DOI article:
Crum, Walter E.: Progress of Egyptology: christian Egypt
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12420#0081
Christian Egypt.
67
of chronological evidence. But it may be doubted whether the dark square
here is to be classed as a nimbus. There has been a large harvest of inscrip-
tions, mostly reserved for subsequent publication; but so far, no manuscripts.
The dialect represented is a pure Sa'idic, a fact which inclines one to doubt
whether the well-known passports from this monastery (Acff. Z. 1885, 145)
really can claim to represent anything but an illiterate Sa'idic jargon.
MASr-ero, in a general description of these ruins,95 would put the earliest
remains, e.g. the carved capitals, in the first half of the 5th century.
Of the convents once numerous about Siiit, little, Cledat tells us,90 now
remains ; some have been quite lately (1903) destroyed. He reproduces
several short inscriptions, among them a list of saints and martyrs and
another giving short accounts of the evangelists. He also publishes
17 slelae from the monastery of Simeon at Aswan, which range in date
from 724 to 819.
Breccia describes97 the Christian catacombs at Hadra, an eastern suburb
of Alexandria. There are 34 rock-cut graves, disposed round the gallery.
Each consists of a vertical well leading into the horizontal grave.
Apparently a chapel occupied the centre of the whole. Eough crosses and
a few graffiti are visible.
Lefebvre mentions98 a rock-cut church (?) at Khawaled, S. of Siiit,
showing three roughly hewn niches, side by side.
Bkadnell's book upon the Oasis of Khargah 99 contains photographs
(pp. 103, 104) of the great necropolis of El-Bagawat and of one of its
frescoed tombs, the same which De Bock's Materiaux (pll. xiii, xiv) show.
T. Smolensk! has visited the monastery of Kalamun,100 which he locates
S. of the Wady Eayan and W. of Sedment. He speaks of remarkable
church ruins still to be seen. The old MSS. in the library had but
recently been sent elsewhere.
The excavations at the Menas shrine are ended and Kaufmann has
published a small guide-book to the site.101 From the extent of the ruins,
he would estimate the staff of resident clergy and monks at over a
hundred, the inhabitants of the adjacent town at several thousands. On
p. 52 a fragment of inscription is given, which seems to name the emperor
Aralens and which K. dates in 374 or thereabouts—an important fixed
point, if so.
Ayrton's excavations at Abydos102 have produced but one Coptic
monument: a stele (now at Oxford) somewhat of the type of Cairo
no. 8710 and, like it, inscribed on both faces. It may date from the 7th or
8th century.
Maspero describes1(" a fine bronze censer at Cairo, probably brought
67
of chronological evidence. But it may be doubted whether the dark square
here is to be classed as a nimbus. There has been a large harvest of inscrip-
tions, mostly reserved for subsequent publication; but so far, no manuscripts.
The dialect represented is a pure Sa'idic, a fact which inclines one to doubt
whether the well-known passports from this monastery (Acff. Z. 1885, 145)
really can claim to represent anything but an illiterate Sa'idic jargon.
MASr-ero, in a general description of these ruins,95 would put the earliest
remains, e.g. the carved capitals, in the first half of the 5th century.
Of the convents once numerous about Siiit, little, Cledat tells us,90 now
remains ; some have been quite lately (1903) destroyed. He reproduces
several short inscriptions, among them a list of saints and martyrs and
another giving short accounts of the evangelists. He also publishes
17 slelae from the monastery of Simeon at Aswan, which range in date
from 724 to 819.
Breccia describes97 the Christian catacombs at Hadra, an eastern suburb
of Alexandria. There are 34 rock-cut graves, disposed round the gallery.
Each consists of a vertical well leading into the horizontal grave.
Apparently a chapel occupied the centre of the whole. Eough crosses and
a few graffiti are visible.
Lefebvre mentions98 a rock-cut church (?) at Khawaled, S. of Siiit,
showing three roughly hewn niches, side by side.
Bkadnell's book upon the Oasis of Khargah 99 contains photographs
(pp. 103, 104) of the great necropolis of El-Bagawat and of one of its
frescoed tombs, the same which De Bock's Materiaux (pll. xiii, xiv) show.
T. Smolensk! has visited the monastery of Kalamun,100 which he locates
S. of the Wady Eayan and W. of Sedment. He speaks of remarkable
church ruins still to be seen. The old MSS. in the library had but
recently been sent elsewhere.
The excavations at the Menas shrine are ended and Kaufmann has
published a small guide-book to the site.101 From the extent of the ruins,
he would estimate the staff of resident clergy and monks at over a
hundred, the inhabitants of the adjacent town at several thousands. On
p. 52 a fragment of inscription is given, which seems to name the emperor
Aralens and which K. dates in 374 or thereabouts—an important fixed
point, if so.
Ayrton's excavations at Abydos102 have produced but one Coptic
monument: a stele (now at Oxford) somewhat of the type of Cairo
no. 8710 and, like it, inscribed on both faces. It may date from the 7th or
8th century.
Maspero describes1(" a fine bronze censer at Cairo, probably brought