DOI issue:
Egypt
DOI article:Godlewski, Włodzimierz: Naqlun: excavations, 1998
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41273#0117
NAQLUN
EGYPT
through the entrance, which was 60 cm
wide and had a threshold only 8 cm ele-
vated above the floor of the basin. It could
not have been a bathing pool, therefore,
but must have served some function con-
nected with soaking. Undoubtedly, room
D.28 was functionally interconnected
with D.22 and D.19, which also had mor-
tar floors; furthermore, D.19 had a water
container set up on a special stand by the
south wall with canals in the floor and
hollows to collect spilt water. From D.19
the southern end of the courtyard could be
entered; a rubbish dump was cleared here
and found to contain considerable quanti-
ties of scraps of pressed papyrus used as
the filling of codex covers. The finds look
like waste from a binding workshop, sug-
gesting the idea that the three rooms,
D.19, D.22 and D.28 might have been
part of a scriptorium located on the first
floor, a place where the codices were
bound. Numerous codex cards discovered
in the fill of these rooms appear to confirm
this assumption, as do also the codex
covers found in the courtyard (D.24),
north of room D.22.
From the courtyard D.24 an entrance
led to a small room, D.29, measuring 3.55
x 4.26 m. It had a solid wooden door with
an inside lock in the form of a wooden
beam 186 cm long, sliding into a slot in
Fig. 2. Site D. Room D.28 with basin, view from the west
(Photo W. Godlewski)
115
EGYPT
through the entrance, which was 60 cm
wide and had a threshold only 8 cm ele-
vated above the floor of the basin. It could
not have been a bathing pool, therefore,
but must have served some function con-
nected with soaking. Undoubtedly, room
D.28 was functionally interconnected
with D.22 and D.19, which also had mor-
tar floors; furthermore, D.19 had a water
container set up on a special stand by the
south wall with canals in the floor and
hollows to collect spilt water. From D.19
the southern end of the courtyard could be
entered; a rubbish dump was cleared here
and found to contain considerable quanti-
ties of scraps of pressed papyrus used as
the filling of codex covers. The finds look
like waste from a binding workshop, sug-
gesting the idea that the three rooms,
D.19, D.22 and D.28 might have been
part of a scriptorium located on the first
floor, a place where the codices were
bound. Numerous codex cards discovered
in the fill of these rooms appear to confirm
this assumption, as do also the codex
covers found in the courtyard (D.24),
north of room D.22.
From the courtyard D.24 an entrance
led to a small room, D.29, measuring 3.55
x 4.26 m. It had a solid wooden door with
an inside lock in the form of a wooden
beam 186 cm long, sliding into a slot in
Fig. 2. Site D. Room D.28 with basin, view from the west
(Photo W. Godlewski)
115