Nubian Monasteries
The medieval Makurian community of Ghazali forms the largest settlement identified to date within the Bayuda region of Sudan. The site comprises a large walled monastery, at least two iron production facilities, the poorly preserved foundations of an adjacent lay settlement area, and four cemeteries, identified as Cemeteries 1–4. Save for a brief mention in the initial site documentation undertaken in the 1950s by Peter Shinnie, Neville Chittick, and Sayed Nigm ed-Din Sherif, excavations within the cemeteries at Ghazali were undertaken between 2015 and 2016 as part of the broader Ghazali Archaeological Site Presentation Project (G.A.S.P) directed by Prof. Artur Obłuski of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw (PCMA UW). This project was undertaken in collaboration with the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums of Sudan (NCAM) and the Qatar-Sudan Archaeological Project (QSAP Mission No. 36), as well as co-operation with Dr. Angelika Lohwasser of the University of Münster.
The development of cemeteries at Ghazali reflect a mixture of communities, with Cemetery 2 most evidently being utilised by the monastic community, while Cemetery 3 was utilised by the adjacent lay community. The nature of Cemeteries 1 and 4 are less clear. The location of Cemetery 1 in close proximity to the Ghazali monastery suggests that it may have been utilised by local communities in the area, possibly in connection with the wish to be buried near a religious site, so called ad sanctos burial. Cemetery 4, located approximately 200 m. south of Cemetery 2 and being separated by an area of undeveloped land, is a small burial ground comprising at least fifteen surficially evident burials. The isolated nature and small number of burials in this cemetery bring forth questions as to who might have been utilising this burial space as no clear connection is evident. The size of Cemetery 4 is similar to other small clusters of burials identified deeper into the Bayuda Desert by the Wadi Abu Dom Itinerary (W.A.D.I) Project of the University of Münster, directed by Prof. Angelika Lohwasser, and the Gdańsk Archaeological Museum Expedition (GAME), directed by Dr. hab. Henryk Paner.
The burials document at Ghazali conform with typical styles of the medieval period in Makuria, comprising box graves, mud brick pavements, rock slab covered graves, and barrel-vaulted tombs wherein, with few exceptions, individuals were interred in an extended position on their back, oriented east-west with the head to the west; no specific grave goods were evident in any of the burials excavated, though individuals were typically interred in textiles, some of which were likely burial shrouds, and bricks, stones, or pottery were often used to cover the head. While excavations were undertaken in all four cemeteries at Ghazali, the focus was primarily on Cemetery 2 in relation to excavations at the monastery. Though the majority of burials identified in Cemetery 2 belong to adult males, further supporting the affiliation of this cemetery with the burials of monks from the monastery, there were a number of evidently intrusive burials identified in uncharacteristic locations within the cemetery that most likely reflect continued use of this cemetery space after the monastery was abandoned. It is less likely that such intrusive burials would have been feasible while the monastery was operational, though this possibility also cannot be full dismissed.
Epigraphy has been informative about the lives of individuals interred at Ghazali, most notably names and insights to positions within the monastery. Numerous tombstones and burial crosses have been identified at Ghazali, with several being documented and collected by 19th/early 20th c. travellers such as Karl Richard Lepsius and Ugo Monneret de Villard, among others. Fragments of numerous additional tombstones and crosses also came to light during G.A.S.P. excavations at the site. The focus of the present account will not address the insights of epigraphy further, as this topic is beyond the scope of the material discussed herein and has been addressed at length elsewhere. For those interested, the works of Adam Łajtar, Jacques van der Vliet, and most recently Grzegorz Ochała, provide detailed accounts of epigraphic findings from Ghazali, as well as numerous other medieval Nubian contexts.
The development and dating of the cemeteries at Ghazali remains unclear. To address this question a series of AMS radiocarbon dates (14C) were undertaken during the G.A.S.P and subsequently as part of a National Geographic Society Exploration Grant (NGS-67810R-20) project. From the 54 radiocarbon (14C) dates of bone collagen that have thus far been possible, it is evident that the four cemeteries overlap in their periods of use. Radiocarbon dates for the samples analysed from Cemetery 1 (n=7 dates) span from 606–667 calAD (95.4%) to 656–775 calAD (95.4%); for Cemetery 2 (n=33 dates), from 647–774 calAD (95.4%) to 875–1327 calAD (92.1%); for Cemetery 3 (n=9 dates), 663–774 calAD (95.4%) to 707–941 calAD (95.4%); and for Cemetery 4 (n=5 dates), 670–873 calAD (95.4%) to 773–980 calAD (95.4%). While these dates for Cemeteries 1–4 overlap, given that hundreds of burials remain unexcavated it is not additionally possible at this time to confirm which cemetery developed first and which evidently remained in use the longest or the latest.
