Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (16.2004(2005))

NAQLUN

EGYPT

MEDIEVAL MONASTIC ARCHITECTURE

Concurrently with the exploration of
cemetery A, work continued on the
monastic complex built around the Church
of the Archangel Michael in the central
part of the kom presumably in the 10th
century and successively expanded over the
next few centuries. Building G in the
northeastern part of the complex was
explored this year, and the northern facade
of the South Building (J), situated to the
south of the church, was cleared. The latter
structure lines the southern side of an E-W
street running alongside Church A and the
adjoining rooms A.S.2-3 IFig. 10}.
BUILDING G
The building, which probably had no more
than the ground floor, consisted of a num-
ber of rooms and was accessed from a street
that ran alongside the northern facade of
the church. Four rooms were explored this
year (G.2, G.7, G.9 and G.10). In one of
these rooms (G.2) there were two burials
dating from the 13 th century. The walls of
Building G have survived to a height of
1.00-1.20 m. The function of particular
rooms has not been identified beyond all
doubt, but they were surely not residential
in character. In one of the rooms (G.2)
there was a basin built into the floor, in
another (G.10) a staircase doubling back
on itself, constructed already when the
building was standing. The steps
presumably led to the roof or were
associated with a gate located in the
southeastern corner of Building G. The fill
in the room with the staircase (G.10)
yielded a small assemblage of documents,
30 in all, written in Arabic and Coptic.
The documents can be dated to the 10th-
11th century. Beside letters and contracts,
they included lists of individuals receiving
different, most often small amounts of

goods of some kind (Nd.04.l68) {Fig. 9}.
Some of the "economic" documents were

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Fig. 9- List of recipients. Coptic text on paper.
Nd. 04.168 (Photo W. Godlewski)

187