DOI Artikel:
Crum, Walter E.: Progress of Egyptology: christian Egypt
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12051#0087
Christian Egypt.
75
'the purest example of the basilica in Egypt,' appears to be of the time of
Arcadius; the crypt church earlier. Thousands of the famous flasks
were found, besides the ovens in which they were baked. An inscription
seems to prove that the healing liquid was water, not oil. Much still
remains to be explored, and it is greatly to be hoped that the required
funds will be forthcoming. K.'s preliminary report has numerous photo-
graphs.
De Waal and Wilpeet ,j0 discuss an unusual variety of the above
flasks, found by Kaufmann, which they take to represent Thecla. Cf.
an example in Dalton's Brit. Mus. Catnl., pi. 32.
The second volume of Cledat's Baouit (v. Report, 1903-04, 84) has
appeared91 and is of still higher interest than the first. We have now in
all frescoes and texts from 28 ' chapels,' all reproduced—this applies
especially to the countless texts in this volume—with a high degree of
accuracy, as comparisons of the copies with the photographic plates
demonstrate. A group of texts (p. 84), dated in the 8th century, are
valuable. The epithet given (p. 119) to the founder, Apollo, shows him to
be the saint commemorated on the 25th Babeh. On pi. 93 the bird, so
common on the stelae, is distinctly called «erds. Many of the graffiti are
in a Middle Egyptian dialect. A number of interesting personal and place
names occur and not a few additions to the dictionary. Are we to look for
a further instalment from this invaluable site ?
In the last lleport, p. 61, the text was mentioned of a remarkable
papyrus, edited by Bauer.11- Its unique coloured illustrations have been
studied and estimated by Strzygowski. Bauer has dated the MS. in the
first half of the 5th century: to judge by the script, it might well be at
least 150 years younger. In the illustrations S. sees strong Egyptian
and even Jewish influences, working upon a hellenistic background. He
thinks that if the chronicle did indeed close with the victory of Theophilus
and his monks over heathendom, this may indicate its origin in some Coptic
monastery of Upper Egypt. He contrasts the mode of illustration —purely
a commentary on the text—with the decorutire intention of the subsequent
syro-persian style of illumination, on Coptic and other parchment MSS.*
Many questions of interest regarding Coptic art are incidentally discussed
and many hitherto unpublished examples of it are reproduced in this very
interesting volume. Among reviews, that by Leipoldt suggests 113 that
the papyrus may have come from the White Monastery.
In Biondi's report9* on his excavations at Hermopolis, Coptic documents
* It may be observed that Brit. Mus. Coptic Cat., no. ]218 are fragments of a
papyrus book with purely decorative coloured ornamentation.
75
'the purest example of the basilica in Egypt,' appears to be of the time of
Arcadius; the crypt church earlier. Thousands of the famous flasks
were found, besides the ovens in which they were baked. An inscription
seems to prove that the healing liquid was water, not oil. Much still
remains to be explored, and it is greatly to be hoped that the required
funds will be forthcoming. K.'s preliminary report has numerous photo-
graphs.
De Waal and Wilpeet ,j0 discuss an unusual variety of the above
flasks, found by Kaufmann, which they take to represent Thecla. Cf.
an example in Dalton's Brit. Mus. Catnl., pi. 32.
The second volume of Cledat's Baouit (v. Report, 1903-04, 84) has
appeared91 and is of still higher interest than the first. We have now in
all frescoes and texts from 28 ' chapels,' all reproduced—this applies
especially to the countless texts in this volume—with a high degree of
accuracy, as comparisons of the copies with the photographic plates
demonstrate. A group of texts (p. 84), dated in the 8th century, are
valuable. The epithet given (p. 119) to the founder, Apollo, shows him to
be the saint commemorated on the 25th Babeh. On pi. 93 the bird, so
common on the stelae, is distinctly called «erds. Many of the graffiti are
in a Middle Egyptian dialect. A number of interesting personal and place
names occur and not a few additions to the dictionary. Are we to look for
a further instalment from this invaluable site ?
In the last lleport, p. 61, the text was mentioned of a remarkable
papyrus, edited by Bauer.11- Its unique coloured illustrations have been
studied and estimated by Strzygowski. Bauer has dated the MS. in the
first half of the 5th century: to judge by the script, it might well be at
least 150 years younger. In the illustrations S. sees strong Egyptian
and even Jewish influences, working upon a hellenistic background. He
thinks that if the chronicle did indeed close with the victory of Theophilus
and his monks over heathendom, this may indicate its origin in some Coptic
monastery of Upper Egypt. He contrasts the mode of illustration —purely
a commentary on the text—with the decorutire intention of the subsequent
syro-persian style of illumination, on Coptic and other parchment MSS.*
Many questions of interest regarding Coptic art are incidentally discussed
and many hitherto unpublished examples of it are reproduced in this very
interesting volume. Among reviews, that by Leipoldt suggests 113 that
the papyrus may have come from the White Monastery.
In Biondi's report9* on his excavations at Hermopolis, Coptic documents
* It may be observed that Brit. Mus. Coptic Cat., no. ]218 are fragments of a
papyrus book with purely decorative coloured ornamentation.