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DOI Artikel:Browne, Gerald M.: Two Old Nubian texts from Old Dongola
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18903#0086
Gerald M. Browne
TWO OLD NUBIAN TEXTS FROM OLD DONGO LA
The two texts on parchment which I here publish for the first time were discovered in the-
course of the Polish excavations conducted at Old Dongola in the Republic of the Sudan in 1972.
They are now preserved in the National Museum in Warsaw, where they bear the inventory
number Dep. 640 ab. Though the second piece displays characteristically smaller letters thani
the first, both are written in a similar style and may in fact be the work of the same scribe.
Both texts come from books of the Old Testament: the first is from Psalm 183 (Massoretic
number 104), and the second is from Daniel 3. Both also share an unusual feature of compo-
sition: they are characterized by an alternating sequence whereby one verse appears in Greek,
the next in an Old Nubian translation, the third in Greek, etc. The same kind of alternation is
observab!e in a Psalter fragment unearthed at Qasr Ibrim and publisbed as No. 2 in J. M. Plumley
and G. M. Browne, Literary Texts in Medievał Nubian from Qasr Ibrim, London, 19881, as well
as in the verses of the Benedicite (also from Daniel 3) which were uncovered at Qasr el-Wizz.
and edited by J. Barns in the Journal of Egyptian Archaelogy, 60, 1974, 206—211 (with plate XL).
Whatever the reason may have been for producing such amoebaean or antiphonal texts, they
imply an audience so fully conversant with Greek and Old Nubian tbat both languages enjoyedi
a paratactic level of eąuality.
On the ground of handwriting, Barns suggested that the Greek-Old Nubian Benedicite belonged:
to the tenth century (see p. 206 of the article cited in the preceding paragraph). Nothing in the
present texts excludes a similar dating, though it must be emphasized that the science of Greco-
-Nubian paleography is still in its infancy and that we are not yet in a position to date accurately
by paleographica criteria alone. I owe to Dr. Włodzimierz Godlewski of the National Museum
in Warsaw the observation that the archeological context point to the thirteenth century as
the terminus ante quem for the pieces from Old Dongola.
For permission to publish these two texts I am grateful to Dr. Godlewski, whom I also thank
for providing me with excellent photographs of the pieces and for facilitating my study of the
originals when I was in Warsaw in the summer of 1984. In addition, I should express my grati-
tude to the members of the Office of International Programs of the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign; for it was their financial support that made possible my research trip to-
Poland.
I
Psalm 103 : 15—31
The parchment leaf bearing this text measures 10.3 cm. in width and 13 cm. in height. For
parts of the Greek the scribe used red ink, which has at times almost disappeared; the sections in
red I have underlined in the following transcript.
In preparing this edition I have collated the Greek with the text in A. Bahlfs, Psalmi cum
Odis, Septuaginta 10 (Gottingen, 1967).
1. This volume, hereaftcr abbreviated as ILT, should be consulted for the abbreviations and principles of transliteratioa
employed in the commentary following each text.
76
TWO OLD NUBIAN TEXTS FROM OLD DONGO LA
The two texts on parchment which I here publish for the first time were discovered in the-
course of the Polish excavations conducted at Old Dongola in the Republic of the Sudan in 1972.
They are now preserved in the National Museum in Warsaw, where they bear the inventory
number Dep. 640 ab. Though the second piece displays characteristically smaller letters thani
the first, both are written in a similar style and may in fact be the work of the same scribe.
Both texts come from books of the Old Testament: the first is from Psalm 183 (Massoretic
number 104), and the second is from Daniel 3. Both also share an unusual feature of compo-
sition: they are characterized by an alternating sequence whereby one verse appears in Greek,
the next in an Old Nubian translation, the third in Greek, etc. The same kind of alternation is
observab!e in a Psalter fragment unearthed at Qasr Ibrim and publisbed as No. 2 in J. M. Plumley
and G. M. Browne, Literary Texts in Medievał Nubian from Qasr Ibrim, London, 19881, as well
as in the verses of the Benedicite (also from Daniel 3) which were uncovered at Qasr el-Wizz.
and edited by J. Barns in the Journal of Egyptian Archaelogy, 60, 1974, 206—211 (with plate XL).
Whatever the reason may have been for producing such amoebaean or antiphonal texts, they
imply an audience so fully conversant with Greek and Old Nubian tbat both languages enjoyedi
a paratactic level of eąuality.
On the ground of handwriting, Barns suggested that the Greek-Old Nubian Benedicite belonged:
to the tenth century (see p. 206 of the article cited in the preceding paragraph). Nothing in the
present texts excludes a similar dating, though it must be emphasized that the science of Greco-
-Nubian paleography is still in its infancy and that we are not yet in a position to date accurately
by paleographica criteria alone. I owe to Dr. Włodzimierz Godlewski of the National Museum
in Warsaw the observation that the archeological context point to the thirteenth century as
the terminus ante quem for the pieces from Old Dongola.
For permission to publish these two texts I am grateful to Dr. Godlewski, whom I also thank
for providing me with excellent photographs of the pieces and for facilitating my study of the
originals when I was in Warsaw in the summer of 1984. In addition, I should express my grati-
tude to the members of the Office of International Programs of the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign; for it was their financial support that made possible my research trip to-
Poland.
I
Psalm 103 : 15—31
The parchment leaf bearing this text measures 10.3 cm. in width and 13 cm. in height. For
parts of the Greek the scribe used red ink, which has at times almost disappeared; the sections in
red I have underlined in the following transcript.
In preparing this edition I have collated the Greek with the text in A. Bahlfs, Psalmi cum
Odis, Septuaginta 10 (Gottingen, 1967).
1. This volume, hereaftcr abbreviated as ILT, should be consulted for the abbreviations and principles of transliteratioa
employed in the commentary following each text.
76