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PhD degree for Troy Griffitts

We are proud and happy to announce that our friend, colleague, and team member Troy Griffitts has been awarded the PhD degree in Biblical Studies and Digital Humanities of the University of Birmingham (UK): https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/itsee/news/2018/griffitts-phd.aspx

Warm Congratulations, Troy! 

Forschungsaufenthalt an der Papyrussammlung der ÖNB

Vom 26. bis 29. März 2018 durfte ich erneut in der Papyrussammlung der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek forschen, wo ich vom Team herzlich empfangen und bestens betreut wurde.

In der Papyrussammlung werden 22 Typikon-Pergamentblätter aus dem Weißen Kloster (Oberägypten) aufbewahrt. Sie geben Beispiele diverser liturgischer Inhalte. Die meisten Blätter beinhalten die Perikopen-initien für die verschiedenen Feiertage des Kalenderjahres, wie z.B. Wien, ÖNB, P. Vindob. K 211, K 9718, K 9728 – 9729, K 9731 – 9733, K 9738 u.a. Wiederum andere stellen die Anfänge von Psalmenversen als Hymnen der Liturgie dar, wie z.B. Wien, ÖNB, P. Vindob. K 9725 – 9727, K 9734, 9736. Solche Blätter wie z.B. Wien, ÖNB, P. Vindob. G 39789, K 9735, K 9737, K 9739 bieten den vollständigen Text der Trisagia mit Erweiterung für die koptische Liturgie. Das Wiener Blatt K 9175 gibt die Auflistung der Psalmpassagen mit dem Stichwort ⲉⲛⲧⲟⲗⲏ „Gebot“ an, welche während der Fastenzeit vorzutragen waren.

Einige dieser Blätter konnte ich mit meinen Transkriptionen kollationieren und dabei habe ich einige wichtige Verbesserungen vorgenommen, die nur bei dem Vergleich mit dem Original erkennbar werden. Die Methode der Autopsie ist besonders wichtig für die Arbeit mit Handschriften. Die Typikon-Blätter, die ich bei diesem Forschungsaufenthalt untersucht habe, werden demnächst in der ÖNB digitalisiert. Dem digitalen Fotografieren geht jedoch noch die Konser-vierung der Pergamentblätter voran. Dabei wird alles, was keinen historischen Wert hat, wie z.B. doppelt geschriebene oder geklebte Signaturen von den Blättern entfernen, siehe z.B. das Foto des oberen Blattteiles von K 9733r.

Mein Forschungsaufenthalt in Wien wurde vom DFG-Projekt „Die Hymnen in der koptischen Liturgie des Weißen Klosters in Oberägypten“ am Seminar für Ägyptologie und Koptologie an der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen gefördert. Dabei wurde sowohl das Fotoarchiv in Göttingen mit Fotos wertvoller liturgischer Fragmente erweitert als auch die Arbeit an den Typika aus dem Weißen Kloster maßgeblich vorangebracht.

 

 

Feierliche Festschriftübergabe an Peter Nagel

Am 6. April, drei Tage nach Peter Nagels 80. Geburtstag, wurde dem Jubilar die Festschrift „Ägypten und der Christliche Orient“ als Eröffnungsband der neuen Reihe Texte und Studien zur koptischen Bibel in einem Festakt feierlich überreicht. Im gut gefüllten Alten Hörsaal im Löwengebäude der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg eröffnete Mitherausgeberin Ute Pietruschka den panegyrischen Reigen, gefolgt von Peter Nagels früheren Bonner Kollegen Ralf Elger und Verena Böll sowie Videobotschaften verhinderter Weggefährten. Frank Feder, mit Heike Behlmer einer der beiden Göttinger Mitherausgeber der Festschrift, durfte schließlich das druckfrische Werk dem Jubilar überreichen. Alle Festredner hoben, in bemerkenswerter Einmütigkeit, neben Peter Nagels unstrittigem und ohnehin allgemein anerkannten Rang als Wissenschaftler seine besondere Rolle als akademischer Lehrer hervor, deren Bedeutung Peter Nagel selbst in mitnichten gespielter Bescheidenheit für „gar nicht so hoch“ erachtet habe.

In seinen bewegenden Dankesworten würdigte Peter Nagel das Forschungsgebiet „Christlicher Orient“ als kleinen, gewissermaßen untergründigen Beitrag zur europäischen Verständigung in Zeiten des kalten Krieges, ein Beitrag den das Fach, so Peter Nagels Hoffnung, auch jetzt noch, da das „Haus Europa“ erste Risse zeige, spielen könne.

Würdig umrahmt wurde der Festakt durch das wunderbare Spiel auf der Oud durch den syrischen Kirchenmusiker und Theologiestudenten Rolan Tayarah. 

Guest Post by Antonia St Demiana

This past February and March, I was fortunate to work alongside the outstanding team of Coptologists of the Complete Digital Edition and Translation of the Coptic Sahidic Old Testament project at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The purpose of my visit was to gain advice, training, and assistance with my research on Coptic Leviticus, which I am preparing for my PhD dissertation at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia (under the supervision of Heike Behlmer, Malcolm Choat, Victor Ghica, and Alin Suciu). My work focuses on the text of Morgan manuscript 566, which is the oldest, most complete, extant codex of Leviticus in any Coptic dialect; it also examines the other surviving witnesses of Coptic Leviticus. During my stay, I was given special access to the project’s digital repository of photographs which was essential for my work. I extend my special thanks to Diliana Atanassova who greatly assisted me daily with the codicological aspects of my witnesses and with other areas of my research on so many levels. A huge thank you to Alin Suciu for your expertise and assistance with my fragments. Special thanks also to Heike Behlmer and Frank Feder for making this trip possible for me. And thank you to the rest of the CoptOT team: To Felix Albrecht, Julien Delhez, Suzana Hodak, Joanna Hypszer, Theresa Kohl, Chrysi Kotsifou, So Miyagawa, Malte Rosenau and Ulrich Schmid, I am grateful to all of you for your help and for making me feel welcome.

