DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4031#0045
APPENDIX.
BYZANTINE SCULPTURES EOUND AT AHNAS.
The accompanying illustrations are copies of
some beautiful photographs (taken by the
Rev. William MacGregor) of various sculptures
found in Egypt amongst the Mounds at Annas
by M. JNaville, who was conducting excavations
there for the Egypt Exploration Fund.
Almas is about seventy-three miles south of
Cairo, and occupies, no doubt, the site of
Heracleopolis Magna.
A description of it was given by the late
Miss Amelia B. Edwards in the special report
of the Fund, 1890-1891, and it is further
described by M. Naville in a letter which he
has been kind enough to send to me, of which
I subjoin extracts, so far as it relates to
the sculptures. He says : " The site of
Ahnas consists of several mounds, between
which are depressions, in which generally stood
the stone buildings. In one of these were two
large bases of columns in red granite, which
evidently appeared to be of late Roman or
Byzantine times. In digging at the foot of
these bases, I found a large architrave and pieces
of the columns which stood on these bases, but,
as there were only two, it must have been a
gateway leading into the church. I was quite
certain that the building was a church when
I saw the heap of stones found lower down at
a depth of eight or nine feet. I say a heap
of stones, for, from the state of the ruins, it
would have been impossible to reconstruct the
plan of the building, except that the apse
seemed to have been raised on a platform of
burnt bricks, to which access was given by a
flight of steps. The stones consisted of a
great number of lintels, friezes and cornices in
white limestone, with sculptured ornaments, the
motives of which are flowers, leaves, and heads
of animals, chiefly sheep and hogs. . . . Be-
sides these were bases of columns in grey
marble, shafts of the same material, and
capitals, noticeable from the fact that the
central flower in the abacus is replaced by a
Coptic cross. . . .
" There are the remains of two other churches,
which consist merely of shafts of columns of
red granite. On some of these the Coptic cross
has been engraved, and these columns look
exactly like those at Medinet Haboo and in
other well-known Coptic churches. They are
all of the same kind of work. As for the
standing columns and Corinthian capitals, called
Kaneseh, the church, I believe they were origin-
ally parts of a Roman temple. The style of
the capitals seems to me to have less of the
Byzantine character which is so strongly marked
on the others, especially in the flat capitals
which are at the top of the square pillars to
the church."
I am informed that these sculptures, thus
described by M. Naville, are now the chief
objects in one of the Coptic rooms at Grhizeh.
I was there last in 1890, but I cannot recall
them to mind. I have, however, now before
BYZANTINE SCULPTURES EOUND AT AHNAS.
The accompanying illustrations are copies of
some beautiful photographs (taken by the
Rev. William MacGregor) of various sculptures
found in Egypt amongst the Mounds at Annas
by M. JNaville, who was conducting excavations
there for the Egypt Exploration Fund.
Almas is about seventy-three miles south of
Cairo, and occupies, no doubt, the site of
Heracleopolis Magna.
A description of it was given by the late
Miss Amelia B. Edwards in the special report
of the Fund, 1890-1891, and it is further
described by M. Naville in a letter which he
has been kind enough to send to me, of which
I subjoin extracts, so far as it relates to
the sculptures. He says : " The site of
Ahnas consists of several mounds, between
which are depressions, in which generally stood
the stone buildings. In one of these were two
large bases of columns in red granite, which
evidently appeared to be of late Roman or
Byzantine times. In digging at the foot of
these bases, I found a large architrave and pieces
of the columns which stood on these bases, but,
as there were only two, it must have been a
gateway leading into the church. I was quite
certain that the building was a church when
I saw the heap of stones found lower down at
a depth of eight or nine feet. I say a heap
of stones, for, from the state of the ruins, it
would have been impossible to reconstruct the
plan of the building, except that the apse
seemed to have been raised on a platform of
burnt bricks, to which access was given by a
flight of steps. The stones consisted of a
great number of lintels, friezes and cornices in
white limestone, with sculptured ornaments, the
motives of which are flowers, leaves, and heads
of animals, chiefly sheep and hogs. . . . Be-
sides these were bases of columns in grey
marble, shafts of the same material, and
capitals, noticeable from the fact that the
central flower in the abacus is replaced by a
Coptic cross. . . .
" There are the remains of two other churches,
which consist merely of shafts of columns of
red granite. On some of these the Coptic cross
has been engraved, and these columns look
exactly like those at Medinet Haboo and in
other well-known Coptic churches. They are
all of the same kind of work. As for the
standing columns and Corinthian capitals, called
Kaneseh, the church, I believe they were origin-
ally parts of a Roman temple. The style of
the capitals seems to me to have less of the
Byzantine character which is so strongly marked
on the others, especially in the flat capitals
which are at the top of the square pillars to
the church."
I am informed that these sculptures, thus
described by M. Naville, are now the chief
objects in one of the Coptic rooms at Grhizeh.
I was there last in 1890, but I cannot recall
them to mind. I have, however, now before