Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (13.2001(2002))

NAQLUN

EGYPT

tower A. As these tombs were situated in
the lowest layers of the fill, it was possible,
based on their stratigraphy, to date them
provisionally to the earliest phase of the
cemetery. Still another eight tombs were
discovered in the southern part of

“corridor” AA.40.4 and in room AA.50.3.
Most could be assigned to the 12th-13th
century. Grave goods were recorded in
a mere few of the graves: a wooden pencil
case, small glazed bowls4 5) 6 and two tiny
glass vessels.

CEMETERY C

At the site of cemetery C, which lies in the
desert to the southwest of the monastery,
salvage work was carried out in a number of
tombs. A few pieces of burial shrouds from
destroyed tombs were protected (Fig. 9).
A provisional dating of the tombs places

them in the turn-of-the-6th-century
horizon. Greek steles of the aedicula type
decorated with a cross, found in the ruins of
the monastic architecture on site A in this
and the past season, may have been
connected with this cemetery.

CHURCH OF THE ARCHANGEL GABRIEL

The conservation of wall paintings inside
the Church of the Archangel Gabriel
continued throughout the season.
During work on a poorly preserved
representation of Mother of God and Child
(MA.4) in the central niche of the church
apse, an earlier mural in much better
condition was revealed. The top mural,
like the remaining decoration in the apse,
can be dated to the 1020s.7) It was
transferred to a new artificial ground and
will be displayed inside the church.
The newly uncovered painting inside
the niche is a complicated depiction that
was apparently created in two stages,
corresponding to the process of building

the church and its early functioning.
P. Grossmann dates the Church of the
Archangel Gabriel to the 8th century,8) but
it was most probably constructed after
a momentous conflagration that destroyed
the monastery in the late 9th or very early
10th century. These are undoubtedly the
oldest paintings found at Naqlun.
Initially, the composition filling the
niche was that of Gloria Victis. It was
painted just after the church had been built
and may be dated provisionally to the turn
of the 9th century. This rendering was then
partly repainted. Instead of the upper arm
of the cross, above the transversal arms,
a youthful bust of Christ was introduced

4) Godlewski, PAM XII, op. cit., 154-160, fig. 6; K. Ptasecki, “The Skulls from Naqlun”, PAM XII, op.cit., 173-180;
M. Mossakowska-Gaubert, “Recipients en verre provenant des tombeaux dates du Xle au XHIe siecle”, PAM XII, op.cit.,
168-172; id., “Les objets en verre trouves dans les tombeaux coptes des epoques fatimide et ayyoubide (Deir el Naqlun,
Egypte)”, Proceedings of the 15th Symposium AIHV, New York - Corning, 16-20.10.2001 (in press).
5) For a discussion of glazed pottery finds from these graves, cf. contribution by A. Lyzwa in this volume.
6) W. Godlewski, T. Derda, T. Gorecki, “Deir el Naqlun (Nekloni), 1988-1989, Second Preliminary Report”, Nubica III. 1
(1994), 216, 235, 263, fig. 25.1-2.
7) W. Godlewski, “Naqlun. Les peintures de l'eglise de l'Archangel Gabriel a Naqlun”, BSAC 39 (2000), 89-101.
8) P. Grossmann, Mittelalterliche Langhauskuppelkirchen und verwandte Typen in Oberagypten (Gluckstadt 1982), 118,
120; J. Dobrowolski, “Naqlun - Deir al-Malak Ghubra'il: The Existing Monastic Complex”, Nubica I/II (1990), 161-170.

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