Other sites
1965-1970

The other sites explored by Sapienza (1965-1970)

If Tamit, Sonqi Tino and Gebel Barkal were the main sites investigated by the Sapienza mission led by Sergio Donadoni, other locations were explored, more briefly, in order to document their state of conservation and outline their potential.

Between 1967 and 1968 the small fortified castle known as Diff, and the related village, were investigated, surveyed and partially excavated. The castle is situated in a spectacular position about 4 km south of Sonqi and at a short distance from the modern settlement of Qetta. Already documented by Ugo Monneret de Villard at the beginning of the 1930s, the castle represents one of the many small castra – all generically called diff – that characterize the area of the second cataract in the Middle Ages. As suggested by the few pottery remains found there, they may represent the last strenuous attempt, after the twelfth century, to defend the Nubian Christian kingdom of Makuria, whose capital was Dongola, from the assaults of more or less organized armies.

The Diff rises on a spur of basaltic rock, about 40 m above the level of the Nile, whose almost sheer slopes descend towards the river.

The small size of the castle and the walls of modest quality, partly in mud bricks and partly in limestone slabs, led to the belief that it could be used by a limited number of defenders and for limited periods of time.

Furthermore, in October 1970, the mission of Sapienza visited and described in an unpublished notebook, also in drawings, the fortress of Qasr Nimeri, the castle of Khandag and that of Abkur, Merowe, Keissi, and the eastern and western deffufas (i.e. mud brick temples, where ceremonies were performed on top) of Kerma, about which on October 20 Sergio Donadoni commented “there is a lot to do”.

These are very valuable descriptions, above all because they describe a situation destined to radically change shortly thereafter.

One of the most accurate reports inevitably concerns the site of Gebel Barkal, whose “Natakamani palace”, as mentioned, was granted the Sapienza mission from 1973 to 2004, at first under the direction of Sergio Donadoni and then under that of Alessandro Roccati, while today the excavation of the palace continues thanks to the mission directed by Emanuele M. Ciampini from the University of Venice Ca’ Foscari.