Session 1: Dra Abu el-naga in Late Antiquity

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1 Title: Late Antique Thebes Panel Convenor(s): Malcolm Choat and Jennifer Cromwell Short description: Thebes continues to be one of the most exciting sites for Coptic archaeology and papyrology, with important new discoveries in both areas over the past decade. This panel brings together scholars involved in on-going excavations and those undertaking research on material both old and new. The contributions highlight the scope, diversity and importance of this current work for the history of the region in late Antique and early Islamic Egypt Participants, title of papers, and abstracts: Session 1: Dra Abu el-naga in Late Antiquity Thomas Beckh (Munich), Monks, Magicians, Archaeologists New results on Coptic Settlement Development in Dra Abu el-naga North/Western Thebes Ina Eichner (Göttingen), The excavation of the monastery Deir el-bakhît in Western Thebes Suzana Hodak (Münster), The ostraca of Deir el-bachit and the case of the Anatolios-Zacharias - Archive (*read in absentia) Malcolm Choat (MQ), Posidonios and the monks of TT233 on the Dra Abu el-naga. Session 2: New Texts from Western Thebes Matthew Underwood (MQ) + Heike Behlmer (Göttingen), Coptic Documents from TT95 Esther Garel (Paris), The wills of the abbots of the monastery of Saint-Phoibammon (7th century) New material Andrea Hasznos (Budapest), Writings and Readings of the Monks at Theban Tomb 65 Session 3: Theban monasteries and people Richard Burchfield (MQ), "The man of Jeme": Designations of Place and Witness Statements in Western Thebes Renate Dekker (Leiden), A New Relative Chronology of the Topos of Epiphanius Alain Delattre (Leiden) + Guy Lecuyot (IFAO), À qui et à quoi servaient les "ermitages" des vallées sud ouest de la montagne thébaine? Giovanni Ruffini (Fairfield University) + Elisabeth R. O'Connell (British Museum), The social networks of Late Antique Western Thebes

2 ABSTRACTS Session 1: Dra Abu el-naga in Late Antiquity Thomas Beckh (Munich): Monks, Magicians, Archaeologists New results on Coptic Settlement Development in Dra Abu el-naga North/Western Thebes This paper presents the results of the last two years work of the LMU-Munich University at Dra Abu el-naga North, especially at the outposts related to the main monastery at the hill, Deir el- Bakhit. Special interest is placed not only on a reconstruction of the ancient landscape with the monastic units used from 5th to 9thcenturies AD, but also their connections, interactions and chronological development on the hillside. The second focus of the paper is the archaeological activities of the 19th and early 20th centuries at Dra Abu el-naga and, closely connected with this, the relocation of material originally coming from Deir el-bakhit. This relocation combined with the latest excavation results shows interesting new points on ritual/magical practices possibly connected with a monastic community in Late Antiquity. Ina Eichner (Göttingen), The excavation of the monastery Deir el-bakhît in Western Thebes The paper presents the main results of the excavation of the monastery of Deir el-bakhît on the hilltop of Dra Abu el-naga in Western Thebes, which was inhabited approximately from the end of the 6 th to the beginning of the 10 th century. It was the largest monastery in Western Thebes and the first monument visible from the ancient Farshût road. In the years the central parts of the monastery have been excavated. The rooms and buildings show impressive remains of the daily life of the monks. A refectory, cells, a tower, storage and working rooms are preserved with their furniture consisting of clay. More than 4000 small finds and about 2000 texts (ostraca and papyri) add a vivid vision of the life of this monastic community. The cemetery with the graves of abbots, monks and servants lies next to the monastery. More than 200 graves, some of them intact, have been identified until now. Suzana Hodak (Münster), The ostraca of Deir el-bachit and the case of the Anatolios-Zacharias - Archive The corpus of ostraca from Deir el-bachit up to now much more than 2000 pieces derive from two main areas. One group was discovered in the monastery s centre on the hilltop of Dra Abu el- Naga, while the second group was found in its subsidiary installations within the New Kingdom double tombs, named K 93/ The edition of these texts will be realized not in conventional paper format, but by means of a custom-designed online platform. This full-text, searchable database will contain not only images of the ostraca, metadata, the coptic text and its translation with notes, but also a detailed grammatical and semantic analysis. Besides the reconstruction of an almost close view into the everyday life of the monastery, a central question influenced this project from its inception: What was the original name of this monastery now known as "Deir el-bachit"? In other words, the aim was to transfer the archaeological remains into a historical context. One group of at least 13 texts is particularly relevant to this last-mentioned question. These Anatolios-Zacharias ostraca are named for the persons figured in their texts: Anatolios (alone or with Pisrael, in few cases with others) and Apa Zacharias (alone or with Apa Markos). The significance of these texts, however, extends indeed far beyond the original name of the monastery. They allow us not only to ask for the monastery s relationship with its neighbors in Western Thebes. Furthermore they remind us to focus also on the history of research of this archaeological site. We have to take into consideration that the site was already visited and/or partly investigated in the past. Therefore material remains belonging to Deir el-bachit with or without

