Periodic Reporting for period 3 - DEChriM (Deconstructing Early Christian Metanarratives: Fourth-Century Egyptian Christianity in the Light of Material Evidence)
Período documentado: 2022-09-01 hasta 2024-02-29
A massive corpus of both published and unedited archaeological sources collected over the last two decades from the deserts of Egypt, by far the richest available for the fourth century, sheds new light on Christianity in Egypt. Building on this new dataset, DEChriM reassesses phenomena and developments that are defining for Egypt’s Christianisation, such as the chronology and dynamics of the evangelisation, the role played in this process by imperial legislation and institutions, the balance between rural and urban Christian communities, the social and cultural profile of the conveyors of Christianity, strategies for negotiating Christian identity, etc. Grounded in the archaeological record, DEChriM addresses also key issues relating to material culture through, among other things, producing a database of fourth-century Christian archaeological material (monuments and artefacts), providing absolute dates and occupation sequences for the most significant monuments, systematising chronotypologically fourth-century Christian architecture or producing a long overdue catalogue of the ceramic in circulation in the fourth century in Egypt. The picture of fourth-century Egyptian Christianity emerging from this mass of data shifts the paradigm with which operates the historiography of late antique Egypt. Whilst calling into question metanarratives regarding fourth-century Christianity, the project aims to establish hypercontextualised regional micro-narratives valid for some regions of Egypt, but potentially relevant for or extrapolatable to other provinces of the Late Roman Empire. An inter- and trans-disciplinary collective endeavour calling upon a variety of disciplines, methods and techniques, DEChriM constitutes the first indepth regional study in fourth-century Christian archaeology.
During the first half of the grant, DEChriM was engaged in foundational ancillary work. Two databases were designed, populated and published: one dedicated to Christian archaeological material – monuments and movables – (4CARE – Fourth-Century Christian Archaeological Record of Egypt), the other one to the results of the largest archaeological survey carried out in Egypt (SKOS – South Kharga Oasis Survey). This material constitutes the basis of DEChriM’s multi-focal studies on early Christianity in Egypt.
Our team continued also enriching the material repertoire of the project through intense fieldwork. Five expeditions in Egypt led to a large collection of photogrammetric 3D models of relevant Christian monuments, as well as to three excavations, in Bahriyya and Kharga oases. Our last season at Ganub Qasr al-‘Aguz, in Bahriyya, revealed uniquely well preserved remains of what is the earliest scientifically dated monastery, while in Kharga we launched the first excavation season ever carried out on the monumental, yet enigmatic, site of Dayr Mustafa Kashif and the first extensive excavation at Shams al-Din (ancient Mounesis), a site in pristine state of preservation that allows for the study of fine religious dynamics at play in the fourth century.
Several monographic studies, to be published either as volumes or as book chapters, have been initiated and some almost finalised. The edition of the sixth volume of Greek ostraca O.Douch is almost ready. The volume cataloguing the ceramic ware in circulation in fourth-century Egypt is also in an advanced state of preparation, as are the monographic volume on the excavations at Ganub Qasr al-‘Aguz and the volume on the Coptic ostraca found in Kharga Oasis (mostly Dush).
A PhD thesis on the development of Christianity in Kharga Oasis is equally under way and two chapters (on Manichaeism and the Christian community of Dush) of a collective book that the project is preparing are finished, with two others (on religious transmission in Kharga Oasis and the Roman army) soon to be finalised.
DEChriM has also built a large network of work relations with institutions and research groups involved in various areas to which our project touches (essentially field archaeology, papyrology and digital humanities).
Our team continued also enriching the material repertoire of the project through intense fieldwork. Five expeditions in Egypt led to a large collection of photogrammetric 3D models of relevant Christian monuments, as well as to three excavations, in Bahriyya and Kharga oases. Our last season at Ganub Qasr al-‘Aguz, in Bahriyya, revealed uniquely well preserved remains of what is the earliest scientifically dated monastery, while in Kharga we launched the first excavation season ever carried out on the monumental, yet enigmatic, site of Dayr Mustafa Kashif and the first extensive excavation at Shams al-Din (ancient Mounesis), a site in pristine state of preservation that allows for the study of fine religious dynamics at play in the fourth century.
