NAQLUN

EGYPT

and economic activities of the monastery in
this period. Amongst these documents, is
a brief note in which an Archimandrite
Diakonos (if that really is his name) states
the terms of employment of a laborer
named Jacob (Nd.04.l42) [Fig. 7]. Other
documents that bear witness to the
relations of the monastery with the outside
world are registers of payments made to
or received from named individuals in
exchange for goods or services (compare
similar documents from the Fayum in
P.Fay.Copt., no. 45 ff.). Examples are an
"account (or, list: logos) of the water-
wheel" that specifies for each day of an un-
known week, the names of the men who
had been working (Nd.03.021), or a list
of "the tiari (an obscure word, plural) of
the gardeners (or, winegrowers) of Nekloni

(Naqlun)" (Nd.04.143) [Fig. 2], One list
occupies several pages of what appears
to have been a small account book
(Nd.03.049)2. It is invaluable for our
knowledge of local onomastics and for the
professions that are occasionally mentioned
(among which relatively rare professions
appear, like "forager" and "canvas dealer").
In this latter document, the names are
still exclusively from the standard Egyptian
Christian repertoire and include, e.g., several
Thoters, a very popular name in the Fayum
(from Theodore), and the relatively rare
Latin Kelestinos (Celestine, after the 5 th-
century Pope of Rome). In another long
and apparently complete list of expenses
(?), Arabic proper names and titles or epi-
thets are already quite frequent and while
Coptic script and grammar are retained,


Fig. 1. Nd.04.142. Document on paper concerning the work of a laborer tiamed Jacob, written by
the Archimandrite Diakonos (Photo W. Godlewski)

2 See PAM XV. Reports 2003 (2004), 149, Fig. 9-

192