DOI Artikel:
Crum, Walter E.: Progress of Egyptology: christian Egypt
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12052#0077
64
Pbogress of Egyptology.
for some years past are undoubtedly those of the French at Bawit (v.
Report, 1901-02, 14 and 56). Cledat has now published a fuller report
on his work there,79 -which included the investigation of two ruined
churches and some thirty chapels, though traces of a hundred such were
discerned. This might indeed seem rather to indicate a cemetery than a
monastery; but C. rightly decides for the latter. Moreover, Ceum has
drawn attention80 to the Coptic etymology of the name itself, which merely
means " The monastery," and has given literary evidence to show that these
must be the ruins of the ancient monastery of Apollo. Among many
graffiti, four are, however, dated in the first half of the 8th century;
and indeed the unusually well-executed frescoes cannot be of any great
age. The other paintings visible include twelve on the life of David—but
only four, Cledat assures us, could be photographed—and figures of
several of the riding soldier-saints, among them Sisinnius, slaying the
vampire Bersalia (for so or similarly the woman's name below him must
be read. V. Basset, Apocr. e'thiop. iv.).
Cledat's expedition to Der Abu Biennis, noticed above,sl resulted
in further copies of the frescoes, the accuracy of which can be satisfactorily
tested on de Bock's photograph of one of them (Materiaux, pi. xxxiii). In
the scenes from the early life of John the Baptist (pll. i, ii) it may
be suggested that the figure with the sword and the "Zacharias" kneeling
next it, illustrate the tradition that John's father was the Z. slain "between
the temple and the altar."
Much that bears on the relations between Alexandrine and Byzantine
art is discussed in Ainalof's Hellenistic Basis of Bt/z. Art (Russian,
1900), of which an analysis by G-. Wulff has appeared.82 The drawing
in the Borgian "Job" MS. (Ciasca tab. xix) is regarded as representing
an imperial family. The familiar animal and floral ornaments of Coptic
MSS. are thought to be Old Egyptian or Persian in origin.
The same writer discusses at length83 the materials brought together in
the late W. de Bock's Materiaux. He is chiefly concerned with the wonder-
ful ruins of El-Bagawat, and recalls Le Blant's view, that catacomb frescoes
are to be interpreted generally as illustrations of the funerary liturgies.
With reference to the White and Bed Monasteries, he would explain
the frequent niches as receptacles for statues, since destroyed by the
iconoclasts (!).
El-Bagawat is also the subject of articles by C. M. Kaufmann,S4, who
sketches the history of Christianity in the Oasis, interprets Bock's text
no. 13, as pointing to the replacement of the Anion worship by the new
religion, and notes the entire absence of grave-stelae. The frescoes he
Pbogress of Egyptology.
for some years past are undoubtedly those of the French at Bawit (v.
Report, 1901-02, 14 and 56). Cledat has now published a fuller report
on his work there,79 -which included the investigation of two ruined
churches and some thirty chapels, though traces of a hundred such were
discerned. This might indeed seem rather to indicate a cemetery than a
monastery; but C. rightly decides for the latter. Moreover, Ceum has
drawn attention80 to the Coptic etymology of the name itself, which merely
means " The monastery," and has given literary evidence to show that these
must be the ruins of the ancient monastery of Apollo. Among many
graffiti, four are, however, dated in the first half of the 8th century;
and indeed the unusually well-executed frescoes cannot be of any great
age. The other paintings visible include twelve on the life of David—but
only four, Cledat assures us, could be photographed—and figures of
several of the riding soldier-saints, among them Sisinnius, slaying the
vampire Bersalia (for so or similarly the woman's name below him must
be read. V. Basset, Apocr. e'thiop. iv.).
Cledat's expedition to Der Abu Biennis, noticed above,sl resulted
in further copies of the frescoes, the accuracy of which can be satisfactorily
tested on de Bock's photograph of one of them (Materiaux, pi. xxxiii). In
the scenes from the early life of John the Baptist (pll. i, ii) it may
be suggested that the figure with the sword and the "Zacharias" kneeling
next it, illustrate the tradition that John's father was the Z. slain "between
the temple and the altar."
Much that bears on the relations between Alexandrine and Byzantine
art is discussed in Ainalof's Hellenistic Basis of Bt/z. Art (Russian,
1900), of which an analysis by G-. Wulff has appeared.82 The drawing
in the Borgian "Job" MS. (Ciasca tab. xix) is regarded as representing
an imperial family. The familiar animal and floral ornaments of Coptic
MSS. are thought to be Old Egyptian or Persian in origin.
The same writer discusses at length83 the materials brought together in
the late W. de Bock's Materiaux. He is chiefly concerned with the wonder-
ful ruins of El-Bagawat, and recalls Le Blant's view, that catacomb frescoes
are to be interpreted generally as illustrations of the funerary liturgies.
With reference to the White and Bed Monasteries, he would explain
the frequent niches as receptacles for statues, since destroyed by the
iconoclasts (!).
El-Bagawat is also the subject of articles by C. M. Kaufmann,S4, who
sketches the history of Christianity in the Oasis, interprets Bock's text
no. 13, as pointing to the replacement of the Anion worship by the new
religion, and notes the entire absence of grave-stelae. The frescoes he