Abasseya Project

In the South side the destruction level was cleaned and registered. Later, the debris of destruction level was removed in order to reach the original circulation level.

In the West side the secondary entrance was defined to have a total extension of 8 meters.

It was also found in this side of the podium, adjacent to the secondary entrance, an intermediate platform of 2.5 x 2 meter, standing up about 50 cm from the original circulation level.

As a result of this season, all the corners of the building have been found, therefore the entire shape of the structure consisting in a podium and two entrances, have been able to be drawn.

In both the North and the South sides a total of 61 pieces of columns (including the ones found on the previous campaign) have been cleaned, numbered and registered. The pieces consist of column drums, capitals and bases. Some of them were covered with decorated plaster, mostly using red, yellow and blue colors. In order to clear the destruction level, most of the column pieces had to be moved to the sides of podium structure. The decorated pieces have been wrapped with a net and covered with sand for protection.

The debris removed in the entire building consisted basically of mudbrick and redbrick. Some of the redbricks were grouped in the south side of the protective fence in order to classify them by shape and induce the quantity used. Three kinds of redbricks are clearly visible: rectangular blocks, square flat blocks and circular pieces. The vast majority of the redbricks consist on rectangular blocks that have an average dimension of 36cm x 18cm x 7cm.

The interpretation of this site has not seen any major change. As mentioned on the previous campaign report, everything could lead us to think that this building was a small temple, but the second entrance makes us to reevaluate that proposition, bringing the idea that maybe it was a small palace. It is possible to think that the three sections of the site were related, working together at the same time for the local cult. Its vicinity to the holy mountain of Barkal encourage this hypothesis. We outline that this place stayed as a place of cult during the Meroitic kingdom, after Napata lost its role as the capital city of the kingdom. By all means, these are not urban buildings that could make us think in the location of the old Napata capital, instead these are structures for a kind of cult.

Protection of Abasseya 1 – Sector B

On this season the original metallic fence of 1.5 meters high, surrounding Sector B was reinforced with a fourth layer of barbwire. After finding that the entire length of the secondary entrance reached out beyond the original fence, the limits of the 30 x 41 meters square fence had to be extended in the west side. The additional fence covered and area of 12 x 9 meters.

The structures that have been found have been partially covered with sand for protection. Again, some of the new uncovered parts of plaster have been consolidated and restored. The inner part of the wall has been filled with sand to avoid its destruction.

Material from the Abasseya campaign 2012

In this campaign we have recovered, registered and drawn the most outstanding material of Sector A, found during the excavation season performed by the University of Dongola in February 2000. The material recovered in Sector B during this season has been cleaned, identified and registered. The outstanding pieces have been drawn and photographed as well as the ceramic shapes and colored plaster fragments. The material of both seasons 2000 and 2012 has been stored for the mean time in the Archaeological Faculty of the University (in Karima).