of a Meroitic temple, which had been converted into a church. This assessment has been taken over by Francis Llewellyn Griffith. 1910 digging the Somers Clarke, further investigation it was from 1950 to 1952 by Peter Shinnie, who attended the church and three other hills trial excavations. Hill cuts and excavations took place from 1981 to 1992 under the leadership of Derek A. Welsby (British Museum, London).

After the excavation and documentation by Welsby the field of ruins, situated on the edge of irrigated fields, left to itself remained. The excavation area is littered with potsherds and is recognizable from the Nile in the range between 300 meters and one kilometer. Discoveries were made in an area of ​​2500 meters in a north-south direction and 1500 meters east-west. Along the banks of the Nile, the same bricks are still burned, as were used for the construction of Soba.

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