 

Summer School in Coptic Literature and Manuscript Tradition

Summer School in Coptic Literature and Manuscript Tradition

Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, Hamburg
17–21 September 2018

in collaboration with the projects

Call for Participation:

https://www.manuscript-cultures.uni-hamburg.de/register_coptic2018.html

Hermetica Tagung

Hermetica-Tagung vom 23.-25. Februar in Göttingen

Kosmogonie und Kosmologie in hermetischen Schriften

Programm und Informationen unter

http://coptot.manuscriptroom.com/hermetica

Forschungsaufenthalt an der John Ryland Library in Manchester

Am 23. Dezember 2017 und am 3. Januar 2018 besuchte ich eine der schönsten Bibliotheken Großbritanniens – The John Rylands Library in Manchester.

 

Enriqueta Rylands ließ die Bibliothek zum Andenken ihres Mannes bauen. Die John Rylands Library wurde 1900 eröffnet und den Einwohnern der Stadt Manchester gewidmet.

 

 

Einen wichtigen Platz unter den reichen Bibliotheksbeständen haben auch die koptischen Handschriften gefunden. 


Im Lesesaal der Special Collections in der 4. Etage wird man von sehr nettem Personal betreut. Alle Fachleute sind willkommen, mit eigener Kamera Fotos der Objekte für wissenschaftliche Zwecke zu machen.

 

Mein Interesse an der John Rylands Library wurde durch drei liturgische Blätter aus dem Weißen Kloster, Oberägypten, geweckt, die in Manchester unter der Signatur Nr. 20a aufbewahrt werden. Die John Rylands Library ist eine der vielen Einrichtungen, in denen die zerstreuten Bibliotheksbestände des Weißen Klosters gegenwärtig zu finden sind. Die drei Manchester-Blätter sind Teil des liturgischen Kodex mit Typika MONB.WL, der heute nur noch aus 22 Blättern bzw. Fragmenten besteht. Die Manchester-Blätter sind vollständig mit wenig beschädigten oder verschmutzten Stellen erhalten.

Das UV-Licht machte es möglich, diese Stellen während meines Aufenthaltes zu entziffern. Obwohl die Manchester-Blätter die Seitenzahlen von 21 bis 26 tragen, stammen sie – vorausgesetzt eines Quaternionenaufbaus – aus der Mitte der 17. Lage. Das liegt an der Tatsache, dass im Kodex MONB.WL eine neue Seitenzählung mit der 16. Lage beginnt. Aus dem Kodex MONB.WL sind derzeit vier verschiedene Teile, die inhaltlich einander ergänzen, bekannt. Die Manchester-Blätter gehören zu einem Hymnendirektorium für die Monate Thout/September, Paope/Oktober und Hathor/November, das drei Arten von Gesängen für den Wortgottesdienst beinhaltet. 

Diese Gesänge sollten vor der Lesung der Apostelgeschichte und des Evangeliums sowie vor dem Friedenskuss vorgetragen werden. Sie sind der Gegenstand meines DFG-Projektes „Die Hymnen in der koptischen Liturgie des Weißen Klosters in Oberägypten“ am Seminar für Ägyptologie und Koptologie an der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.

Mein Forschungsaufenthalt in Manchester hat nicht nur das Fotoarchiv in Göttingen erweitert, sondern auch die Arbeit an den Hymnen in der koptischen Liturgie maßgeblich gefördert.

Manuscript Survey in Ann Arbor (Michigan)

From November 13-18 Alin Suciu and Frank Feder - before participating in the Annual Meeting of the SBL at Boston - had the opportunity to visit the marvellous manuscript collection of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. A major part of this collection is based on aquisitions by Francis W. Kelsey (1858-1927), a scholar, archeologist, collector and entrepreneur.

 

The papyrus and special collections include a great number of Coptic manuscripts which have not been catalogued and explored yet. Thanks to the generous assistance and cooperation by the curators, Monica Tsuneishi, Brendan Haug, and Pablo Alvarez, Alin and Frank were able to see and document a great deal of the Coptic material and to discover some important new fragments.

However, there is still a lot left which derserves our attention; so, we have to come back.

Mainz Workshop, digitale Aufbereitung der geisteswissenschaftlichen Forschungsdaten

 

Vom 18. bis zum 20. Oktober 2017 in der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur | Mainz fand ein Workshop statt, unter dem Titel "Geisteswissenschaftliche Forschungsdaten. Methoden zur digitalen Erfassung, Aufbereitung und Präsentation".

 

 

 

 

Der Ablauf wurde in die Sektionen A-F und zwei Workshops geteilt.

 

Am 18.10 in der Sektion A wurden die Forschungsdaten an sich besprochen: Was sind die geisteswissenschaftlichen Forschungsdaten, Probleme und Anregungen zu deren Veröffentlichung. Herausforderungen der digitalen Publikation wurden diskutiert, u.a. die  Veröffentlichungsrechte, Motivationen der Forscher, was man publizieren sollte (alle Forschungsdaten oder nur Ergebnisdaten?).

  

Sektion B handelte über Forschungsdatendienste. Alexander Czmiel hat den digitalen Wissensspeicher (www.wissensspeicher.bbaw.de) vorgestellt, der es ermöglicht, Forschungsdaten und Ergebnisse schnell durch eine Volltextsuche in allen verfügbaren Sammlungen und Projekten zu finden.

 

Am Donnerstag, 19.10. ging es mit der Sektion C weiter, es gab vier Vorträge zu den Wörterbüchern und der historischen Lexikographie. Darunter z.B. der "Dialektatlas Mittleres Westdeutschland", präsentiert von Kai-Uwe Carstensen, oder das etymologische Wörterbuch zum Altfranzösischen (DEAF) von Sabine Tittel.