3 indication of provenance may already have been found their way into museum collections. This seems partly to be the case with the Anatolios-Zacharias -ostraca. Presently, at least 18 further Anatolios-Zacharias documents lie in various collections. These contain either no indication of provenance, and, therefore, could be identified theoretically with Deir el-bachit, or they are connected to Djeme. Perhaps, these last-mentioned texts besides other indications evidence contact between the monastery and Djeme. Malcolm Choat (MQ), Posidonios and the monks of TT233 on the Dra Abu el-naga Excavations by a team from the Macquarie University Ancient Cultures Research Centre on the Dra Abu el-naga on the Theban West Bank have uncovered a hitherto unknown monastic settlement in TT233, near the north end of the mountain. This paper will present an overview of the cell, discuss the textual material in Greek and Coptic from the site, and assess the possible relationship of the monks who lived there with other monastic settlements on the Dra Abu el-naga. Session 2: New Texts from Western Thebes Matthew Underwood (MQ) + Heike Behlmer (Göttingen), Coptic Documents from TT95 In the Byzantine and early Islamic period the hill of Sheikh Abd el Qurna in the Theban necropolis contained many monastic residences. In describing this ancient landscape H. Winlock noted that the Theban Tomb no. 95 of Mery located at the southern end of the eastern face of the hill was connected to the monastic community at the northern end of the eastern face, the so-called Monastery of Cyriacus, by ostraca found by Mackay in 1913 that mention Apa Cyriacus. TT95 is also surrounded by other tombs with recently excavated textual finds (ostraca, papyri) from the same period (TT29, 84, 85, 87 and 99) which will shed new light on the monastic settlement of the area. The tomb of Mery has been excavated and recorded in several seasons since 1991 by a joint mission of the German Archaeological Institute and Basel University directed by Andrea Gnirs. In 2010 the Coptic Ostraca were studied by M. Underwood and H. Behlmer and a further season is planned for The goal of this project is to link the Coptic material from TT95 to the surrounding cluster and to the wider Theban region. This paper will overview the Coptic texts discovered. Esther Garel (Paris), The wills of the abbots of the monastery of Saint-Phoibammon (7th century) New material The dossier of the wills of the abbots of the monastery of Saint-Phoibammon consists of four documents. Two of them are already published: the earlier is the will of Abraham, bishop of Hermonthis, P.Lond. I 77, written in Greek, and the later, P.KRU 65, is the will of the monk and abbot Jacob. Τhe two others, the wills of Victor and Petros, written in Coptic, are unpublished. The will of Victor has recently been rediscovered at the Institut de papyrologie de la Sorbonne, in Paris (P.Sorb.inv. 2680). The will of Petros is lost for the moment, but there are some photographs which are in my possession. The editing and re-editing of this whole archive is the subject of my dissertation, and I would like to present the new material which will provide a better knowledge of the history of the monastery of Saint Phoibammon in the 7th century, as well as new elements concerning law and language. Andrea Hasznos (Budapest), Writings and Readings of the Monks at Theban Tomb 65 Theban Tomb 65, after its pharaonic, pre-christian past, became part of an anchorite establishment, the so-called Monastery of Cyriacus. Since the 1997 excavation season, besides the pharaonic finds, Coptic textual material also came to light from in and around the tomb, and since the 1998 season, work on the permanently found Coptic ostraca, papyri and other inscriptions has

