Inscriptions of the Church of Sonqi Tino

Sonqi Tino is the place of a little church that has been excavated in 1966-1970 by a team of the University of La Sapienza Rome with the support of the Vatican.

In this church, 14 frescoes have been found and about 100 inscriptions.

Many of them are short graffiti but the longer ones are written with ink. Unfortunately many are damaged and difficult to read.

The language of these inscriptions is Greek for about the half and Old Nubian for the other half. No Coptic inscription has been found. Since many graffiti are short and the Greek letters are the same as the Nubian it is sometimes impossible to decide between the two languages.

Some inscription has been transported in the Khartoum Museum with the frescoes. But many of the other has been destroyed by the waters. We have only photographs of them and the transcription done by Prof. Donadoni. Both are problematic to use. We hope to publish the graffiti, which contains many Personal names and titles and the longer inscriptions both in Greek and in Nubian which can bring some light in the story of Nubia and in Old Nubian language.