Sektion D beschäftigte sich mit Editionen und Sammlungen. Besonders zu erwähnen ist der Vortrag von Marcello Perathoner und Klaus Wachtel zu den Forschungsdaten zur Textgeschichte des Neuen Testament: Novum Testamentum Graecum- Editio Critica Maior. Das Projekt verwendet Coherence-Based Genealogical Method (CBGM, siehe http://egora.uni-muenster.de/intf/projekte/gsm.shtml). Das Ziel ist die Konstruktion eines globalen Stemmas, das eine Hypothese über die Entwicklung der  Textüberlieferung anhand der einbezogenen Zeugen darstellt.

 

In der Sektion E haben Projekte, die sich mit nichtalphabetischen Schriften beschäftigen, ihre Arbeitsweise vorgestellt. Zuerst hat das Projekt RuneS die Methoden für digitale Bearbeitung der Runen vorgestellt. Nachfolgend hat Svenja Gülden das Projekt "Altägyptische Kursivschriften" vorgestellt, in dem eine digitale Paläographie-Datenbank für das gesamte Zeichenrepertoire der altägyptischen Kursivschriften entwickelt wird. Der letzte Vortrag in dieser Sektion gehörte Christian Prager, der über das Mayawörterbuch-Projekt erzählt hat. Vorträge und Diskussionen haben Herausforderungen und Schwierigkeiten besprochen, die mit einer digitalen Bearbeitung der nichtalphabetischen Schriften verbunden sind. Es wurden Fragen und Anregungen zu der verfügbaren Technologie gestellt (wie z.B. Möglichkeiten des OCR, oder wie man den Workflow der Wissenschaftler mithilfe der Technologie vereinfachen könnte).

 

Die letzte Vortrag-Sektion F behandelte die visuellen und 3D-Kontexte. Im Bereich von Medienwissenschaft wurde ein Projekt eLaterna vorgestellt, das sich mit der Geschichte der Projektionskunst beschäftigt. Außerdem hat Ute Engel digitale Methoden im Corpus der barocken Deckenmalerei geschildert (https://deckenmalerei.badw.de/das-projekt.html). Interessant zu erkunden ist die Webseite https://sketchfab.com, auf der man 3D Modelle in zahlreichen Kategorien anschauen kann.

 

Der hochinteressante Abendvortrag von Philipp Susalek aus dem Deutschen Forschungszentrum für künstliche Intelligenz [DFKI] hat einen Überblick über die aktuellen Möglichkeiten und Limitationen der künstlichen Intelligenz verschafft. Den Geisteswissenschaftlern wurde versichert, dass es noch lange dauert, bevor Computer die Menschen in der Forschung ersetzen könnten.

 

Am 20.10 fanden zwei Workshops statt. Im ersten hat Martin Fechner ediarum vorgestellt. Ediarum ist noch nicht veröffentlicht, wird aber aus mehreren Softwarekomponenten bestehen. Es sollte den Wissenschaftlern erlauben, Transkriptionen von Manuskripten in TEI-konformem XML zu bearbeiten, mit einem Text und Sachapparat zu versehen und anschließend auch im Druck und online zu veröffentlichen. Der wichtigste Teil davon ist oXygen XML Author Programm. Im Workshop wurden die Möglichkeiten von oXygen besprochen und die Teilnehmer wurden angeregt, an einer kleinen Übung mit dem Programm mitzumachen.

 

Der zweite Workshop "Graphentechnologien" wurde von Andreas Kuczera besprochen. Die Teilnehmer haben die Graphdatenbank neo4j (https://neo4j.com) und ihre Abfragesprache cypher durch gemeinsam geführte Übungen kennengelernt. Zur Anwendung der Graphentechnologien in den Digitalen Geisteswissenschaften siehe https://doi.org/10.1515/abitech-2017-0042).

 

Eine pdf-Datei mit dem Programm kann unter http://www.akademienunion.de/fileadmin/redaktion/user_upload/AGeHum_WS_Programm.pdf heruntergeladen werden.

 

Census Colloque, 12–13 Oktober 2017

Vom 12.–13. Oktober fand in Paris das Kolloqium Census. Recenser et identifier les manuscrits par langue et par pays statt. Die von François Bougard, Matthieu Cassin (IRHT) und Amandine Postec (BNF) organisierte Tagung brachte die Vertreter von zahleichen internationalen Handschriftenkatalogisierungsunternehmen zusammen. Unser Projekt war ebenfalls mit einem Bericht über laufende DH Projekte im Bereich der Koptologie (u.a. PAThs, Coptic Scriptorium und CMCL) vertreten. 

Research Trip to London

Between September 11-15, four members of our team (Alin, Frank, Malte, and Theresa) undertook a research trip to London. We mainly explored the British Library’s large collection of the Coptic manuscripts, but also that of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

We collated some of the Sahidic Old Testament manuscripts kept in the British Library, especially those that are difficult to read on the sole basis of photographs. Significant progress in this regard has been made with two Copto-Syriac palimpsests: BL Add. 14665 (Genesis, Leviticus, Numbers) and Add. 17183 (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Judith, Esther). The former manuscript, which is highly relevant for our project, is still unpublished.

Although little known to Coptologists, the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum contains some fragments from the White Monastery codices. We have thus learned that most of the Coptic fragments in this location formerly belonged to the Pre-Raphaelite painter and collector Henry Wallis (1830-1916), who was also a collector of ancient artifacts, including manuscripts. Among the most interesting items kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum is a fragment of the Old Testament book of Jeremiah and the title page of a homily on the apostles attributed to Severian of Gabala, which contains much apocryphal material. The latter text has been attested until now only in Arabic.

Our team met the manuscripts curators and other members of the staff of the British Library and Victoria and Albert Museum, to whom we introduced our project. We had the possibility to negotiate with them the acquisition of high-resolution photographs of manuscripts and to clarify some copyright issues.

