Old Dongola. New collaborative archaeology. Tackling paradigms in research on African past.

This Lecture was given by Artur Obluski, Director, Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw on November 7th, 2025. The lecture consists of two different but entangled parts. The first presents the most recent discovery at Dongola, the capital city of medieval African kingdom of Makuria, called a top ten archaeological discovery by the Archaeology Magazine. The painted decoration of the tiniest sacral space excavated in Nubia consists of unparalleled representation of Mary, depictions of Christ, and the Ancient of Days—accompanied by inscriptions characteristic of Nubian liturgical contexts. In the later phase one more painting was added: an extraordinary composition featuring Archangel Michael, a prostrate Nubian king kissing Christ’s hand, and a divine figure on a cloud. An inscription in Old Nubian invokes King David and petitions divine protection over the city. These unprecedented visual and textual elements challenge dominant narratives concerning cultural agency in so-called peripheral regions and allow for reassessing how centers of artistic and theological innovation are conceptualized within global medieval studies. The second part of the lecture explores the community archaeology model developed by Sudanese-Polish expedition at Old Dongola. It challenges extractive colonial paradigms of archaeological practice, and focuses on local empowerment, sustainable heritage management, and the co-creation of knowledge. By integrating local Sudanese communities into all phases of research—from excavation to interpretation and tourism—this model redefines heritage stewardship as a collaborative, ethically engaged process.