Several monographic studies, to be published either as volumes or as book chapters, have been initiated and some almost finalised. The edition of the sixth volume of Greek ostraca O.Douch is almost ready. The volume cataloguing the ceramic ware in circulation in fourth-century Egypt is also in an advanced state of preparation, as are the monographic volume on the excavations at Ganub Qasr al-‘Aguz and the volume on the Coptic ostraca found in Kharga Oasis (mostly Dush).
A PhD thesis on the development of Christianity in Kharga Oasis is equally under way and two chapters (on Manichaeism and the Christian community of Dush) of a collective book that the project is preparing are finished, with two others (on religious transmission in Kharga Oasis and the Roman army) soon to be finalised.
DEChriM has also built a large network of work relations with institutions and research groups involved in various areas to which our project touches (essentially field archaeology, papyrology and digital humanities).
In terms of both data and metadata, as well as conceptually and technologically, the two databases already produced by DEChriM go beyond the state of the art in the fields of Christian and Egyptian archaeology. Equally pioneering is DEChriM’s monograph on the ceramic ware in circulation in fourth-century Egypt. A long overdue endeavour, this catalogue is destined to become a standard reference book and finally allow archaeologists to recognise fourth-century levels, an arduous task so far. At the same time, the numerous calibrated ages obtained by our project as part of its radiocarbon dating campaign are in themselves groundbreaking, allowing to move scholarly debates from anecdotal evidence to granular detail. The publication by our project of new archaeological material adds also a substantial bulk of primary data.
The depth of field offered by the tools that DEChriM has been developing during the first half of the grant permits and calls for the reconsideration, from new angles, of core historical phenomena related to the rise of Christianity in Egypt. Building on these collections of high-definition data, the project is thus elaborating, among other things, a novel model of transmission of Christian ideas, a new theory on the emergence of Christian monasticism, a reevaluation of the role played in the dynamics of religious ideas by the Roman army, an original method of evaluating Christian demographics, a reframing of the relationship between Christian and Manichean groups within Egypt, a more solid chronology of the demise of traditional cults, a close-up view of the socio-economic profile of fourth-century Christian communities, a new theory regarding the invention and standardisation of the Coptic script, but also of the rise of the Sahidic dialect, a radically different interpretation of the origins of the Nag Hammadi Library, a critical reexamination of Christian funerary practices during this formative period, and a model of development of the earliest forms of Christian architecture. These studies do not merely challenge existing historical narratives and analytical models, but bring about a new understanding of the Christian movements in fourth-century Egypt, their origins, interactions, impact and legacy.
The depth of field offered by the tools that DEChriM has been developing during the first half of the grant permits and calls for the reconsideration, from new angles, of core historical phenomena related to the rise of Christianity in Egypt. Building on these collections of high-definition data, the project is thus elaborating, among other things, a novel model of transmission of Christian ideas, a new theory on the emergence of Christian monasticism, a reevaluation of the role played in the dynamics of religious ideas by the Roman army, an original method of evaluating Christian demographics, a reframing of the relationship between Christian and Manichean groups within Egypt, a more solid chronology of the demise of traditional cults, a close-up view of the socio-economic profile of fourth-century Christian communities, a new theory regarding the invention and standardisation of the Coptic script, but also of the rise of the Sahidic dialect, a radically different interpretation of the origins of the Nag Hammadi Library, a critical reexamination of Christian funerary practices during this formative period, and a model of development of the earliest forms of Christian architecture. These studies do not merely challenge existing historical narratives and analytical models, but bring about a new understanding of the Christian movements in fourth-century Egypt, their origins, interactions, impact and legacy.