Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (5.1993(1994))

The function of the neighbouring room D.22 is equally
unclear, but here it must be remembered that a part of the room
still remains to be uncovered. In the northeastern comer there is
a large container decorated with a cross in relief on its southern
wall.
Debris and pieces of the ruined ceiling filled the rooms in
structure II.DB. Mixed into this debris were numerous examples
of pottery: vessels, oil lamps, but also objects of wood, glass,
ropes and braiding. There is little doubt that this is what remains
of the rooms’ equipment and of the structural elements, particular-
ly doors and windows openings.
Several dozens of parchment cards written in Coptic, fully
or partly preserved, were discovered in rooms D.19 and D.22. A
number of documents on paper are in Coptic and Arabic. Signifi-
cantly, not one Greek text was noted. A considerable part of the
texts is undoubtedly of literary character; they come presumably
from six or seven codices, all of them written in a sure hand,
possibly even from the same scriptorium. At least two codices had
full-page illustrations in the form of large decorative crosses. The
codex was bound in leather and the covers were additionally
reinforced with paper or rather papyrus waste. One such cover was
discovered with a thick wad of pressed papyri cards to stiffen it.
The illustrations as well as the writing of the texts resemble
quite closely the codices from the library collection of the Hamouli
monastery in the Fayum, discovered by some fellahin around 1910
in the ruins of the monastery and currently located in the collec-

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