An interesting finding that appears to have come to light from the radiocarbon dating of burials in the monastic cemetery (Cemetery 2) is the seeming lack of an orderly progression of cemetery development. Cemetery 2 is located directly south of the southern wall of the monastery and has a roughly orthogonal layout, with burials approximating rows in their alignment. Given the appearance of the cemetery space it was initially inferred that development of this cemetery likely progressed southward from the area of the monastery walls, with the earliest burials being located closer to the monastery. Radiocarbon dating of burials from various locations throughout the cemetery, both near and far to the monastery walls, however, has demonstrated that burials of various time periods can evidently be found throughout Cemetery 2, which may suggest that the development of the cemetery occurred around nodes or in distinct sectors rather than in an orderly north to south manner. As to why such a development may have taken place, there is no clear explanation. It remains possible that different areas of the cemetery were utilised by different aspects of the monastic community, perhaps related to rank or social position, though there is presently no evidence to support or dismiss this supposition.
The interplay between the monastic inhabitants of the Ghazali monastery and the local lay community at the adjacent settlement, along with other groups in the region, has been a point of interest for researchers assessing the experiences of the individuals interred in the four cemeteries at Ghazali. One such question focusses on diet, both in terms of what monks were eating and how similar or different their diets were to those of their lay counterparts at the adjacent settlement. Assessing monastic diets is often challenging as numerous preserved accounts of diets, from Byzantine monastery foundation documents (typika) and rules from Egyptian monasteries, outline diets that appear, perhaps, to be signalling the virtue and piety of monks and their ascetic restrain more than they may actually reflect genuine dietary practices. For instance, how the most successful monks survived on bread, water, and abstinence. Textual accounts of monastic diet in this era stress diets containing grains, olive oil, fruits, vegetables, and legumes over meat and animal products. While there is undoubtedly some truth to the textual accounts provided, numerous questions remain regarding the projection vs. the observable reality of monastic diets, particularly regarding animal product consumption and locally available foodstuffs. It must also be kept in mind, that currently no textual accounts of dietary prescriptions for monks in Nubia exist, rather evidence from Byzantine and Egyptian contexts is cautiously extrapolated to the similar, culturally and environmentally, environs of medieval Makuria.
To address these dietary questions bone collagen of a series of individuals from the monastic and lay cemeteries were subjected to carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope analyses. Such analyses help to gauge what sort of foods people were eating as well as questions around plant vs. animal product consumption. The analyses of individuals from Ghazali found that both the monastic and lay populations primarily relied on a mixed C3/C4 diet, with the monastic community receiving evidently more contributions from C3 products. While this variation could reflect several realities, one possible explanation can be found in the presence of a mill and storage facilities within the monastery. These facilities may have allowed the monks to process and store C3 products, namely wheat and perhaps sesame oil, for use throughout more of the year; it is additionally possible that some level of dietary provisioning was taking place, with the monastery, perhaps, receiving food donations from the community. The lay community members analysed, in contrast, may have relied on a more regionally typical diet of wheat for part of the year and more adaptable C4 plants, such as millet and sorghum, for other parts of the year. In terms of animal products in the diet, both the lay and monastic individuals analysed appear to have had dietary contributions from terrestrial animal protein sources. While this is not a big surprise for the lay community, the identification of animal protein consumption among the monastic community members analysed does challenge textual accounts of monastic diets that suggest limited meat consumption. Lastly, a key finding of the dietary research conducted was the probable identification of aquatic animal species consumption, most likely fish. Such foods have been noted on various occasions as forming a comparatively minor part of medieval Nubian diet, a supposition brought into question by the isotopic findings from Ghazali.
Another area of inquiry that isotope analyses of individuals from Ghazali was utilised for was to address the question of mobility: were the inhabitants of Ghazali, lay and monastic, evidently local to the area? This question is valid for any area of settlement but is of even greater interest in the case of Ghazali given the comparatively remote location of this community along the Wadi Abu Dom in the Bayuda Desert. To assess mobility, oxygen (δ18O) and strontium (87Sr/86Sr) analyses were utilised. These studies identified several non-local individuals among the monastic community as well as a possible diversity of mobility patterns among the lay and monastic communities, bringing forth additional questions about the rationales for mobility in relation to lifestyle, monasticism, and pilgrimage. While specific regions of emigration for the individuals identified as non-local to Ghazali cannot be pinpointed on the basis of isotope values alone, the returned values do suggest some potentially viable regions of origins for the non-local individuals identified. Three areas in particular come into question: Egypt, Axumite/Post-Axumite Ethiopia, and areas in and beyond what is today western Sudan.
