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Document Details : Title: Left Behind Subtitle: A Recent Discovery of Manuscript Fragments in the White Monastery Church Author(s): DAVIS, Stephen J. , PYKE, Gillian , DAVIDSON, Elizabeth , FARAG, Mary , SCHRIEVER, Daniel Journal: Journal of Coptic Studies Volume: 16 Date: 2014 Pages: 69-87 DOI: 10.2143/JCS.16.0.3066720 Abstract : This collaborative article focuses on recent excavations in the ancient church at the Monastery of St. Shenoute — i.e. the White Monastery — in Sohag, Egypt, as part of the Yale Monastic Archaeology Project (YMAP). In it, we report on the discovery of manuscript fragments that shed light on the history of the White Monastery library, a collection that contained over 1,000 books, the largest in medieval Egypt. A large percentage of extant Coptic literature — including the writings of the monastic leader Shenoute — originally derived from that collection, and as a result the monastery has played a central role in the development of Coptic studies as a historical field. Our paper has four parts. First, we describe the archaeological context, and our methods of excavation, cataloguing, and photographic documentation. Second, we report on the data discovered, including the material and number of fragments, the languages and scripts represented, patterns of ornamentation, and text types. Third, we present a case study related to the discovery of a Coptic fragment that belongs to the Shenoutean corpus. Fourth and finally, we draw conclusions about the implications of this find for our knowledge of the textual and architectural history of the site, including the light it sheds on where manuscripts were stored in the monastery. |
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