Digitales Panel beim Deutschen Orientalistentag 2017 in Jena

In diesem Jahr fand in Jena vom 18.–22. September der 33. Deutsche Orientalistentag statt. Mit etwa 900 Einzelvorträgen und ca. 1300 Teilnehmern ist der DOT eine der größten Konferenzen der Orientwissenschaften weltweit. Unter dem Titel Digitaler Aufbruch in der Orientalistik. Chancen und Nutzen der Digitalisierung und Vernetzung organisierten Ingo Kottsieper (Göttingen) und Gerfrid G. W. Müller (München/Mainz) ein fächerübergreifendes Panel zu Themen der Digitalisierung, bei dem auch unser Editionsprojekt vertreten war. Besonders interessant für unser eigene Arbeit an der Digitalen Edition des koptischen Alten Testaments sind natürlich vor allem solche DH Projekte, die intensiv mit Handschriften arbeiten. Unter den vielen großartigen Projekten, die im Panel vorgestellten wurden, möchte ich daher nur zwei hervorheben. Zum einen das von Bronson Brown-de Vost (Göttingen) vertretene DIP-Projekt Scripta Qumranica Electronica. Hier werden interessante Web-Techniken eingesetzt um Qumranfragmente aus verschiedenen Online-Bilddatenbanken virtuell zusammenzuführen. Zum anderen die von dem Indologen Stefan Baums (München) am Beispiel der Edition der Gāndhārī-Texte vorgestellte Research Environment for Ancient Documents. READ ist eine Forschungs- und Editionsumgebung, die ausgezeichnete Möglichkeiten für die paläographische Annotation und Glossierung von Handschriften bietet.

In den Diskussionen im und am Rande des Panels wurden insbesondere Fragen der Nachhaltigkeit und Zukunftssicherung von genuin digitalen Forschungsdaten in DH-Projekten diskutiert. Gerade ältere Projekte stehen vielfach vor finanziellen Herausforderungen bei dringend notwendigen Software- und Datenmigrationen. Beeindruckt hat mich bei den in Jena vorgestellten Projekten aber vor allem der persönliche Einsatz, mit dem viele Wissenschaftler die Digitalisierung ihrer eigenen Forschung seit Jahren vorantreiben.

Die einzelnen Vorträge des Panels

Ständige Ägyptologenkonferenz

Vom 14.-16. Juli 2017 fand dieses Jahr in Göttingen die 49. Ständige Ägyptologenkonferenz - eine Fachtagung von Ägyptologen aus dem gesamten deutschsprachigen Raum (Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz) - unter dem Titel "'Steininschrift und Bibelwort' - Religiöse Texte aus Ägypten in ihrem kulturellen Umfeld" statt. Treffpunkt für alle Wissenschaftskollegen war das Zentrale Hörsaalgebäude der Universität Göttingen, denn dort war Platz genug für die insgesamt knapp 250 Teilnehmer, die sich angemeldet hatten.

Nach der herzlichen Begrüßung hier in Göttingen folgten freundliche Grußworte, so z.B. von Bischof Anba Damian (Generalbischof der koptisch-orthodoxen Kirche in Deutschland), Prof. Hiltraud Casper-Hehne (Vizepräsidentin der Göttinger Universität), Prof. Manfred Luchterhandt (Dekan der Philosophischen Fakultät) sowie von Reinhard G. Kratz in Vertretung für die Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen.

Am nächsten Morgen folgten einleitende keynote lectures, die alle samt das Überthema der Konferenz - religiöse Texte aus Ägypten - aus verschiedenen Blickwinkeln beleuchteten:

 

 

Antonio J. Morales (Universidad de Alcalá), „Mutable tradition or traditional mutability? Stages, factors, and principles in the transmission of the Pyramid Texts in the Old and Middle Kingdoms“

Joachim F. Quack (Universität Heidelberg), „Überlegungen zur Überlieferung (nicht) funerärer religiöser Texte in (nicht nur) hieratischer Schrift“ 

Frank Feder (Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen), „Der religiöse Paradigmenwechsel durch die Christianisierung Ägyptens und die heiligen Schriften der christlichen Ägypter“

Ute Pietruschka (Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), „Die Rezeption islamischer religiöser Texte bei den ägyptischen Christen“ 

 

Danach konnte sich auch der wissenschaftliche Nachwuchs in der Ägyptologie und Koptologie mit Vorträgen zu aktuellen Themen ihrer Forschung präsentieren. Am Samstagabend hielt Suzanne L. Marchand von der Louisiana State University in der Historischen Aula der Universität einen Festvortrag zum Thema „Herodot und die ägyptischen Priester“. Den Abend ausklingen lassen konnten die Teilnehmer im Anschluss bei einem gemütlichen Empfang, gutem Essen und Trinken sowie stilvoller Klavierbegleitung.

Unser Vorhaben wurde bei der Konferenz nicht nur durch Frank Feders Vortrag vertreten, sondern ebenfalls in einer Posterpräsentation dem Fachpublikum anschaulich dargestellt.

Michael Syrus in Armenian

Andrea Barbara Schmidt, professor of Near Eastern Christian Studies at the Oriental Institute of the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium), currently spends research time in Göttingen as a fellow of the Lichtenbergkolleg.  

The main focus of her work is the monumental world chronicle of Michael Syrus in its Armenian translation, which happens to exist in two different versions that have come down to us in multiple copies.

Hitherto no critical edition that is based on a thorough understanding of the substantial manuscript tradition exists. After obtaining photographs of nearly all of the 50 plus artefacts, professor Schmidt is now in a position to put a systematic editorial workflow in place.

As part of the preparatory work several visits to the Lagardehaus were undertaken in order to discuss the options and present the solutions that have been developed for the "Digital Edition of the Coptic Old Testament".

Now we are happy to announce that professor Schmidt finds our Virtual Manuscript Room technology suitable for suporting her work on Michael Syrus as well. As a result, our technical team assists her in taking first steps towards making full use of the software application.

We are looking forward to benefitting from future collaboration through lerning more about the specific challenges that the rich Armenian Christian literature poses. After all, the Armenian and Coptic Churches are sister churches and share lots of their literatures.

