CEEOL - Advanced Search

Włodzimierz Godlewski: List of publications

Author(s): Aleksandra Zych / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Egypt; Byzantium; Christian Nubia; archeology; Włodzimierz Godlewski

The volume brings together 36 fully peer-reviewed contributions in the field of Christian Egypt and Nubia studies, mirroring a lifetime of academic achievement by Prof. Włodzimierz Godlewski, in whose honor this jubilee book has been produced. The contributing scholars are both colleagues and associates, and the subjects they take up in their studies are focused on issues of archaeology, epigraphy, iconography, ceramics and material culture, as well as history of medieval and post-medieval Egypt and Nubia. In several cases, the articles concern material from two sites, Naqlun in Egypt and Dongola in Nubia, where Godlewski has conducted and directed research. Thus, for Naqlun we have the functionaries of the Nekloni monastery (T. Derda and J. Wegner), literary culture (A. Delattre and N. Vanthieghem, J. van der Vliet) as well as ceramics (T. Górecki) and glass vessels (M. Mossakowska-Gaubert), and architecture of the monastic complex from Naqlun (S. Maślak). For Old Dongola there is a study of Egyptian amphorae with dipinti (K. Danys and A. Łajtar) and costume of monks in wall paintings (K. Innemée). Broader studies concern issues like the functioning of a pilgrimage sanctuary in Egypt in late antiquity (E. Wipszycka), wine consumption and usage in Egypt’s monastic communities in the 6th–8th century (D. Dzierzbicka), aspects of the role of Archangel Raphael in Christian Nubia (M. Łaptaś), observations on the origins of “apse portraits” in Nubian royal iconography (M. Woźniak), the ideology and function of the northern pastophorium of Nubian churches based on inscriptions and paintings (A. Łajtar and D. Zielińska). Church architecture is taken up by P. Grossmann for Egypt and Nubia, and A. Obłuski for Nubia. W. Y. Adams gives an overview of evolution and revolution in Nubian pottery, J. R. Anderson and A. Harrison present unique hair textiles from British Museum excavations in Kulubnarti, while A. Boud’hors and E. Garel discuss what remains of the monastery library in Deir el-Bahari (a monograph of which was published by Godlewski early in his academic career). The history of Baybars’ Nubian conquests is taken up by R. Seignobos. Contributions have been offered also by Nettie Adams, M. Barwik, D. Edwards, K. Grzymski, B. Lichocka, A. Łukaszewicz, G. Ochała, M. Rassart-Debergh, T.S. Richter, G.R. Ruffini, H. and A. Tsakos, J. Then-Obłuska, G. van Loon, D. Welsby, I. Zych and B. Żurawski.

More...

What remains of the monastery library from Saint-Phoibammon to Deir el-Bahari?

Que reste-t-il de la bibliothèque du monastère de Saint-Phoibammon à Deir el-Bahari?

Author(s): Anne Boud’hors,Esther Garel / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Coptic Bible; Coptic manuscripts; monasticism; libraries

Some scraps of Coptic literary texts (parchment and papyrus) have been excavated at Deir el-Bahari in 2008/2009. Identified as biblical passages, they are published here and offer the opportunity to return to the question of the existence and contents of the library of the monastery of Saint-Phoibammon: firstly, to what extent can these fragments be considered as remains of such a library? Then, since the publication of Włodzimierz Godlewski’s monograph on this monastery, are there other clues that make new hypotheses possible?

More...

The three « colophons » of the Gospel of John discovered in Naqlūn

Les trois « colophons » de l’Évangile de Jean découvert à Naqlūn

Author(s): Alain Delattre,Naïm Vanthieghem / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Gospel of John; Fatimid period; 11th–12th century; Naqlūn; burial practices; bilingualism

Edition of two Coptic colophons and an Arabic note written at the end of the 11th–12th manuscript of the Gospel of John found in a grave at Naqlūn in 2002. We argue the Gospel was the property of the deacon Shenoute, son of John, who was probably buried there.

More...

