Search results for ""author a. lajtar""

The crypt of Archbishop Georgios of Dongola that the team from the Polish Centre of Mediterraean Archaeology of the University of Warsaw, headed then by Stefan Jakobielski, discovered in 1993 was astounding to say the least. The walls were literally covered with writing. Lines close together, neat small letters – the first impression was of something of the greatest importance that the dead man wished to take with him to the other world. Even more astounding was the provisional identification of some of the texts, forcing a complete reevaluation of Makurian culture and Christianity in Africa in the early twelfth century. (…) Adam Łajtar and Jacques van der Vliet (…) undertook the task of recording, understanding, and ultimately publishing this astounding selection of texts in Greek and Coptic, this ‘library’ that Archbishop Georgios endeavored to take with him into the afterworld. These texts are known from several different versions, recorded in different languages, and their attestation in Dongola was quite unexpected.

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The book is a publication of nearly one thousand wall inscriptions preserved in the so-called Upper Church at Banganarti (Sudanese Nubia), discovered by a Polish expedition between 2001 and 2006. In overwhelming majority, the inscriptions are mementos left by people who visited this cult place to pay homage to its patron, Archangel Raphael, and to ask him or God through his intermediary for various benefactions. Written in either Greek or Old Nubian, and frequently displaying a sophisticated graphic and literary form, they cast an interesting light on different aspects of social, cultural, and religious life of the Christian Nubian Kingdom of Makuria towards the end of its existence (twelfth-fourteenth centuries). The catalogue of inscriptions is complemented by a study addressing general questions provoked by the texts. The book is richly illustrated with plans, photographs and drawings.

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The book is a collection of articles dealing with various aspects of medieval Nubian literacy. It contains eleven articles by an international group of scholars, representing different areas of language studies (Greek and Latin epigraphy, Coptology, Old Nubian studies). The articles contain both editions of new textual finds and reconsiderations of well-known sources. The chronology of the texts discussed in the book spans a few hundred years of medieval Nubian history (from the 7th until the 15th century) and their topographical distribution covers a large part of the Middle Nile Valley (from Qasr Ibrim in the north to Banganarti in the south) and beyond (northern Kordofan). The typological variety of the sources, with epitaphs, sepulchral crosses, legal documents, visitors' inscriptions, and dipinti on pottery, provides an insight into the richness of the Christian Nubian civilization.

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