Saturday, February 19, 2005

NEW COPTIC TEXTS have been discovered on Luxor's west bank. Al Ahram has the story:
Coptic trove
Luxor's west bank was the site of a significant find, reports Nevine El-Aref

In Al-Gurna where several excavation missions are probing for more Ancient Egyptian treasures under the sand, a team from the Polish Centre for Mediterranean Archaeology has stumbled on a major Coptic trove buried under the remains of a sixth-century monastery located in front of a Middle Kingdom tomb.

Excavators unearthed two papyri books with Coptic text along with a set of parchments placed between two wooden labels as well as Coptic ostraca, pottery fragments and textiles.

[...]

Sounds like a very important discovery. Zahi Hawass is quoted as saying that it's comparable to the Nag Hammadi Library. There's little indication of the content of the new texts, but the article does conclude with this:
Early examinations and studies carried out in situ revealed that the newly discovered books could include more information about how early Christians performed their rituals.

It's important to note that the texts were excavated by professional archaeologists, which means their genuineness is not in doubt and the precious information about their physical context and stratigraphy is being preserved and studied.

(Via the Biblical Theology blog.)

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