Functionaries of the Naqlun monastery in the first two centuries of its existence

Πατέρες τοῦ ἁγίου Νεκλονίου. Functionaries of the Naqlun monastery in the first two centuries of its existence

Author(s): Tomasz Derda,Joanna Wegner / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Naqlun; laura; prosopography; bishop Nikolaos; monastic administration

The present contribution explores the organisation of the monastic community at Naqlun in the 6th and 7th centuries. It starts with an overview of the sources and proceeds to a prosopography of various figures from the Naqlun community attested in the evidence. The concluding section is devoted to a brief synthesis of our current knowledge of the community structure and its development before the Arab conquest.

More...

Wine consumption and usage in Egypt’s monastic communities (6th–8th century)

Author(s): Dorota Dzierzbicka / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: wine; monasteries; monks; health; payment; liturgy; prosphora; amphorae; stoppers

Wine was crucial for the monastic economy, religion, health and lifestyle. The paper begins with a brief overview of the evidence for monastic vineyard ownership and considers other options available to monks seeking to procure wine for their needs. Further on, the contribution discusses the various uses of wine in coenobitic monasteries and lavras. It explores the issue of the monastic communities’ need for wine for liturgical purposes and payments in kind, as well as the evidence for its consumption among monks in medical, social and everyday contexts. Lastly, relying on textual and archaeological evidence the paper addresses the question of the volume of wine consumed by monks.

More...

Phasing out LRA 7 amphorae in favor of new wine containers: Preliminary remarks based on finds from excavations in Naqlun

Author(s): Tomasz Górecki / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: wine production; wine distribution; wine transport; wine consumption; monastic archaeology; transport containers; pottery production

Clay pots were in antiquity the most popular kind of transport container for liquid goods (wine, olive oil etc.). In Egypt, the commonly used traditional amphoras were supplemented in the Islamic period by mostly unhandled bag-shaped bottles, which until recently did not seem to have been particularly frequent in the archaeological record. Meanwhile, excavations in Fustat and Naqlun produced quite a sizable assemblage of this kind of vessels. The paper presents a tentative typology of these containers and a provisional determination of the liquid goods transported in them. The author hypothesizes on the reasons behind the spectacular career of the bottle apparently inspired by vessels of the LRA 5/6 type, which totally replaced the traditional LRA 7 amphora within just a hundred or two hundred years. The most important factor in this process of change may have involved practical considerations (including economical ones).

More...

Late antiquity and medieval Four-pillar churches in Egypt

Spätantike und mittelalterliche Vierstützenkirchen in Ägypten

Author(s): Peter Grossmann / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Christian Egypt; Christian Nubia; church architecture; spatial organization of churches

The article offers an architectural analysis of a late antique and medieval type of church characterized by a naos with four pillars or columns supporting the roof. Variants that can be distinguished include one with a passage around the supports and another in which the supports form a cross-in-square. The analyzed type is poorly represented in the church architecture of Egypt, but is well attested in Lower Nubia. Nubian examples of the type give an idea of what the lost Egyptian prototypes may have looked like.

More...

The burning of a monastery? Story blazed on the walls of monastic buildings at Nekloni (Naqlun)

Author(s): Szymon Maślak / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Nekloni (Naqlun); monastery; fire; burnt walls; medieval; conflagration

The walls of a late antique–medieval monastic complex at Nekloni (Naqlun) spreading on a plateau at the foot of Gebel al-Naqlun in the southeastern Fayum Oasis bear evidence of damage or destruction by fire. The extent of this conflagration is one issue to be considered: evident clusters of burnt walls are concentrated around the landmark Building A with more dispersed traces of burning to the south and north of it. Another issue is the date of this event, which the present author places closer to the end of the 10th or in the first decades of the 11th century. The monastery burned down at the very heyday of its existence, this prosperity attested by a collection of gold coins as well as pieces of decorated codices recovered from the ruins, giving a date prior to the 11th century. Whatever the reason for this conflagration, it did not put an end to the existence of the monastic community in this area. Soon after that some of the monastery buildings were rebuilt, and others, like the main church, were refurbished and repainted.

More...