 

Guest Post: Julien Delhez – A Successful Conference for French-Speaking Coptologists

Julien Delhez: A Successful Conference for French-Speaking Coptologists

From June 22-24, Coptologists from a dozen countries gathered in Brussels for the eighteenth congress of the Association Francophone de Coptologie (French-speaking association of Coptology). Thirty speakers and several additional attendees enjoyed a weekend of stimulating lectures, conviviality, and fellowship.

In accordance with the association’s custom, all the talks were delivered in French. Unsurprisingly, speakers from France and Belgium were well represented. Nonetheless, the conference also benefited from the presence of non-native speakers from countries such as Egypt, Poland, and Russia. Given the importance of English in scientific activities, one may be tempted to expect such a French-speaking event to be attended predominantly by native speakers. In fact, the native speakers only made up slightly more than 50 % of the lecturers.

The conference started in the buildings of the Université libre de Bruxelles, with a few welcome words by Xavier Luffin, President of the Department of Languages and Literatures at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, and Nathalie Bosson, president of the AFC. Mr. Luffin and Mrs. Bosson expressed gratitude towards Alain Delattre and Naïm Vanthieghem, the two main organizers of the conference.

ULB Bâtiment A[1]

At the Université libre de Bruxelles: The building in which the AFC conference started (© Wikimedia Commons)

The event comprised eight thematic sessions, namely:

1) Art history

2) Coptic-Arabic studies

3) Epigraphy and papyrology

4) Literature I

5) Palaeography

6) Linguistics

7) Literature II

8) Archaeology and collections

 

Session 1: Art history (June 22, 10:30-12:10)

Dominique Bénazeth (Louvre) and Cédric Meurice (Louvre), spoke about their project of a catalogue of Coptic sculptures of the Louvre Museum. In a presentation which was both instructive and theatrical – they read aloud original texts of Emile Chassinat, Jean Maspéro, and others, and they made them discuss with each other –, they summarized the history of the Louvre’s collection of Coptic sculptures. This talk ended with a description of the current situation and the speakers’ own project.

Marie Delassus (Louvre) talked about the Louvre’s Rider Ivory (E 10813). After a stylistic description of the artefact, she compared it with similar ivory sculptures conserved in Aachen, Athens, and Baltimore. She highlighted the fact that this ivory had the purpose of emphasizing the imperial power (this tradition persisted until the collapse of the Byzantine Empire). In addition, she compared the ivory sculpture with numerous textiles of the ninth century, which are characterized by similar motives.

Héléna Rochard (École Pratique des Hautes Études), who just defended her dissertation, provided the attendees with a description and a commentary of the preserved iconographical scenes of Bawit. As she explained, the Eucharistic rites are well represented. Miss Rochard gave explanations about the meaning of the representations of the scenes, what they alluded to (e.g. Psalms 71 and 140), and how they had been influenced by apocryphal literature. The liturgical inspiration is more or less represented, depending on the hall. Some areas are linked with the liturgy, but it is not the case for all of them.

Julien Auber de Lapierre (École Pratique des Hautes Études) spoke about Yuhanna al-Armani’s icons of Saint George from the Osmanli era. After starting with an icon whose date is unknown but which was made between 1736 and 1745, he showed fifteen icons made precisely in 1777 (some of them, on which the archangels Michael and Gabriel appear, are reconstitutions from the nineteenth century) and kept in a church of Cairo. He explained in what way Yuhanna al-Armani differentiated himself from the traditional iconography. Unfortunately, Youhanna Nessim Youssef (Catholic University of Australia), who was due to be the second speaker for this talk, was not able to attend.

Session 2: Coptic-Arabic studies (June 22, 13:40-15:20)

The talk of Adel Sidarus (University of Evora) was dedicated to the very end of Coptic literature, in the second half of the fourteenth century. At this time, the usage of Coptic as a literary language, which had disappeared in the eleventh century, apparently came back for a while. A few works were composed in Bohairic Coptic, in a language whose quality is very relative. As for the Sahidic dialect, only one translation is known to have been made. Mr. Sidarus described extensively the lives and the works of Ibn al-‘Amid (d. after 1398/9) and Athanasius of Qus (Upper Egypt, floruit in the second half of the fourteenth century). He also explained that the fourteenth century, apart from seeing the final uprising of Coptic literature, was a turning point which saw a drastic reduction of the Christian population in Egypt, especially in the Nile Delta, because of the increasing pressures on religious minorities.

Al-Hakim_bi-Amr_Allah[1]

Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (© Wikimedia Commons)

Naglaa Hamdi Dabee Boutros (Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale – Université Catholique de Louvain) spoke about how three Egyptian chronicle writers – Mīḫā’īl, bishop of Tinnīs, Anṭākī, and Maqrīzī – wrote about the Fatimid sultan al-Ḥākim, one of the most controversial figures of Egyptian history. Whereas he ordered the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem to be destroyed, forbade women to leave their houses and shoemakers to make shoes for them (in order to ensure that they would stay at home), he is also known as the only sovereign in the history of Islam who officially authorized apostasy. Two episodes of his reign are taken as examples of how the three Egyptian writers could refer to the same event in a very different way.

Perrine Pilette (Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique – Université Catholique de Louvain) talked about the History of churches and monasteries of Egypt, a historical-topographic work originally written in Coptic but preserved only in two (or three) Arabic manuscripts which were edited, respectively, in 1895 and 1984. It is not sure whether these manuscripts have preserved the same work, or several works which are so similar that they were put together. After checking the page numbers and the other codicological characteristics of the manuscripts (including an unexpected mention of Saladin in a colophon), Miss Pilette cannot give a certain answer to the question of how many manuscripts there were originally. As for the literary genre, she points out that many similar works have been preserved in the Muslim Arabic literature, while there is no equivalent among Christian works written either in Coptic or in Arabic. Therefore, she thinks that his text – which is undoubtedly Christian – could have drawn upon an earlier Muslim work, to which it would have added hagiographic Christian quotes. During the question time, a speaker deemed this hypothesis very bold, but plausible; he was probably not the only one.

