SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

resources can be made available on the Internet for researchers around the globe. V. Conclusion: The Society has always been ready to apply all means possible to preserve, revive, promote, and develop the Heritage of the

Copts. Computers were welcome tools. But its capabilities would need to be harnessed wisely to achieve such goals. You can enhance the work of a research in the area with the use of such tool, but you can not make a researcher out of that tool!

Two Coptic Potsherds in Westminster College, Pennsylvania (1) (by Hany N. Takla)

with an 11-14 letters per line. The first line is very faint. The dialect of the text is Sahidic. The script is in regular uncial upright letters or literary hand. The shape of the letters would indicate a probable date of 6-8th century It is a purchase receipt for oil bought by a lay or a monastic church from an oil-dealer. The agent of the buyer is John the Oikonomos (a Coptic archpriest) #@whann/c precb oikonomoc$ . No clear details are given about the location or the persons indicated in the document. Postsherd B: A slightly curved smooth pottery fragment with maximum dimensions of 8-1/2 in. long by 5 in. wide. There are 24 lines identified on the fragment. Approximately 10 lines are complete or nearly complete. The beginning of the text is preserved. A larger bottom left corner as well as a smaller upper right corner seem to have been broken off. The dialect of the text is Sahidic. The script is in normal legal document hand with all of its interesting appearance. This document has not been sufficiently studied to give a good assessment of its contents. However there are two distinct references that help in determining its date and provenance. The 5th line of the text indicate that this text belong to the Djeme collection of texts #h m pkactron nj/me$ , an ancient town near Luxor. The date can be placed in the middle of the 8th century. The evidence for that date is the name 'Sanagape' #canagap/$ which occurs in the first line of the text. A name that occurs in other documents from that region, dated around that time.

Introduction: In early May, 1997, the Society was contacted by Rev. Willis A. McGill of Volant, Pennsylvania (PA), a retired Christian Missionary. This contact was made through the good offices of Rev. Harvey Staal of Hudsonville, Michigan. From these correspondences, it was learned that there are two documents written on Coptic Potsherds (or pottery fragments), preserved in a small museum attached to Westminster (Presbyterian) College, located at Wilmington, PA. This museum was established through the faithful efforts of Dr. J. R. Alexander, a long-time head of the Assyut Presbyterian College ( in Upper Egypt), with help from the American Egyptologist, Prof. Flinders Petrie. This museum contain many other artifacts from the Middle East. Rev. McGill is reasonably certain that these sherds were donated by Dr. Alexander. History of Research: These two Coptic potsherds are unpublished. For the past several years, the authorities of the museum has tried to get Coptic scholars to identify and translate these documents. The responses were either to shy away due to the cursive style of writing ,or to be disinterested due to the low cost-benefit ratio of working on such a limited number of documents of that type. Description and Preliminary Assessment:

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter For the purpose of this article they will be labeled as Potsherd A and Potsherd B. Preliminary description is made on the basis of 8x12 photographs, supplied by Rev. McGill.

Potsherd A: A corrugated pottery fragment with maximum dimensions of 8-1/2 in. long by 5 in. wide. The text seemed to be complete in 16 lines

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