Decorated glasses from the medieval Arab period (8th – 13th centuries): some examples from Naqlun

Verres décorés d’époque arabe médiévale (VIIIe–XIIIe siècles): quelques exemples provenant de Naqlun

Author(s): Maria Mossakowska-Gaubert / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Islamic glass; decorative techniques; Egypt; monastic complex; Naqlun

The article presents the chronological and typological variety of decorated glasses found in the central part of the site at Naqlun, in the monastic buildings and tombs of the civil cemetery situated in the complex. Artifacts were dated between the 8th and the beginning of the 13th century. The decorated motifs on these glasses were executed with diverse techniques: tool marks, applied, pinched, impressed with tongs, impressed, mould-blown, engraved, cut, incised, scratch engraved,stained, marvered trails. Many similarities are to be observed with material from Fustat. However, the Naqlun assemblage as a whole is more modest, which is not surprising considering the context: provincial, rural and monastic at the same time.

More...

A Coptic and an Arabic building inscription between Aswan and Kom Ombo

Eine koptische und eine arabische Bauinschrift zwischen Assuan und Kom Ombo

Author(s): Tonio Sebastian Richter / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Coptic; Arabic epigraphy; Fatimid Egypt; road network

The present article suggests a hypothetical localization and provides a reconstructed text of a Coptic inscription which was seen by Urbain Bouriant on the road along the east bank of the Nile, halfway between Assuan and Kom Ombo. Bouriant edited this inscription twice in the 1890s, presenting it, together with an Arabic inscription that lay underneath, as a bilingual report on roadwork, and dated it to year 409 of Diocletian, resp. 7[3] Hiğri, i.e., AD 693. This article argues that, on the contrary, the two inscriptions are of different and much later date, and commemorate two distinct (albeit similar) events.

More...

“Alone in Naqlun”: A fresh look at the Bohairic letter P. Lond. Copt. I 590 (2) (British Library Or. 4720 [31], vo)

Author(s): Jacques van der Vliet / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Bohairic; Coptic monasticism; Naqlun; Kellia

A re-edition of the Bohairic Coptic letter British Library Or. 4720 [31], vo (=P. Lond. Copt. I 590 (2), 11th century) with particular attention to its interest for contemporaneous Coptic monasticism in Naqlun and Kellia. The addressee of the letter is a certain deacon Makari from Nekloni, who is asked to join a party of people engaged in building activity in Talmouna in the north, bringing with him blankets and wine.

More...

“…that the mountain of the holy wilderness may be inhabited…”: Saint John the Baptist in Infancy scenes in the narthex of the Quarry Church of Dayr Abū Ḥinnis

Author(s): Gertrud J.M. van Loon / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Dayr Abū Ḥinnis; John the Baptist; wall painting; Infancy scenes; monasticism

The iconographical program of wall paintings in the Quarry Church of Saint John the Baptist in Dayr Abū Ḥinnis focuses on its patron saint. A frieze of Infancy scenes in the narthex of the church, seemingly centering on the early life of Christ, was thought to be an exception. In this paper, I argue that the unusual beginning of the frieze (Massacre of the Innocents) shows that the guiding element of this series of paintings is the Infancy of Saint John the Baptist. Thus, this frieze, in which generally known images were combined in an original and creative way, fits perfectly in the carefully designed overall iconographical program honoring the titular saint of the church, the model par excellence of monastic life.

More...

Saint Claude à Pohe: un exemple de fonctionnement d’un sanctuaire de pèlerinage dans l’Égypte de l’Antiquité tardive

Author(s): Ewa Wipszycka / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Constantine from Lycopolis; Coptic hagiography; Great Persecution; pilgrimage sanctuary; cult paraphernalia; consensual slavery; Melitian schism

Texts on the martyrdom of St. Claudius and on his cult center at Pohe in the Lycopolitan nome were published in 1970 but were never studied exhaustively. This interesting Coptic hagiographic dossier, preserved in its entirety in a codex from the early 9th century (also in smaller fragments from the same period), was put together specifically for the purpose of the cult. Two panegyrics written by Constantine, Bishop of Lycopolis, ordained by the patriarch Damianos (578–607) and his curate in Upper Egypt, are of particular interest as a literary product and at the same time testimony of a pilgrimage center in operation. Two other anonymous texts from the same codex (Pierpont Morgan 587, 9th century), which are both much later, supply historians with useful data on Christian beliefs during the Great Persecution.

More...

A monastic library in Nekloni?

