SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

internal life of that town or village. Because of the way these documents made their way into the different collection, enumerated above, such grouping is still too incomplete in regards to number of archives identified and the contents of each. Below is a brief list of the most significant of these identified archives and dossiers: Aphrodito: A large town, south of Asyut in Upper Egypt. It yielded a large number of documents that shed light on the history of Christianity in that region that housed many churches and monasteries during the 4th-7th century period. A smaller identified archive, though very important, is that of the 6th century Dioscorus of Aphrodito. These documents were discovered as early as the late 19th centuries, and are mostly housed in the Cairo Egyptian Museum, and published in J. Maspero's 3-volume set of the Catalog of Byzantine Papyri in the Cairo Egyptian Museum. Bala‘iza: A place near Asyut in Upper Egypt, where the remains of an 8th century monastery was excavated by the famous archaeologist W. M. F. Petrie in 1907. Several literary and non-literary Coptic documents were discovered and later deposited in the Oxford Bodleian Library. These fragmentary texts were pieced together and published in 1954 by Dr. Paul Kahle, Jr. as his doctoral dissertation. Djeme: An ancient Coptic town near Luxor, that yielded a large number of mostly Coptic Papyrus and Ostraca from the 6th to the 8th century. The site excavation was published by H. E. Winlock in 1926. What has been identified from the archive is scattered in many depositories around the world. The most extensive portion came from the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art's (MMA) excavation of the area. The Coptic Ostraca section of collection was eventually purchased by the New York's Columbia University in 1959-60. W. E. Crum and W. C. Till have published and studied many of these documents. Oxyrhynchus (P.Oxy): An ancient town south of Fayoum, near the modern town of al-Bahnasa in Middle Egypt, that yielded the greatest harvest of papyri from Egypt to date. The site was excavated

by B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt over a century ago. The manuscripts found include several thousands, mostly Greek, Literary and non-Literary manuscripts from the first to the eighth century AD. The non-literary group includes private archives and public dossiers. The Papyri has taught us a great deal about the life of an early, thriving Christian community as early as the beginning of the 3rd century. The Greek manuscripts have been systematically published in a series called The Oxyrhynchus Papyri by the Egyptian Exploration Society of the UK (the keeper of the collection) from the first decade of the century till now. About 60 volumes have been published by a variety of scholars, beginning with the original excavators Grenfell and Hunt [5 volumes have been acquired by the Society during the last quarter]. A small number of Coptic texts have been identified and published. Studies: The benefit of identification of these documents have led to numerous studies that either supported the historical evidence from other sources or filled gaps that changed our understanding of Coptic History. In the field of early Christianity in Egypt, the most- distinguished Papyrologist, Dr. Collin H. Roberts, used these material to piece together a logical and brilliant, though with room for reinterpretation, the origins of Christianity in the first few centuries. In the process, he established the reason for lack of information about the early orthodox Christian community in Alexandria was due to their presence in the midst of a powerful Jewish community at the time. This helped quash Prof. Bauer's early assertion of a predominantly heretical origin for the church.

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter The economic and social role of Copts and Coptic ecclesiastical authorities in the history of pre-Arab Egypt, was extensively studied by the Polish scholar Dr. E. Wipszycka. This ground-breaking study benefited greatly from the material found in the Aphrodito Archives.

History of the Arab Conquest of Egypt in the seventh century has benefited greatly from Dr.

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