15 IV: Sebastian Richter (Freie Universität, Berlin), Coptic epigraphy at Deir Anba Hadra: New insights and new intricacies

Abstract

The monastery Deir Anba Hadra on the west bank of Aswan has played some role for Coptic epigraphy in the past. It yields a large, and in several ways important, corpus of Coptic funerary stelae (Munier 1930/1), as well as a large number of the secondary inscriptions left by visitors and inhabitants. Many of them were published by earlier scholars, such as J. Clédat, J. de Morgan, and U. Bouriant, many however have not been edited as yet. Since 2013 the German Archaeological Institute conducted a series of campaigns at Deir Anba Hadra. A major goal of the project was to compile a complete documentation of (Coptic and Arabic) secondary inscriptions. I will present some finds and findings of the recent epigraphic work at Deir Anba Hadra, and discuss some issues arising therefrom.