Dr. Ahmed Essa, the newly appointed Minister of State for Antiquities, announced the discovery of a skeleton of a young soldier in a late Roman site of Hisn Al-Bab to the south of Aswan.
The Austrian Archaeological Institute mission directed by Dr. Irene Forstner-Müller, discovered a residential
construction which is most likely dated back to the Heraclian dynasty (610–695 A.D)
Dr. Essa said
that the discovered skeleton in a good condition and the preliminary study of the bones refers
that he served in the military for a long time and died at the age of 25 to 35
years old. The skeleton’s identity was not identified but probably it belongs
to an Egyptian soldier from Nubian origins.
According to the
Minister, the importance of this discovery that it proves the old conflicts
that used to take place from time to time which were witnessed by the fortress
of Hisn El Bab
Adel Hussein,
Director of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities department, said that the cause of
death was a knife-like stab at the groin which led to cutting the
vein then the body was buried immediately after death under the fortress
remains. Mr. Hussein added that the mission couldn’t determine the time of the outbreak of this particular
conflict, which still needs further studies,
but preliminary evidence
suggests it occurred shortly after the Arab conquest of Egypt.
Dr. Irene Forstner-Müller, Director of the Austrian Archaeological Institute mission, said that the mission also discovered a kitchen with a large number of broken potteries used to preserve huge quantity of olives in them and remains of plants.
(Source)
This very well-preserved stone and mud brick fortress lies between the
High and the Low Dams at Aswan in Upper Egypt,
and close to the abandoned village of al Bab, on the east bank of the Nile
at the southern end of the first cataract. In modern times, its existence was
noted in passing during the first Nubian archaeological survey, but was
dismissed as ›Arab‹. Little more attention was paid to it during the archaeological
survey of 1928–1934. At that time, Monneret de Villard noted the existence of
the fortress in his survey of medieval monuments of Nubia, and suggested that
Hisn al-Bab was to be identified with a fortress well-known from medieval Arab
historians, al-Qasr. Al-Qasr was regularly described as lying on the east bank
just south of Philae and four or five miles south of Aswan, and it was said to
mark the beginning of Nubian territory. This location fits that of Hisn al-Bab
accurately, and it is probable that its identification as al-Qasr is correct.
From the Arab historians, it is known that al-Qasr was the delivery
point of goods stipulated by the ›baqt‹, an understanding between Egypt and Nubia
made shortly after the Arab conquest of Egypt, in ca. 651–652 A.D. It
stipulated that peaceful relations would be maintained between the two powers
provided that the Nubians provided various items, including a yearly
consignment of slaves, and also fulfilled other obligations. The ›baqt‹
remained in operation, if somewhat sporadically honoured, for at least 600
years.
Despite al-Qasr’s status as the first point within Nubian territory,
the fortress housed a Fatimid garrison at one time, and may perhaps have been
the base for the Fatimid official in charge of border control. Further, the
mosques immediately to the south of the fortress were said by certain authors
to have been under Egyptian control, although the church on top of which one of
them was built was said specifically to be under Nubian authority. This
complicated state of affairs may imply the existence of some sort of no-man’s
land between Egypt and Nubia proper.
References to al-Qasr disappear from textual sources by the end of the Fatimid
period.
The fortress of Hisn al-Bab/al-Qasr was assumed by recent commentators
to have been lost to flooding after the construction of the High Dam. In fact,
its situation on the steep hillside between the High and Low Dams has meant
that most of the fortress survived flooding, and it is in a good state of preservation,
with mud brick and stone walls standing over 8 m tall in some areas.
Two separate phases were identified at Hisn al-Bab. The identification
of an earlier, Late Roman, fortress of the 6th-7th century was unexpected. This
fortress included a large enclosure on the gebel top, walls running
down the slope to the river under the later fortress, and areas of what appear
to be habitation within the walls. The later fortress, presumably that of
al-Qasr, and thus well known from texts, was very well preserved
architecturally but surprisingly left almost no other material remains on the
surface.
.jpg){kind=small}