Connections between Egyptian monasticism and Nubian monasticism have long been evident, with Nubian monasticism being influenced by the monastic tradition in Egypt. Along with this influence, it is not improbable that individuals from Egypt may have arrived at monasteries in Nubia. A similar rationale may be the case for individuals arriving in the region from Axumite/Post-Axumite Ethiopia, another region with a strong monastic tradition and links to the Alexandrian church, as is also the case in Nubia and Egypt. There are numerous accounts of Ethiopian monks making pilgrimage, namely to the Holy Land, the route to which could quite possibly have seen them passing through Nubia. Beyond a connection to pilgrimage, it is also possible that individuals from Axumite/Post-Axumite Ethiopia simply chose to reside at a Nubian monastery such as Ghazali, for whatever reason. Lastly, questions remain about mobility from areas in western Sudan and beyond. Archaeological research in western Sudan, namely the regions of Khordofan and Darfur, to date has been limited compared to the Nile Valley and eastern Sudan, making inferences about connections with this region more challenging, though trade routes are known. More recently, the remains of a proposed monastery were identified by the W.A.D.I Project at Jebel al-Ain, approximately 355 km southwest of Ghazali, which may provide additional support for monastic mobility and connections with this region, as well as beyond this area in terms of potential interactions with neighbouring cultural groups in the Chad basin region, such as the Kanem Empire, and deeper Trans-Saharan connections. The picture of mobility among the inhabitants at Ghazali demonstrates that both local and non-local individuals were living in the area. Questions also remain as to what “non-local,” might mean in the context of the Bayuda, as opportunities for sedentary, transhumant, and pastoral lifestyles are all known to have existed in the region, bringing forth questions about how communities in this environment adapted to the local landscape and what smaller scale mobility within a given region might mean in terms of isotopic value variation in relation to social views on what it means to be local.
Attempts have also been made to assess the genetic ancestry of individuals at Ghazali. Most recently, funded by a National Geographic Exploration Grant, we carried out genome-level ancient DNA analysis utilising bone from the cochlear area of the skull’s temporal bone. While this is believed to be the most DNA-rich part of the human skeleton, we were only able to recover authentic ancient DNA from a small number of the sampled individuals due to environmental impacts on biomolecular preservation. This thus limited broader genetic analyses which require tens to hundreds of thousands of genomic data points (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, or SNPs) to be robust. Among the individuals sampled with sufficiently preserved DNA, no close genetic relatives (1st to 3rd degree) were identified. The individuals studied had genetic backgrounds that reflected a mixture of more regionally proximate as well as West Eurasian-related ancestries, providing direct evidence of past mixture events, contributing to discussions around population interactions in the region over its long history of human habitation.
Several instances of health challenges have also come to light among the individuals analysed from Ghazali. Beyond expected health impacts associated with ageing, such as osteoarthritis and dental wear, at least one case of what appears most likely to have been tuberculosis was identified, as well as a possible neurogenic condition, and several hip fractures, some poorly healed. These findings bring forth questions about the role Ghazali may have played in treating individuals and capacities around rehabilitation and care. While no clear evidence of a healthcare providing role exists for the monastery of Ghazali, the identification of several plants during archaeobotanical analyses at Ghazali known to be used for their curative properties, namely Euphorbia aegyptiaca (um leben) for rheumatoid arthritis, inflammation, and aches; Portulaca oleracea (purslane) for digestion; and Cleome gynandra (African cabbage / spider plant) which has anti-inflammatory properties, does suggest some level of treatment may have been undertaken at the site. Whether the use of such botanical materials was through self-administration or treatment provided to others in a healing capacity remains unclear. In many contexts throughout history, monasteries have played a role as healthcare providing facilities; it remains possible that Ghazali too in some way provided opportunities for assisting in health restoration and treatment. Hopefully further future research will shed more light on this possibility.
Excavations at Ghazali have documented a diversity of aspects of life in the Bayuda desert during the medieval Makurian period. As part of the broader reconstruction of life at Ghazali, analyses from the four cemeteries at the site have helped to provide evidence of what life was like for the inhabitants of Ghazali and who came to reside within this comparatively remote desert community. While a lot of research has been completed to date, it is hoped that ongoing and future research will help to shed even more light on what it was like to live and ultimately to die in the environs of Ghazali.
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