4 been ongoing. In my paper, I am going to give an introduction to the types of text from TT 65 written on ostraca, papyri, and, rarely, wood, with some details on the persons gained from the texts, and remarks on the characteristics of the Coptic used by the writers. Further, some thoughts will be given on the language(s) used in Late Antique Western Thebes and its monastic communities, the education thereof, with possible remarks on Greek Coptic language contact. Session 3: Theban monasteries and people Richard Burchfield (MQ), The man of Jeme": Designations of Place and Witness Statements in Western Thebes Location designators - prem-, petêp e-, hn-, n-, and so forth - are frequent in Coptic legal documents from throughout Egypt. They are commonly used to provide additional information regarding those involved, from the primary parties to witnesses. However, whether or not any semantic difference is intended by the use of one or other of these designators, and what this choice may signify, has not been fully addressed. This paper will focus on this question using the documentation from western Thebes as a case study. Particular consideration will be placed on the evidence provided by witness statements: how do these designators relate to those of the main parties, and what might this say about the process by which these documents were drawn up? In addition to surveying the usage of location designators and assessing their significance in regard to witness statements, this paper will also highlight their potential for the study of inter-settlement networks between the inhabitants of sites within western Thebes and elsewhere. Renate Dekker (Leiden), A New Relative Chronology of the Topos of Epiphanius This paper will present a new relative chronology of the Topos (or the so-called Monastery ) of Epiphanius, based on partially dated texts, which will be an important tool for my PhD-research on the social networks of two Theban bishops in the seventh century. The episcopacy of Abraham of Hermonthis is generally dated to 590-( ), and that of Pesynthios of Koptos to A small number of the documents relating to them record a date according to the indiction cycle, which is repeated every 15 years, and as a result there usually are several possible corresponding dates. When taken in isolation, the episcopal archives provide little specific chronological information. However, the bishops were both closely associated with the anchorite Epiphanius. His Topos, in fact a community of hermits, was situated in Abraham s diocese, and is the provenance of several texts relating to Pesynthios, who apparently dwelled here during the Persian occupation of Egypt ( ). By establishing a relative chronology of the Topos on the basis of episcopal as well as monastic texts, it will become possible to propose more accurate dates for texts, individuals and events. The preliminary results strongly suggest that Abraham was still in office in 620! Alain Delattre (Leiden) - Guy Lecuyot (IFAO), À qui et à quoi servaient les "ermitages" des vallées sud ouest de la montagne thébaine? Au cours de plusieurs missions placées sous l'égide de l'ifao, nous avons pu identifier et cartographier les vestiges chrétiens des vallées sud ouest de la montagne thébaine. Ces modestes traces, amas tessons de poterie, graffiti et parfois restes architecturaux, permettent d'apporter un peu de lumière sur le paysage religieux de ces secteurs méconnus. De nombreuses questions restent cependant encore en suspens : de quand datent-ils? à qui servaient-ils? et de qui dépendaient-ils? Giovanni Ruffini (Fairfield University) + Elisabeth R. O'Connell (British Museum), The social networks of Late Antique Western Thebes Texts from the Theban region account for over half of the edited Coptic documentary corpus. This material provides an unrivaled data set for social network analysis. Using the 1962 Datierung und

5 Prosopographie der koptischen Urkunden to create our basic data set, we have used the computer program UCINET to identify the network structures of the Theban data, along with its key players and its subnetworks of more tightly interconnected figures. The results both support and challenge impressions gained from traditional prosopography. As expected, scribes, bishops and other religious officials are central to the main network, but the analysis also suggests a statistically significant role for otherwise obscure tax officials; identifies the social links between Theban society and its outsiders; and uncovers clusters of texts which may represent ancient archives. This presentation will explore the potential and limits of the data for representing the town of Jeme together with nearby monasteries, churches and saints shrines in the seventh and eighth centuries AD.