SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

made at the site since they began the work in 1986. Five hermitages were excavated in the mountain, which is 2.5 kilometers long behind Deir al-Malak. They had two units that included the kitchen and the living quarters. One of them has a separate unit for prayer. Based on items found, the site seemed to have been inhabited by monks from the 5 th to possibly the end of the 9 th Century. Among items found there were cloth, textiles, stelae, pottery fragments, coins, wall paintings, and many manuscript fragments. They also excavated a church at a lower elevation and a workshop for binding of codices along with an archive of 50 documents in Coptic and Arabic, dating to the end of the 9 th Century. Another interesting archive found was that of a family that inhabited the site in the middle of 11 th Century, after the monks had left (the Girga Archive). Also, a cemetery had developed around that time at the site. Coptic Studies have been very fortunate that such an important site was excavated by the this group, because they published annual reports of their works and were always present in the Coptic Congresses and others conferences to share their work and to publish them. The third paper was by Ms. Ten Hacken, titled, St. Aur and the Foundation of the Church of the Archangel Gabrial of Naqlun. This paper dealt with the hagiographical aspects of the foundation of Deir al-Malak. More specifically, how the famous St. Aur al-Fayoumi is related to the founding of the church there. St. Aur, who was commemorated on the opening day of the Symposium, is the subject of her doctoral dissertation, supervised by Dr. van der Vliet. She began by summarizing the known history of the saint, including his conversion to Christianity, moving to al-Fayoum, and the fact that his family practiced magic earlier. His Vita goes on to say that he built the church, which was a central theme in the story. He was ordained a bishop and further wrote rules for the monks of the monastery. Preliminary analysis of these rules shows that they were probably those of St. Antony. Her work has dealt with several

manuscripts, all in Arabic. The oldest one identified so far is dated AD 1380. There are 37 texts about him in Ethiopian. The Vita provides no internal evidence that can be used for dating the text, however it does contain historical information. She gave the 12 th Century as a probable date for its composition. From Bishop Abraam's comments, it seems that the Diocese is greatly anticipating the results of this work. However if the preliminary remarks made here hold, the Church may be disappointed. Keep in mind that in Hagiography what is considered history by some, may be regarded as legend by others. Hopefully such research will separate what is what in this case. The fourth and final paper was presented by Prof. Bolman, titled, Coptic Visual Culture, the Fayoum and the Fatimid Period: Preliminary Remarks on the cultural and Religious Identities. In this paper she argued against the conclusion arrived at by the noted Coptic art historian, Fr. Julies Leroy, that this art was demoted to a subset of Islamic Art during the Fatimid period. Her arguments seemed to align themselves only with his observation that at the beginning of this period, 10 th Century, Coptic Art had a distinctive change in visualization. It became more two- dimensional rather than the 3-dimentional that is observed in the earlier Bawit wall paintings. This is observed in the recovered wall painting in Deir al-Malak that Dr. Parandowska had earlier presented to the group. This age is also distinguished by its abundance of ceramics and the introduction of the Arabesque floral designs, also observed in other finds in al-Fayoum. Her arguments seemed to be in agreement with Prof. Lucy-Ann Hunt's conclusions that the change was rather an accommodation of the Islamic Art. The author concluded by calling for a wider scope investigation of the art of this period, which is abundantly available but scarcely studied. This is another case where published excavations are fueling interest by other branches of Coptic Studies, leading to further understanding of the History of the Copts. Session Five, February 8, 2004; Chairman: Mme Dominique Bénazath. This session

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

9