room by a thin partition wall with a portal entrances similar to
those in rooms 1A and ID. The ceramic tile floor is 12 cm lower
than in the other rooms. In the northern part there is a kind of
pulpit limited by a balustrade wall to the south. The podium (1.30
x 0.80 m, 1 m high) is partly let into a semicircularly vaulted
niche in the eastern wall and is approached by three steps. Among
the reused marble slabs of different color which pave the steps and
the podium, there is a funerary stele in Greek, set face up. The
text has almost been obliterated. All that has survived is the date
— 786 A.M. (AD 1070), which provides the post quern date for
the construction. Another marble stele had once been fixed in the
eastern wall of the room and was found on the floor, broken into
two pieces. The excellently preserved Greek text concerns the
archbishop Georgios, archimandrite of the Holy Trinity monastery,
who died in 829 A.M. (AD 1113) having lived 82 years, of which
50 as bishop. In the upper part of the wall the previous campaign
brought the discovery of a text written in ink in Old Nubian and
referring to the same archbishop. In the debris, immediately next
to the wall, fragments of painted plaster with a representation of
a Nubian dignitary under the protection of the Holy Trinity were
discovered. This may have been a portrait of Georgios.
A pillar 1.55 m high, rectangular and plastered, was built
against the southern face of the pulpit and the inner face of the
eastern wall. In its rounded upper surface there is a depression
some 18 cm in diameter which may have served the purpose of
holding a jar. Next to the pulpit wall there is a deep cylindrical
opening, 10 cm in diameter, presumably evidence of a vertical
stone or wooden element which is no longer preserved (a cross
perhaps).
118
those in rooms 1A and ID. The ceramic tile floor is 12 cm lower
than in the other rooms. In the northern part there is a kind of
pulpit limited by a balustrade wall to the south. The podium (1.30
x 0.80 m, 1 m high) is partly let into a semicircularly vaulted
niche in the eastern wall and is approached by three steps. Among
the reused marble slabs of different color which pave the steps and
the podium, there is a funerary stele in Greek, set face up. The
text has almost been obliterated. All that has survived is the date
— 786 A.M. (AD 1070), which provides the post quern date for
the construction. Another marble stele had once been fixed in the
eastern wall of the room and was found on the floor, broken into
two pieces. The excellently preserved Greek text concerns the
archbishop Georgios, archimandrite of the Holy Trinity monastery,
who died in 829 A.M. (AD 1113) having lived 82 years, of which
50 as bishop. In the upper part of the wall the previous campaign
brought the discovery of a text written in ink in Old Nubian and
referring to the same archbishop. In the debris, immediately next
to the wall, fragments of painted plaster with a representation of
a Nubian dignitary under the protection of the Holy Trinity were
discovered. This may have been a portrait of Georgios.
A pillar 1.55 m high, rectangular and plastered, was built
against the southern face of the pulpit and the inner face of the
eastern wall. In its rounded upper surface there is a depression
some 18 cm in diameter which may have served the purpose of
holding a jar. Next to the pulpit wall there is a deep cylindrical
opening, 10 cm in diameter, presumably evidence of a vertical
stone or wooden element which is no longer preserved (a cross
perhaps).
118