Naïm Vanthieghem (Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique – Université libre de Bruxelles) gave an overview of the documentation from the monastery of Naqlun. The preserved documents include private letters, petitions, receipts, fiscal texts, and juristic documents. This is a rare example of an Arabic documentation from a monastic milieu.

Session 3: Epigraphy and papyrology (June 22, 15:50-18:00)

Maria Mossakowska-Gaubert (University of Copenhagen) talked about the fabrication of textiles in the Egyptian monastic milieu from the fourth century to the seventh century. She was mainly concerned with the materials used for the textiles.

Grzegorz Ochała (University of Warsaw) showed several new graffiti from Deir el-Bahari (Thebes). He gave an overview of the different kinds of graffiti (pagan and Christian, Greek and Coptic, etc.) and explained their respective functions. At the end of his talk, he showed an emotional graffito made by a man who had lost his cat. It seems to be the only Coptic inscription mentioning a misfortune of this kind.

Esther Garel (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) spoke about titles and functions in Fayyumic documents. As she explains, since the Fayyumic dialect is not yet well known, the titles and the functions may be a good basis for advancing our knowledge of this dialect. In some cases, it is very difficult to distinguish functions from names indicating the origin, since both of them start with the same prefix (ⲣⲙ-, ”man of”). The word ⲗⲉϩⲙⲉϥ is a good example of how difficult the interpretation can be: in many contexts, it seems to apply to a prostitute. However, in some cases, it is about a loaner. Perhaps both functions were associated in the minds of people, or the word whose meaning was “loaner” was used in a euphemistic way to design the world’s oldest profession?

Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin (University of Ottawa – Université libre de Bruxelles) talked about the calls to Jesus as healer in iatromagical Coptic texts. As in the Greek texts of the same type, the most often quoted text is Mt 4 :23. Other texts are also quoted, especially the letters supposedly exchanged between King Abgar and Jesus; the healing power of those letter was thought to be considerable. Often, canonical and apocryphal texts are used along with each other.

After the talks, a reception took place inside the ULB buildings, in front of the conference room. The attendees stayed for one to three hours, and then each participant was free to choose his own plans.

The second day of the AFC started around 9 am. The seven talks of the morning (sessions 4 and 5) were held inside the buildings of the Université libre de Bruxelles. The five talks of the afternoon (sessions 6 and 7) took place at the Royal Academy of Belgium.

Academy palace[1]

The Academy Palace, near the Coudenberg (© Wikimedia Commons)

Session 4: Literature I (June 23, 9:00-10:20)

Firstly, Nathalie Bosson (University of Genève) and Sydney Aufrère (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) examined Shenoute’s polemical writings against the Jews. In Shenoute’s texts, the Jews are associated with all the other enemies of the Church, such as the pagans and the heretics. However, Shenoute goes on with words that are specifically aimed at the Jews, who are depicted as the ones who crucified the Christ. His text, whose primary function was to educate the monks, is strongly anti-Jewish, although much harsher can be found in the early Christian literature. After the presentation, I asked Nathalie Bosson whether the biblical quotes used by Shenoute in these polemical writings were accurate, or whether Shenoute had changed a few words in order to ensure that these modified quotations would suit him better for his purpose. She explained to me that Shenoute’s quotations were in fact very accurate, but that he provided interpretations after quoting the Bible; for instance, after quoting very accurately a passage in which the word “Jerusalem” appears, the archimandrite explains that “Jerusalem” must be understood as “the Jews.” Of course, as Wolf-Peter Funk noticed, one has to be careful when debating Shenoute’s accuracy: since the preserved manuscripts of the White monastery date back from much later that Shenoute’s life, the “accuracy” may also be the result of later corrections made by copyists who transmitted Shenoute’s works.

Jacques van der Vliet (Universities of Leiden and Nijmegen) spoke about the new edition of the Coptic text of the Apocalypse of Paul, which is currently in preparation. He came back over the text’s discovery, the earlier editions, and the two main manuscripts. One of them is a manuscript from London which lacks the first fifteen chapters (the “prologue of Tarsus”) but contains thirteen additional chapters at the end; all of them are unknown not only in the other Coptic manuscript, but also in every single manuscript of the Latin tradition, in which the text has no satisfying ending. In the Syriac version, the redactor created an epilogue using sentences of the prologue. Therefore, it may be that all the versions, except the one of the London manuscript, are derived from one mutilated manuscript.

Eugenia Smagina (Russian Academy of Sciences) talked about the description of the twelve precious stones in the Encomium to the saints Peter and Paul, preserved in a codex of the monastery of Hamuli. The text contains a comparison of the twelve apostles with the twelve precious stones of the Bible, listed in the book of Exodus (Ex 28:17-20, 39:10-14) and mentioned by several Christian authors such as Meliton of Sardis and Tertullian. According to Mrs. Smagina, some of their properties are linked to their etymology in the Hebrew text of the Bible, but most of them have parallels in the work of Theophrastus, or of Theophrastus’ sources, or of the authors who draw upon Theophrastus.

Session 5: Palaeography and codicology (10:50-12:30)

Chantal Heurtel (Paris) made a comparison between the ostraca Frange wrote in his early years and those he wrote at the end of his life, in order to understand the evolution of his hand. Among others, she showed the numerous variants of Frange’s own name. Sometimes, several of them can be found in the same document.

Loreleï Vanderheyden (Collège de France) presented an online tutorial for learning Coptic palaeography. Available for free on the EPHE’s website (http://humanum.ephe.fr/ephe-palaeography-tutorial/fr), it provides the apprentice with reading exercises, in an order of increasing difficulty. It is quite difficult to find texts which can be put online, since they must be copyright-free, without lacunae, and without abbreviations. Until now, three texts from the sixth and seven centuries have been put online, but we can hope that many more will be available in the next years; it would also be interesting to add texts which date from earlier or later periods. The tutorial, which was used in front of the public, is very user-friendly.

