EARLY CHRISTIAN REMAINS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 464, 24 March 1909, Page 7

EARLY CHRISTIAN REMAINS.

. DISCOVERIES ON THE BLUE NILE. Professor Sayco, who recently returned to Khartum, has communicated the following details of an interesting discovery of early Christian remains recently made at Wad-el-Hadad, on the Blue Nile, a few miles north of Sennar. While tho foundations of a resthouse for tho Irrigation Department were being dug a number of graves were found, containing skeletons, with the feet to the east. Round the head of each was a quantity of pottery, consisting of bowls and jars, all' in a good stato of preservation. The bowls are/ for-the-most part, of dark clay, and decorated with what are known as Nubian patterns. , On one of them is a Coptic processional cross, and the sameemblom is scratched inside the lips of the jars, where it is associated with two other Christian emblems, the fish and the palm-branch. On the neck of one of tho jars is a mason's mark, and another of; the jars, which are, of red ware, has a spout as well as a handle. A comparison of -the.', pottery-, with -that found on. Nubian sites between the first and second cataracts makes it probable that it should bo dated in the seventh or eighth century A.D. The pottery .has' been'sent \to the Khartum Museum. _ . ' "The chief interest of the discovery," says Professor Sayce; "lies in the fact that it is the first time that Christian remains had been mot with so far southi and wo may, therefore,' look forward to the discovery ,01 Other early Christian remains in the neighbourhood of tho Blue Nile. At present very little is known of the "history of Christianity in these regions,. and we must look to excavation to throw light upon it. A' quarter of an hour's walk from the graves are two moulds, called by 'the natives BeyWl-Anak, ' The House of Anak' (or pre-Mahometan people), which doubtless mark the site' of an old Christian church and monastery. Excavation would .probably bring-to light early Christian inscriptions."—ReuteT.