DOI Artikel:
Crum, Walter E.: Progress of Egyptology: christian Egypt
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12423#0082
72
Progress of Egyptology.
whereon the body lay. We are told, a propos of the numerous Bes figures
iu the surrounding tombs, that this god is elsewhere found, even in
Christian burials, as an amulet.
Among the primitive graves explored by Keisner 84 in the cemeteries
opposite Girga, numerous shallow Coptic burials were found, cut in among
the ancient tombs. The bodies, as at Sakkara, lay upon their backs, with
head westward.
The excavation of the Menas sanctuary, with its vast dependencies,
has now been brought to a close (v. last Report 74). C. M. Kauf-
mann's third Keport85 tells of another (the fourth) basilica, in close
relation to spacious guest and waiting rooms and baths of various
dimensions, one of some 78 x 45 yards. An elaborate system of lead piping
is traceable, for the supply and draining of the healing water and for the
heating of the baths. This thermal basilica, assigned to the 5th century,
was lined wholly with white marble. Further, the ' coenobia ' of dwelling-
houses, cellars &c, ascribed to the 5th-9th centuries, were laid bare.
The disappointing side of the excavations is in the poor harvest of inscrip-
tions : the name of the patron saint here and there, a few Greek ostraca,
including wine accounts and dated by H. I. Bell in the 5th and 6th
centuries, some proper names (still to be published) and scraps of inscribed
jars, together with an unexpected Latin graffito. It is significant of the
place and age that Coptic should not be represented. Although K.
professes to regard the work done as practically final, it is evident that not
a little of the ground remains still to be explored. It is heartily to be
desired that health and funds will some day permit him to resume this
most important work.
Petrie's discovery of extensive brick ruins on the S. side of the ' White
Monastery' is an event of considerable importance for the history of
Shenoute's community.86 Do they represent the primitive settlement of
his predecessor, Pgol ? Petrie argues that, pottery of Constantine's age
being found there, the building was pre-monastic: therefore coenobitic.
In the middle of the brick enclosure are traces of a stone building, perhaps
a church. Noticeable too are the pottery drain-pipes and certain large
circular vats. The surrounding brick wall once enclosed the present
monastery too. The present confused sequence among the carved stones
re-utilized in the latter would point to their origin in these earlier
buildings. Five miles S. of Sohag P. found another brick dair, whose
recluses seem to have dwelt in and decorated the neighbouring rock
tombs.
Petrie's preceding volume, dealing with Dair Balaizah, gives photo-
Progress of Egyptology.
whereon the body lay. We are told, a propos of the numerous Bes figures
iu the surrounding tombs, that this god is elsewhere found, even in
Christian burials, as an amulet.
Among the primitive graves explored by Keisner 84 in the cemeteries
opposite Girga, numerous shallow Coptic burials were found, cut in among
the ancient tombs. The bodies, as at Sakkara, lay upon their backs, with
head westward.
The excavation of the Menas sanctuary, with its vast dependencies,
has now been brought to a close (v. last Report 74). C. M. Kauf-
mann's third Keport85 tells of another (the fourth) basilica, in close
relation to spacious guest and waiting rooms and baths of various
dimensions, one of some 78 x 45 yards. An elaborate system of lead piping
is traceable, for the supply and draining of the healing water and for the
heating of the baths. This thermal basilica, assigned to the 5th century,
was lined wholly with white marble. Further, the ' coenobia ' of dwelling-
houses, cellars &c, ascribed to the 5th-9th centuries, were laid bare.
The disappointing side of the excavations is in the poor harvest of inscrip-
tions : the name of the patron saint here and there, a few Greek ostraca,
including wine accounts and dated by H. I. Bell in the 5th and 6th
centuries, some proper names (still to be published) and scraps of inscribed
jars, together with an unexpected Latin graffito. It is significant of the
place and age that Coptic should not be represented. Although K.
professes to regard the work done as practically final, it is evident that not
a little of the ground remains still to be explored. It is heartily to be
desired that health and funds will some day permit him to resume this
most important work.
Petrie's discovery of extensive brick ruins on the S. side of the ' White
Monastery' is an event of considerable importance for the history of
Shenoute's community.86 Do they represent the primitive settlement of
his predecessor, Pgol ? Petrie argues that, pottery of Constantine's age
being found there, the building was pre-monastic: therefore coenobitic.
In the middle of the brick enclosure are traces of a stone building, perhaps
a church. Noticeable too are the pottery drain-pipes and certain large
circular vats. The surrounding brick wall once enclosed the present
monastery too. The present confused sequence among the carved stones
re-utilized in the latter would point to their origin in these earlier
buildings. Five miles S. of Sohag P. found another brick dair, whose
recluses seem to have dwelt in and decorated the neighbouring rock
tombs.
Petrie's preceding volume, dealing with Dair Balaizah, gives photo-