SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

existing in the area possibly as far back as 5 th Century. It is generally agreed that this convent was ultimately destroyed by Al-Hakim in the early 11 th Century. Session Two, February 7, 2004; Chairman: Prof. Wlodzimierz Godlewski. Three papers were presented during this session. The first paper was by Dr. Helena Jomasevic, titled Travels of Russian Scientists in Egypt and in al-Fayoum Area . This paper was not in the original program. It dealt with a survey of the work that Russian travelers have done in Egypt in the past couple of centuries and especially in the Fayoum area. These travels brought Coptic Art from Egypt to Russia as early as the 1700s. In 1800 one of the travelers visited al-Fayoum and described some of its monuments, giving a high opinion of the area. De Bock in 1885 brought back many textile pieces and manuscripts from Akhmim and other sites and wrote recommendations about the proper method of the study and the preservation of Coptic monuments. Vladimir Golenshev, around the turn of the 19 th Century, was the most prolific collector that enriched Russia with Coptic items. He is reported to have acquired from his travels to Egypt 6000 items, including several of the Fayoum Portraits and many of the white monastery fragments which are now housed at St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum and Moscow's Fine Arts Museum. The second paper was by Dr. Boutros, titled, Christian Monuments of Um al-Buraygat . This paper dealt with the results of work done by a Franco-Italian mission that excavated the site, in which Dr. Boutros actively participated in it over a span of six years. The area was known in classical times as Tebtunis. The site monuments in general extended from the Ptolemaic Period to Arabic times. The results given were of the work done on the Northern section of the site. Grenfell and Hunt first nominally excavated the site and took photos of such work. In 1970 a church was discovered which had been converted at an earlier time into a mosque. The mission began it work in

The second find dealt with the physical condition of the bodies found. Pathology examination of the hundreds of these corpses indicated that in the early 4 th Century 58% of them showed evidence of death by head trauma. It was further described that the cause of death of this abnormally high percentage was execution-type killing by a blunt instrument striking the forehead. This could only mean that a significant violent event occurred in that region early in the 4 th Century that produced many fatalities by execution. The only event that would fit such a description within such time frame would be the killing of Christians by Romans at the reign of Diocletian and his successors, i.e. Age of Martyrdom. The value of this evidence to the History of early Christianity in Egypt is immense. The only lamentable thing about learning of such discoveries at this time, is why we did not hear about it earlier! The third paper was by Dr. Krol, titled, Archaeological Investigations in the Site of Deir al-Banat at Naqlun . He represents the new Russian efforts in the field of Coptic Archeology. This is probably one of the positive effects of the demise of Communism there. He presented the audience with a report on the excavations that Dr. Krol and others have done at Deir al-Banat, or the Convent of the Girls. The current excavation is in its second season and it mainly deals with the necropolis in the area. The convent area has been excavated earlier over 5 seasons in 1980-1995. The corpses discovered in this area were similar to the ones found in the BYU excavation as far as the head west, feet east orientation, though probably of a later date. The condition of the corpses found indicated many cases of bad tooth decay and work in heavy labor. This could mean that those people were working in some kind of mines or quarries in the area. The site yielded stone objects, papyrus fragments and textiles. These textiles were at times of expensive qualities. This would make them not necessarily made for the burial, according to the comments made by Dr. Hodak during the discussions of that session. The site shows evidence of a monastic settlement and a church

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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