Soba (city)

Coordinates: 15°31′26″N 32°40′51″E / 15.52389°N 32.68083°E / 15.52389; 32.68083
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the Japanese noodle, see Soba.
Location of Soba in medieval times (below on the right)
Church complex in Soba: All three churches were basilicas with a narthex in the West and an apsis in the East

Soba is an archaeological site and former town in what is now central

Meroitic temple that had been converted into a Christian church.[2]

In the 10th century

Ibn Selim el-Aswani
described the city as large and wealthy, but he probably never visited it and modern archaeological investigations show it to have been a moderate centre. Built mainly of red brick, the abandoned city was plundered for building material when Khartoum was founded in 1821. Since the 1990s, development from the growth of suburbs in Greater Khartoum has continued to pose a threat to the ruins.

Archaeological research

In its heyday, the city covered approximately 275 hectares, but the excavations carried out prior to 2019 only encompassed about 1% of this area.

British Institute in Eastern Africa, mostly as part of salvage excavations resulting from the construction of a tarmac road and the building activity along it. Since the 1900s, modern buildings started to covered the remains, resulting in modern development covering about half of the site.[4]

In 2019, the interdisciplinary project “Soba – the heart of Alwa” was commenced. It is carried out by the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences and is directed by Mariusz Drzewiecki (PCMA UW).[1] It aims to study the topography of Soba and determine the extent, spatial structure, and character of each city quarter.[3] A magnetic geophysical prospection revealed unknown parts of medieval Soba.[5] In one of the quarters, large architectural complexes stood at a distance from each other; in another, a clear street grid is visible.[1] Test trenches were also excavated in strategic spots in the city or in places where the results of the geophysical research are not unequivocal.[6] The residence of the kingdom of Alwa’s rulers has not yet been identified.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d "Soba". pcma.uw.edu.pl. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  2. OCLC 1070966107
    .
  3. ^ a b "Soba – a new research project in Sudan". pcma.uw.edu.pl. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  4. ISSN 1555-8622
    .
  5. S2CID 239622640
    .
  6. ^ Mariusz Drzewiecki, Robert Ryndziewicz, Tomasz Michalik, Joanna Ciesielska, Ewa Czyżewska-Zalewska, Maciej Kurcz, Mokhtar Maali Alden Mokhtar Hassan, Soba Expedition. Preliminary report on the season of fieldwork conducted in 2019–2020, report written for the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums of Sudan.

Further reading

External links

15°31′26″N 32°40′51″E / 15.52389°N 32.68083°E / 15.52389; 32.68083

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