Kellia Inscription Q.

Ereima 142 Revisited

Author(s): Leslie S. B. MacCoull
Source: Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie und Epigraphik, Bd. 163 (2007), pp. 215-216
Published by: Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn (Germany)
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215

KELLIA

INSCRIPTION Q. EREIMA

142 REVISITED

For over fortyyears theFranco-Swiss rescue excavations at themonastic site of Kellia in northwest
Egypt have been adding to and indeed rewritingour understandingof the livedChristianityof late
antiquity.'Continuing to tryand save the site frommodern encroachment,the team of expertshas
vastlyexpanded our contextualizedknowledgeofmonastic settlementlayoutand life in a largemulti
purpose complex of many dwellings thatchanged over time.One especial revelationhas been the
findingfromtheabundanceof inscriptionsthattheBohairic (orNile Delta) dialect of Coptic grew to
dominantposition as theautochthonousvernacular 'languevehiculaire' of thisareamuch earlier than
had been thought.2
And recentlytheKellia epigraphicmaterialhas been thebasis fortheformulation
of
a bold new hypothesisabout thedating formulasused inCoptic-language inscriptions.3
IfLuisier is
right,forty-eight
of these textsuse for 'indiction'not theexpectedGreek in./ (expected, that is, in
Sahidicmaterial),but ratherthenative&xn, more usually 'hour'4but in thesecontexts'year'.5If thisis
indeedthecase, itshouldbe noticed in future
works on thechronologicalsystemsofByzantineEgypt.
Indeed, some of the inscriptions
Luisier reinterprets
do fall in theByzantine period: forexample,
one thatexplicitly
one thatof Justin(II), two thatofMaurice, and one
mentions thereignof Justinian,
I should like
thatof Phocas (in thelist inLuisier,Annees, 221-22).6 Testing his hypothesisout further,
to look at another,lateriteminKellia's epigraphy,one thathas &xn (readby theeditorsas 'heure'), to
see if it toomightbe 'indictionyear' and, ifso, how thetext
mightbe re-readtoyield information
about
somethingthathappened to thecommunityaftertheconquest (suchbeing theexcavators'datingof this
partof thesite).
In thevolume Explorations aux QouCourHIgeila et 'Ereima lors des campagnes 1987, 1988 et
1989, ed. Ph. Bridel et al.,MSAC 4 (Louvain, 2003), 423-424, no. 142, we are presentedwith the
- very fragmentary!
- of an inscriptionthatonce tookup a large space on theeastwall of a
fragments
complexdesignatedQE (QasrEreima) 39. Top, rightside,bottomedge, and largechunksaremissing; a
line indicatestheleftside.What we have of thebeginningappears tomention the 'holyplace' and state
hour' somethinghappened.Though theeditorsread (twice)
that,as readby theed. pr. editors,at the '8th
in line2 lBl,
Bohairic for 'thirst',and render(2-3) 'we had a great thirst,
a thirstforGod' (metaphorical,
ormeaning a thirst
fromGod, i.e. a drought?),clearlyon theplate in line 2 one can divide thewords
and read U)wN
i, 'sickness,disease'. IfLuisier's hypothesisis correct,the '8th
hour' could be
differently
the '8th
Kellia inan eighthindictionyear?
year', i.e. indictionyear.Did a plague strike

et al., "Kellia",

A. Guillaumont
Christliche

mann,

Architektur

in The Coptic

in?gypten

(Leiden,

8 vols.

Encyclopaedia,

2002),

(New York,

1991),

5:

1396-1410;

P. Gross

262-266,491^499.

2 R.
Kasser,
?gypten
3
4

son attestation par les inscriptions de Kellia

et leur ?valuation
copte bohairique:
Langue
linguistique,
et al., 2 vols. (Wiesbaden,
in sp?tantiker
und christlicher Zeit, ed. S. Emmel
und Nubien
1999), 2: 335-346.

Ph. Luisier,

Les

As

Ann?es,

Luisier,

ann?es

is odd.
something
5
Luisier, Ann?es,
F?rster, W?rterbuch,
the sound-

and

de l'indiction

218 with

dans

n. 8
points

out,

sometimes

de Kellia,
one

finds

ZPE

159 (2007):

'hours'

numbered

217-222.
above

12, which

is a clue

that

219 with n. 9, and Vycichl/Kasser,

is the (Fayumic)
Coptic

347, cen

semantic

les inscriptions

in

shifts see T.

S. Richter,

s.v. cn-/^c<t>-. According

Dictionnaire
to
193-194
?tymologique,
for Lv?lxxlcdv. For the Egyptian-language
of
equivalent
background
Rechtssemantik
und forensische
Rhetorik
2002), 63 n. 284, 69 n.
(Leipzig,

318 (hypothesizinga 'Grundform'*?,cn-), 70 with n. 322,264 (? 133); cf. 186 (? 14).

6Note thatthe
inscriptionsin this listdo not bear explicit year dates by theera ofDiocletian in theirtexts:Luisier has
added

those correspondences

himself

(after equals

signs).

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216

L. S. B. MacCoull

Such years inUmayyad timeswere 664, 679, 694, 709, 724, 739 (CSBE 2 301-303). Plague did
indeed strikeEgypt in724.7 IfLuisier is right,a bettertranslationforQE 142might runalong the lines
of "... theholy topos ... in theeighthyear [= indiction]upon us all came a sickness (sent)by/from
God,
and thisiswhat happened tous, thesethingsas we wrote themdown on 13Hathyrof the [8th]indiction
... his petition (N1THClc)8to (take away?) the captivity (&?x(H&AwCe&)9
[i.e. the sickness] from the
monks of thisholy topos (thathas come) on accountof our sins.And God, themercifulone, thegood,
hadmercy on us again and turnedagain thecaptivityof theplace (Psalm 125:1) and set itaright,on 21
Phaophi of the9thindiction,settingitarightagain.Be so good, everyonewho may read thisaloud, as to
remember
me, Victor; and remember
Barnabas who was takencaptive (i.e. died of thesickness) ...".No
thirst,
no returnof deportees.IfLuisier is right,thisinscription
would reflectandwitness to theplague
thataffectedEgypt in 724-725 and how it strucktheKellia community,being broughtto an end only
elevenmonths laterand,of course,by theeffectualprayersof one of themonks.
These few remarksare just a firstexperimentto testoutwhether itcanmake sense to read&Xn as
'indiction'.This may turnout to be a legitimatevariant usage in non-literary,non-WadiNatrun
trialsof
Bohairic,10over againstourmore familiar'defaultsetting'Sahidic datingclauses.Many further
are
to
their
own
invited try
thisvariable are needed.Readers
experiments.

Leslie S. B. MacCoull

Society forCoptic Archaeology (NorthAmerica)

7 D.

Stathakopoulos,Crime and Punishment:The Plague in theByzantine Empire, 541-749, inPlague and theEnd of

The Pandemic
Antiquity:
of 541-750,
list of the later waves
of plague.
8
F?rster, WB, 20-22.
9

F?rster, WB,

!0
coptes,

Little

(Cambridge,

2007),

99-118,

at 104, gives

an up-to-date

chronological

22-23.

See E. Grossman,
?d. N. Bosson

?d. L. K.

Worknotes

and A. Boud'hors,

on the Syntax of Nitrian Bohairic,

in Actes du huiti?me
2 vols. (Leuven, 2007), 2: 711-727,
here 711-716.

congr?s

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international

d'?tudes