Nathan Carlig (University La Sapienza, Rome) showed the public the very few literary Coptic rolls that he identified after checking the lists and examining the texts. There are only ten of them. Mr. Carlig described them one after another and draws conclusion on the basis of their characteristics. To summarize, it seems that the rolls were only used in two particular cases: for very elegant copies, to which the format gave the prestige of archaism, and for cheap personal copies, which were a re-usage of earlier document. Clearly, the codex is the predominant format of this time, and the roll has almost disappeared.

Catherine Louis (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) talked about Coptic manuscripts whose pagination system deviated from the norm. Her research was limited to the manuscripts of Hamuli and the White Monastery. She found a few manuscripts that were paginated only on the verso (e.g. M. 592). As far as the codices of the White Monastery are concerned, there is but one codex which is paginated on only one side: MONB.YQ. There are also codices which are not paginated at all: MONB.AV (Varia) and MONB.GN (Canon 7).

Session 6: Linguistics (15:00-16:20)

Wolf-Peter Funk (Université Laval) spoke about the variation of literary Coptic in texts from Middle Egypt. First, he summarizes what we know about the particularities of the Coptic dialects of this area, namely, the Fayyumic and the Mesokemic; he enumerated five criteria which enable us to distinguish the texts belonging to one of those dialects. Then, he comes back over two texts from Middle Egypt, Mich. 3520 and Mich. 3521, which have characteristics of both Fayyumic and Mesokemic (the first one could be described as “Fayyumic with some influence of Mesokemic”, and the second one as “Mesokemic with some influence of Fayyumic”). Finally, he mentions six fragments which are situated somewhere between Fayyumic and Mesokemic but in which it is not possible to see clear tendencies.

Korshi Dosoo (Labex Resmed) talked about the words of peace in Coptic. His research centre, the Labex Resmed, has the project of investigating the words related to peace in the languages of the Mediterranean world, and Mr. Dosoo is working on the Coptic language. In Coptic, the main word for “peace” is ϩⲱⲧⲡ, from the Egyptian Htp. In Egyptian, the word is coupled with the ideas of cosmic peace and rest. The Coptic term did not keep these implications. The Greek word εἱρήνη is not associated with the idea of “peace” in Coptic texts, but rather with the idea of “prosperity.” Mr. Dosoo also mentioned expressions such as ϩⲛ ⲟⲩⲉⲓⲣⲏⲛⲏ, which replaced the Greek ἐπ ἔλπιδι, and the Coptic equivalent for: “May the peace be with you,” which does not appear before the Arabic conquest. Mr. Dosoo ends his talk with a discussion of the word ⲙⲧⲟⲛ and the expressions that are related to it.

Session 7: Literature II (16:50-18:15)

The speech of Jitse Dijkstra (University of Ottawa) was about the Life of Aaron, a hagiographic work about the lives of ascetics who lived near the southern border of Egypt in the fourth and fifth centuries. The text was written in the sixth century and edited by Wallis Budge. Mr. Dijkstra explained how the author, by using quotations and references to earlier Coptic works, shows the reader his knowledge of Coptic literature and his ability to interact with it. The Bible is often quoted, especially the Old Testament (three times more often than the New Testament). That said, Mr. Dijkstra also mentions other texts which could have inspired the author of the Life of Aaron. It is clear that the author had a profound knowledge of Coptic literature, although, since the date of many works is unknown, it is very difficult to say who was influenced by whom.

The day ended with the talks of Anton Voytenko (Russian Academy of Sciences) and Albert Ten Kate (Leiden). Mr. Voytenko spoke about the homily of Pisenthios, bishop of Coptos, in honour of Onophrios the Great. Mr. Ten Kate compared several versions of Psalm 151 in the manuscript Barb. Or. 2, which contains this text in several languages of early Christianity (Coptic, Greek, Arabic, and Syriac).

Then, the participants had a guided tour of the town centre. They were led by Alain Martin (Université libre de Bruxelles), who showed them the Coudenberg, the Mount of Arts, and the Grand Place with the City Hall. At the end of the day, the participants gathered for a superb dinner in a restaurant of the Grand Place.

On the third day, the speakers met around 10:20 in the Royal Museums of Art and History.

 

Hall of Antiquities[1]

Inside the Royal Museums of Art and History: The Hall of Antiquities (© Wikimedia Commons)

Session 8: Archaeology and collections (10:30-12:30)

 

The first speech, by Jean-Luc Fournet (Collège de France) and Dominique Bénazeth (Louvre), was about spoons from Christian Egypt on which inscriptions were written. Some of the inscriptions are invocations to the apostles, others are calls to rejoice. All of them are written in Greek, which is not surprising, Mr. Fournet explained, given the sociolinguistic context: before the Arabic conquest, Greek is still the juristic and administrative language, while Coptic is only used for private exchanges.

Gertrud van Loon (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) came back over the excavations of Jean Clédat at the cemetery of Deir Anba Hadra. In 1903, Jean Clédat received the authorization to examine the paintings and the inscriptions at Deir Anba Hadra. In 2015, Mrs. van Loon’s team started to consult Jean Clédat’s diaries, which enable them to see what he had done; he excavated seven tombs, but it is not possible to know which these tombs are.

Finally, Emmanuel Serdiuk (Université libre de Bruxelles) proposed to identify an era of the Ramesseum as a former pigeon loft. He proposed several reconstitutions, which were showed in his PowerPoint presentations, and he gave anthropological explanations for the choice of such a place for a pigeon loft.

After the last talks, the AFC’s general assembly took place in the same room. The president, Mrs. Bosson, announced that three new members had joined the association: Korshi Dosoo, Eugenia Smagina, and myself. Several proposals were made regarding the place where the next conference could take place. Then, we had a lunch in the museum’s restaurant, not far from the meeting room.

