Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (15.2003(2004))

NAQLUN

EGYPT

STUDY WORK AT THE COPTIC MUSEUM

Thanks to the dedicated cooperation of
Coptic Museum authorities, the required
study work on the textual finds from the
1986-1989 seasons, kept at the museum’s
Department of Manuscripts, could be con-
cluded successfully. With little time at his
disposal, T. Derda focused on the documents
which are to be published soon in the second
volume of “The Greek Papyri from Deir el-
Naqlun”. Seven cards of a papyrus codex
(Nd.88/110) containing The Book of Psalms
in Greek were inspected. Their text (Ps.
68.12-74.8) was collated with a standard
Rahlfs edition.3) Other documents studied

in depth included: Nd.88.045, Nd.88.047
and Nd.88.116 — three private letters
connected in one way or another with the life
of the monastic community of Naqlun in the
6th century; Nd.88.112 — a business note
prepared for an official of the monastery. An
important discovery are three small frag-
ments of letters (Nd.86.129, Nd.88.117,
and Nd.88.252) addressed to bishop Niko-
laos, residing at the Naqlun monastery in
the 6th century. He is not an entirely
unknown personage, since a letter (no. 12)
sent by him to a comes Basileios has already
been published by T. Derda.4)


Fig. 1. Fragment of linen and silk shawl (Nd.02.205). Arabic text with the name of Caliph
al-Hakim (385-411 AH/AD 996-1020) (Photo T. Szmagier)

3) A. Rahlfs, Psalmi cum Odis, 3rd edition (Goettingen 1979).
4) T. Derda, Deir el-Naqlun: The Greek Papyri (P.Naqlun I) (Warsaw 1995), 153-163.

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