Christianity and Monasticism in Aswan and Nubia , livre ebook

Copyright © 2012, 2014 by
The American University in Cairo Press
113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt
420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
www.aucpress.com

First published in hardback in 2012
This electronic edition published in 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN 978 977 416 561 0
eISBN 978 161 797 359 8

Version 1
Contents List of Illustrations Contributors Foreword Introduction Language and Literature 1. Coptic Ostraca from Hagr Edfu Anke Ilona Blöbaum 2. Imagining Macedonius, the First Bishop of Philae James E. Goehring 3. Apa Hadra (Hidra) in the Difnar Nashaat Mekhaiel 4. Christianity on Philae Samuel Moawad 5. The Indexing of Manuscripts of the Monastery of the Great Saint Pachomius in Edfu Fr. Angelous el-Naqlouny 6. The Beginnings of Christianity in Nubia Siegfried G. Richter 7. A Foreshadowing of the Desert Spirituality in Ancient Nubia and Upper Egypt Ashraf Alexandre Sadek 8. Contested Frontiers: Southern Egypt and Northern Nubia, AD 300–1500: The Evidence of the Inscriptions Jacques van der Vliet 9. The Veneration of Saints in Aswan and Nubia Youhanna Nessim Youssef Art, Archaeology, and Material Culture 10. Dayr al-Kubbaniya: Review of the Documentation on the ‘Isisberg’ Monastery Renate Dekker 11. The Development of the Church at Dayr Anba Hadra: A Study of the Plasterwork and Dated Inscriptions Renate Dekker 12. An Updated Plan of the Church at Dayr Qubbat al-Hawa Renate Dekker 13. The Christian Wall Paintings from the Temple of Isis at Aswan Revisited Jitse H.F. Dijkstra and Gertrud J.M. van Loon 14. Monastic Life in Makuria Włodzimierz Godlewski 15. Christian Aswan in the Modern Era and the History of Its Cathedral Metropolitan Hedra 16. The Word and the Flesh Karel C. Innemée 17. The Ascension Scene in the Apse of the Church at Dayr Qubbat al-Hawwa: A Comparative Study Mary Kupelian 18. The Nubian Marble Object Preserved in Dayr al-Suryan in Wadi al-Natrun Bishop Martyros 19. The Digital 3D Virtual Reconstruction of the Monastic Church, Qubbat al-Hawa Howard Middleton-Jones 20. Christian Objects in the Aswan and Nubia Museums Atif Naguib 21. Sources for the Study of Late Antique and Early Medieval Hagr Edfu Elisabeth R. O’Connell 22. Christianity in Kom Ombo Adel F. Sadek 23. Identification of the Monastery of the Nubians in Wadi al-Natrun Fr. Bigoul al-Suriany 24. Monneret de Villard (1881–1954) and Nubia Fr. Awad Wadi Preservation 25. The Conservation of the Mural Paintings of St. Hatre Monastery Ashraf Nageh Abbreviations Bibliography
Illustrations Figure 1.1 Writing exercise: grouped lines and isolated words  1.2 Writing exercise: isolated letters and syllables  1.3 Writing exercise: isolated letters, syllables, set phrases, and book-hand  4.1 The First Cataract area in Late Antiquity  4.2 Plan of the Island of Philae  10.1 ‘Isisberg’ Monastery: view from the north  10.2 ‘Isisberg’ Monastery: view from the east  10.3 ‘Isisberg’ Monastery: plan of the monastery  10.4 ‘Isisberg’ Monastery: view from the south  10.5 ‘Isisberg’ Monastery: the Virgin and a saint  11.1 Dayr Anba Hadra: plasterwork in the khurus   11.2 Dayr Anba Hadra: the sanctuary, to the north of the niche  11.3 Dayr Anba Hadra: the sanctuary, to the south of the niche  11.4 Dayr Anba Hadra: the western niche  11.5 Dayr Anba Hadra: Christ flanked by bowing angels  11.6 Dayr Anba Hadra: the ‘hidden’ cave wall  12.1 Dayr Qubbat al-Hawa: view of the church  12.2 Dayr Qubbat al-Hawa: plan of the church  12.3 Dayr Qubbat al-Hawa: the sanctuary  12.4 Dayr Qubbat al-Hawa: updated plan of the church  12.5 Dayr Qubbat al-Hawa: the staircase in the northern aisle  12.6 Dayr Qubbat al-Hawa: painting of three figures  12.7 Dayr Qubbat al-Hawa: painting of two monks  12.8 Dayr Qubbat al-Hawa: figurative graffito of a praying monk  12.9 Dayr Qubbat al-Hawa: recently discovered painting  12.10 Dayr Qubbat al-Hawa: painting  12.11 Dayr Qubbat al-Hawa: recently discovered dipinto   13.1 Topographical map with areas investigated during the first six campaigns of the Swiss–Egyptian mission  13.2 The temple of Isis at Aswan  13.3 Key map to the temple of Isis at Aswan with a tentative reconstruction of (parts of) the church  13.4 Temple of Isis at Aswan: plans of the south face of the northern pillar and the north face of the southern pillar with the graffiti and the (approximate) position of the wall paintings  13.5 Temple of Isis at Aswan: wall painting on the south face of the northern pillar  13.6 Temple of Isis at Aswan: wall painting on the north face of the southern pillar  13.7 Bawit, Chapel III, north wall: David in King Saul’s armor  13.8 Sohag, Red Monastery, Church of Anba Bishai, northern conch of the sanctuary  13.9 Bawit, Chapel XVIII, niche in east wall: the Virgin Mary accompanied by archangels  14.1 Apa Amone. Cathedral of Paulos, Pachoras (Faras)   14.2 Pachoras. The hermitage of Theophilos; plan and walls with localization of the texts  14.3 Qasr al-Wizz. Plan of the early monastery  14.4 Dongola. Kom H. Monastic Church  14.5 Dongola. Kom H. Building S, hermitage and chapel of Anna By  14.6 Dongola. Kom H. Building S, graffiti  14.7 Dongola. Kom H. The chapel over bishops’ tombs  15.1 Aswan Cathedral: Somers Clarke memorial  15.2 Aswan Cathedral exterior  15.3 Aswan Cathedral at night  15.4 Aswan Cathedral interior  15.5 Aswan Cathedral: archangel doors  16.1 Apse from cell 6 in Bawit  16.2 Northern semi-dome, Epiphany, Dayr al-Suryan  16.3 Nativity from Abdalla Nirqi, Central Church  16.4 Nativity from the Cathedral of Faras  16.5 Southern semi-dome, Christ Enthroned between four evangelists, Red Monastery, Sohag  16.6 Cross-theophany from Abdalla Nirqi, Central Church  16.7 Apse with double composition, Qubbat al-Hawa  17.1 The western apse in the northern church at Dayr Qubbat al-Hawa  17.2 The northern wall showing saints with a square halo at Dayr Qubbat al-Hawa  17.3 The Ascension in the western semi-dome of the nave in the Church of al-Adra at Dayr al-Suryan  17.4 The Ascension scene, the Sanctuary of Benjamin, Dayr Abu Maqar, in Wadi al-Natrun  17.5 The central apse in the Chapel of al-Adra in Dayr Abu Sayfayn, a mixture of Ascension and Christ in Majesty  17.6 Christ Enthroned in Majesty, flanked by two angels, Dayr Anba Hadra at Aswan  18.1 Marble tray with the inscription of King Giorgios IV from the Monastery of the Syrians in Wadi al-Natrun  18.2 Back of the tray of King Giorgios IV  18.3 The monasteries of the area of St. John the Little, including the Monastery of (Nubians?) and the Monastery of St. Pshoi (Anba Bishoi), as well as Dayr al-Suryan  19.1 Overall view of the site of Qubbat al-Hawa from the Nile  19.2 Qubbat al-Hawa: west apse with the bust of Christ and angels  19.3 Qubbat al-Hawa: revised floor plan  19.4 Qubbat al-Hawa: initial reconstruction model  19.5 Qubbat al-Hawa: initial reconstruction model showing the location of the apse with paintings and staircase  20.1 Wooden Coptic cross from Gebel Adda  20.2 Kohl stick from Sabagura, tenth century  20.3 Pottery bowls used in the prayer for the anointing of the sick  20.4 Pottery tray from Elephantine decorated with a fish, tenth century  21.1 Quickbird satellite image of the Edfu region  21.2 Topographical map of Hagr Edfu (2011) with Areas indicated  21.3 Hagr Edfu: plan of architecture in Area 2a–b  21.4 Hagr Edfu: facsimile of painted cross in Tomb D, Area 2a  21.5 Hagr Edfu: ostracon from Area 2a  21.6 Hagr Edfu: frontispiece of the Martyrdom of St. Mercurius  22.1 Ombos viewed from the Nile  22.2 Plan of the column bases forming the church in the Ptolemaic temple at Kom Ombo  22.3 Copper chalice with inscriptions from Kom Ombo  22.4 Iron cross with inscriptions from Kom Ombo  22.5 Kom Ombo: copper chandelier ornamented with crosses, with places to hold oil lamps  22.6 Kom Ombo: wooden weight box with carved cross on the cover  25.1 St. Hatre Monastery: apse of the main church, in 1927 (above) and in 2010 (below)  25.2 St. Hatre Monastery: location of the monastery  25.3 St. Hatre Monastery: ground floor plan, showing the location of the wall paintings  25.4 St. Hatre Monastery: first floor and the keep plan, showing the locations of the wall paintings  25.5 Composition of the wall-painting layers in St. Hatre monastery 
Contributors
Anke Ilona Blöbaum is a research assistant at the Institute for Egyptology and Coptology of Münster, specializing in Ancient Egyptian and Coptic language and literature. She is currently working on a publication of the Coptic ostraca found at Hagr Edfu.
Renate Dekker studied Coptology at Leiden University and wrote her MPhil thesis on the “Encomium on Bishop Pesynthios of Coptos.” She is currently working on her PhD, on the subject of the episcopal authority of Theban bishops in late antiquity, and on the publication of Dayr Qubbat al-Hawa.
Jitse H.F. Dijkstra is associate professor of classics at the University of Ottawa. He has published widely on Late Antique Egypt, in particular the monograph Philae and the End of Ancient Egyptian Religion (2008). Since 2001, he has been a member of the joint Swiss–Egyptian archaeological mission at Aswan.
Gawdat Gabra is the former director of the Coptic Museum, Cairo, a member of the board of the Society of Coptic Archaeology, and chief editor of the St. Mark Foundation for Coptic History Studies. He is the author, coauthor, and editor of numerous books related to the literary and material culture of Egyptian Christianity. He has taught at American and Egyptian universities. He is currently a visiting professor of Coptic Studies at Claremont Graduate University, California.
Włodzimierz Godlewski is professor of archaeology at Warsaw University. He directs the Polish Center in Cairo excavations in Naqlun and in Old Dongo