Author(s): Iwona Zych / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Naqlun; monastic architecture; library; wood artifacts; lock; key; furniture

The presence of a monastic library, possibly connected with a scriptorium, in the complex labeled as D on the upper plateau in the monastery at Nekloni (Naqlun), has been suggested in research, based on finds of texts, as well as other categories of artifacts presented in excavation reports. The paper discusses the collection of wooden artifacts from the complex, emphasizing objects that could have been part of the upper-floor reception rooms envisioned as the place where one would expect to find the monastery library.

More...

Evolution and revolution in Nubian pottery

Author(s): William Y. Adams / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Meroitic Nubia; post-Meroitic Nubia; Christian Nubia; pottery

The author traces the evolution of Nubian decorated pottery from the middle Meroitic (1st century BC/1st century AD) through the terminal Christian (about AD 1500), arguing in favor of four different revolutions, technological and stylistic, which shaped the ruling paradigm. These revolutions are assigned to the Meroitic, post-Meroitic, Classical Christian and Terminal Christian periods.

More...

Some unique medieval Nubian textiles in the British Museum collections

Author(s): Julie Renee Anderson,Anna Harrison / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Kulubnarti; medieval; textile; economy; conservation; hair; Nubian

An ongoing British Museum–Glasgow University conservation project has focused on medieval textiles excavated from Kulubnarti, Sudan. Textile manufacture was an important industry on the site and this is reflected in the artefacts found there. Methods used to conserve the textiles are discussed and the fibres used, notably human hair, identified. The reasons for the use of various fibres and weaving techniques are considered.

More...

Egyptian amphorae LR 5/6 with Greek dipinti found in Dongola

Author(s): Katarzyna Danys,Adam Łajtar / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Makuria; Dongola; amphorae; wine trade

Seven LR 5/6 amphora sherds from Polish excavations in the building B.I on the citadel of Dongola published in the present article are thought to represent pottery production from the northwestern part of the Nile Delta. Their principal content was wine in all probability and they all came from 7th century contexts. These particular seven pieces all carried dipinti in black reading: “To the Four + a number”, which apparently indicates that the Church of Four Living Creatures was the recipient of the wine contained in these vessels. Assuming the interpretation is correct, the finds cast light on the organization of Egyptian wine exports to Makuria in the 7th century.

More...

Among the rocks: A first look at medieval Duweishat, from the archive

Author(s): David N. Edwards / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Medieval Nubia; Duweishat; Nobadia; landscape; settlement; social archaeology; churches

During the 1960s, the Archaeological Survey of Sudanese Nubia (ASSN) created a systematic record of the archaeology of a whole landscape, now lost, providing a body of data of exceptional value. Drawing on still unpublished data this paper explores the medieval settlement archaeology of the Duweishat region of the central Batn al-Hajar. Evidence is examined for a gradual agricultural colonisation during the first millennium AD as well as the penetration of Christianity into this isolated rural area. How social landscapes may have been organised around churches and cemeteries is also discussed, as well as how such regions may have interacted with (episcopal) centres such as Sai and Faras.

More...

Beyond Old Dongola: The multicomponent site of Hag Magid (Letti Basin)

Author(s): Krzysztof Grzymski / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Letti Basin; Neolithic; Christian and post-Christian Nubia

A brief presentation of the Hag Magid archaeological site located on the east side of the Letti Basin, several kilometers to the north of the ruins of Dongola. Material from the Neolithic, Christian and post-Christian periods were recorded from the site during three visits in the 1980s and 1990s.

More...

The ‘bead-side’ story of medieval and post-medieval Nubia: Tentative approach to the bead collection of the Museum of Archaeology University of Stavanger, Norway

Author(s): Joanna Then-Obłuska / Language(s): English,French,German / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Beads; pendants; Lower Nubia; medieval; post-medieval; modern

The paper presents a group of beads and pendants from the collection of the Museum of Archaeology University of Stavanger, Norway, derived from excavations carried out by the Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia. The finds come from burials at Debeira, Sahaba and Abka, and a church site at Sidi Amir el-Sahaba, and cover a timespan from the Christian period through modernity. A few are currently introduced in terms of the material they were made from and most are paralleled by bead finds from other Nubian sites, but some types remain unidentified. Despite not being well dated or properly provenanced in many cases at this time, they are presented here in order to ‘thread’ them into the Nubian bead story from medieval and post-medieval times.

More...