After the lunch, most participants remained in the museum for a visit of the Egyptian collections. Our guide was Dorian Vanhulle, who recently completed his PhD at the Université libre de Bruxelles. Luc Delvaux, curator for the museums’ Egyptian collections, even made available a few artefacts which the public cannot see under normal circumstances.

 
 

Kellia Meeting

Last week, we held a meeting with our project partners from KELLIA at the Heyne house in Göttingen. Our American friends and colleagues from Coptic Scriptorium, Caroline Schroeder, Rebecca Krawiec, Elizabeth Platte and Amir Zeldes were with us for the whole week to discuss the final outcome of the KELLIA project. We used this wonderful opportunity to also invite Paola Buzi and two of her colleagues, Julian Bogdani and Agostino Soldati, from the newly stablished PATHS project at Rome, to join us. Paola and her team gave an exciting presentation on their latest work and their future digital infrastructure. We are all extremely happy to have this major DH project in Coptology. We're also grateful that PATHS will continue the amazing work of Prof. Tito Orlandi’s venerable CMCL project.

As if this weren't enough, we were also lucky to have a few selected guest speakers from the field of Digital Humanities with us, so the meeting turned into a mini-conference. Kirill Bulert (eTRAP Research Group, Göttingen) and So Miyagawa (SRC 1136, Göttingen) gave a talk on Coptic OCR. Laura Slaughter from Oslo University presented a great paper on ontology and Coptic wordnets. Alberto Winterberg gave an update on the latest developments in the Berlin based project Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in CopticMatt Munson from Global Philology / Open Philology (Leipzig) joined us to introduce the CapiTainS suite for Canonical Text Services (CTS). And last but not least, Marco Büchler from the Göttingen Center for Digital Humanities gave a demonstration on his TRACER software for the detection of text-reuse. He also let us in on the secret of successful team building in DH projects. 

An intermediate outcome of this meeting for the Göttingen Old Testament project (and also for the Greek New Testament Virtual Manuscript Room at Münster Universitywill be the adoption of CTS for our texts (biblical and literary). Our project also agreed to provide the Sahidic version of the book of Isaiah to the KELLIA team to be used for corpus lingustic annotations, which we hope to integrate on our website later next year.

 

 

Visiting Intern

It is a great privilege for me to be visiting Göttingen for ten weeks and working at the Academy of Sciences and Humanities. I am currently undertaking a PhD at Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia) under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Malcolm Choat (Sydney) and Dr. Alin Suciu (Göttingen), after recently completing a Master of Research in Coptic linguistics. My PhD topic is a codicological, palaeographic, and linguistic study of the fragments from the White Monastery codex MONB.FI, “The Life of Paul of Tamma”. I have spent my time here gaining valuable experience and training in the technical aspects of dealing with Coptic manuscripts, as well as receiving helpful advice regarding my project. At the same time it has been gratifying to be able to contribute to the Digital Edition of the Coptic Old Testament project by preparing a basetext of Ezekiel. Many thanks must go to my first Coptic teacher, Prof. Heike Behlmer, and to Dr. Frank Feder for making this visit possible, and to all the team here for making me feel so welcome.

New Trainee Introduction

My name is Joanna Hypszer and I'm the new trainee. I have previously studied at the Freie Universität Berlin, where I acquired an M.A. in Egyptology. 

I'm very grateful to the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities for this wonderful opportunity and I hope to learn a lot during my time here.

Ariel Sabar in Göttingen

On May 23, we will host a discussion with Ariel Sabar, the author of a splendid article which unveiled the forger of the Gospel of Jesus' Wife papyrus. Here is the official announcement:

Job Opening

The Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities has a job opening for the long-term project


Digital Edition and Translation of the Coptic-Sahidic Old Testament

This is a part-time position (50%) on the public service scale TV-L E 13, starting at the earliest possible date on or after July 1, 2017. The position is fixed-term. The project (planned completion date: December 31, 2036) is based in Göttingen.

The appointee will be responsible for the following tasks:

  • Collection and catalogisation of Coptic manuscripts of the Old Testament in an online database (including, if required, the collation and examination of manuscript holdings in museums and collections)
  • Transcription and analysis of the manuscript texts to create a digital edition
  • Comparison and analysis of the textual tradition for the production of a critical edition of the individual books of the Coptic Old Testament
  • Translation of the Coptic text of the edition into English or German

Requirements are specifically:

  • Ph.D. or M.A. (or equivalent) in the areas of Coptic Studies, Theology/Religious Studies, Christian Oriental Studies or Byzantine Studies, Egyptology and related fields. Opportunities for training and the pursuit of further academic qualifications (e.g. a Ph.D.) are available.
  • A solid knowledge of the Coptic language (Sahidic dialect) and the literature/manuscript culture of Christian Egypt. Additional expertise and experience – especially in the areas of Philology/Editions, Manuscript Studies/Codicology and Digital Humanities – are particularly welcome.

Candidates are expected to have:

  • Willingness and ability to quickly familiarise themselves with the textual culture and history of the Coptic Old Testament
  • Familiarity with modern databases and online research and the willingness and ability to be trained in the use of a variety of Digital Humanities tools, methods and platforms
  • Language skills: the other dialects of Coptic, Ancient Greek and modern foreign languages (relevant for the project are a reading knowledge of German and French). Other language skills, in particular in Hebrew, Latin, Arabic, Syriac or Ethiopic (Ge'ez), are helpful.
  • Excellent time management and proven teamwork skills

The Göttingen Academy of Sciences is an equal opportunity employer. In case of identical qualifications applicants with disabilities will be considered on a preferential basis.

Closing date: May 31, 2017

Please send your application (cover letter, CV, copies of relevant diplomas, publication list, if applicable) – in electronic form – to:

Professor Heike Behlmer (hbehlme@uni-goettingen.de) or:
Dr Frank Feder (ffeder@gwdg.de)

Both are available to answer any enquiries about the project. General project information can also be found here: http://coptot.manuscriptroom.com

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