The Kingdom of Dongola

This book presents material emanations of social change of the community of Dongola, a precolonial African capital city.

The site of Dongola, situated on the eastern bank of the Nile, functioned for more than a millennium, from the late fifth century CE to the eighteenth century CE. At its height, it served as the capital of the Christian kingdom of Makuria between the sixth and fourteenth centuries, embodying a distinctive political and religious centre. The rise of the Funj Sultanate along the Blue Nile in the sixteenth century introduced new regional dynamics, with the sovereigns of Dongola increasingly subsumed as vassals within this shifting political landscape, a period marked by significant changes in governance, urban life, and religious authority. This volume examines these transitional centuries in medieval Nubia, focusing on the dissolution of state and ecclesiastical structures and the concurrent emergence of new political formations. Drawing on research conducted through the European Research Council Starting Grant project UMMA, which investigated spatial, social, and religious transformations within Dongola’s riverine community, the collected chapters explore multiple facets of urban metamorphosis. Through analyses encompassing space syntax, botanical and faunal assemblages, and diachronic and spatial studies of household inventories, the volume offers a comprehensive reassessment of the dynamic forces that reshaped this vital historical landscape.