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. debated by everyone interestedinEgypt,archaeologyG ge i e :: Please:sendme copy(ies)ofTHENAG movemTEN .tha ral HAMMADI. Western civilization itself. Over IX three decades in preparation, its The are the than 45 documents moreperiscope into that tumultuous world of 81Dartmuth Aveuet aI I-

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celebratingthe sev;,nty-fifth onniersary of t-,e foundring of the omer-on schoos of orientalresearch (190C•.1975])

NOWAVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK In celebrationof its 75th anniversary,the American Schools of OrientalResearch is proudto offeryou thisstunningand memorable collectionof essays by such widelyacclaimedauthorsof Near Easternantiquityas FrankMooreCross, David Noel Freedman,Avraham Malamat,ManfredWeippert, and YigaelYadin. Diverseand comprehensive in its scope, this superb edition,editedby Frank MooreCross, providesvivid historicalinvestigationinto periodsof conquestand culturalchange in early Israeland fascinatingarcheologicalprobesintothe myths,shrines,sanctuaries, and traditionsof the ancient Near East. A mustforall ASOR membersand serious studentsof NearEastern historyand archeology,this anniversaryvolumeis now availableonly in paperback at the special low priceof $6.00. To order,fillout formbelow and mailwithcheck or moneyorderto ASOR,126 InmanStreet,Cambridge, MA02139. Please send at $6.00 each.

copies of Symposia

Name Address City/State/Zip Total amount enclosed

CELEBATE ASOR'S 75th

SBIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGIST Editor David Noel Freedman

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Associate Editor Harry Thomas Frank Editorial Committee Frank M. Cross Tikva Frymer-Kensky Sharon Herbert Charles R. Krahmalkov John A. Miles, Jr. Walter E. Rast Assistant to the Editor for this Issue Terrence M. Kerestes Assistants to the Editor Wendy L. Frisch Linda E. Fyfe Ronald D. Guengerich R. Bruce Hitchner David M. Howard, Jr. Kent P. Jackson Philip C. Schmitz Bruce E. Willoughby Advertising Layout Cheryl S. Klopshinske

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Subscription Services Belinda Khalayly The illustrative material used in this issue has been provided by courtesy of the Nag Hammadi Archive of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity. Printed by Printing Services, The University of Michigan.

194

BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGIST/ FALL 1979

Biblical Archeologist is published with the financial assistance of Zion Research Foundation, a nonsectarian foundation for the study of the Bibleand the history of the Christian Church.

MulbammadCAllwith Jabal al-TTrifin background at left and the Coptic Monastery with its church towers in the background at right

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Volume 42 Number 4 James M. Robinson

The Discovery of the Nag Hammadi Codices

206

A reconstruction of the actual story of the discovery through interviews with local people, including one of the discoverers, Muhammad CAlT. Bastiaan Van Elderen The Nag Hammadi Excavation

225

Three seasons of archeological work highlighting several architectural structures. Peter Grossmann

The Basilica of St. Pachomius

232

The reconstruction of the original shape of the basilica from the architectural remains uncovered at Faw QiblT. Labib Habachi

Sixth-Dynasty Discoveries in the Jabal al-Tirif

237

A preliminary report drawing attention to pharaonic texts of the Jabal al-Tarif. James M. Robinson

Getting the Nag Hammadi Library into English 239

How the Nag Hammadi codices passed through various international committees before they were published in English. Biblical Archeologist (ISSN:0006-0895) is published quarterly (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall) by the American Schools of Oriental Research. Its purpose is to provide the general reader with an accurate, scholarly, yet easily understandable account of archeological discoveries and their bearing on the biblical heritage. Unsolicited mss. are welcome but should be accompanied by a stamped, selfaddressed envelope. The American Schools of Oriental Research is no longer affiliated with the Center for Scholarly Publishing and Services at Missoula, Montana. Address all editorial correspondence and advertising to Biblical Archeologist, 1053 LS&A Building, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Address all business correspondence to ASOR, 126 Inman Street, Cambridge, MA 02139. Copyright 0 1979 American Schools of Oriental Research. Annual subscription rate: $12.00. Foreign subscription rate: $14.00 (American currency). Current single issues: $4.00. Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor, MI 48106. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Biblical Archeologist, 1053 LS&A Building, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109.

Letter to the Readers Introduction Book Reviews The Facsimile Edition of the Nag Hammadi

196 201 249

Codices (MacRae);

The Nag Hammadi Library in English (Pagels); Nag Hammadi Codices V, 2-5 and VI, with Papyrus Berolinensis 8502, 1 and 4 (Pearson). Colloquia Colophon

253 256

BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGIST/ FALL 1979 195

Letter to

the

Readers How Manuscript Discoveries Should Be Dealt With For the most part, archeologists have no idea who lived in the structures they uncover. Of course, they may know that the people were Roman, Canaanite, Syrian, Hebrew, or something else. But more often than not we do not know what such people thought or what their hopes were. Unless the building is that of a great king or some other well-known public figure, we will not even know the names of the people who once inhabited the now silent and often barely discernible houses and worked in the long-destroyed structures. Thus the discovery of ancient writings is always an exciting event-particularly when those writings illuminate dark corners of history or when ancient worthies speak directly to us. Such, of course, is the case with the Ebla tablets. These are extraordinary discoveries which not only speak of a glorious moment in the history of ancient Syria, but also reveal an economic empire at the end of the Early Bronze Age stretching far south into Canaan, even forcing out Egyptian mercantile interests. And from the dark caves in the Nahal Hever in Israel, Bar Kokhba-"Shimon"-speaks directly from his time to ours. We hear his stern words to subordinates at En-gedi, who were enjoying themselves, while he struggled against the Roman foe in the wilderness. But the manuscript discovery which has attracted the most attention so far in our time has been the Dead Sea Scrolls, which show the rich fabric of sectarian Judaism in the period of the Second Temple and also expand our knowledge of the background of Christianity. So completely did the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls catch the popular imagination and the attention of scholars that another extremely important manuscript discovery made in Upper Egypt a couple of years earlier went almost unnoticed. In 1945 near Nag Hammadi, where the railroad bridge crosses the Nile, some early Christian writings-the earliest collection of Christian manuscripts yet discovered-came to light in the possession of local villagers. Not only are these early Christian texts; they are Gnostic and arose in one of the earliest, if not the earliest, Christian monastic communities. The implications of this find for our knowledge of the intellectual history and variety of pre-Islamic Christianity in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East are enormous. Yet the manuscripts were virtually ignored for years after their discovery. When and precisely where they were found was not established for a long time. And how many texts were found? There are 52 now. But we now know that there were more-until the mother of one of the discoverers burned some in her home in order to kindle a fire for tea! 196


Harry Thomas Frank Those familiar with the discovery and travels of the Dead Sea Scrolls will see some unfortunate parallels in the story of the Nag Hammadi library and its subsequent journey to Cairo. There are other unhappy parallels. The texts lay unpublished for years while scholars jockeyed for the privilege (reputation!) of publishing with interpretations, while international politics complicated the situation further. This pattern is repeating itself in the case of the Ebla tablets-in spades! What will be the fate of the newly found manuscripts from St. Catherine's remains to be seen. None of the people dealing with these various scrolls, codices, and tablets seems to realize (1) that while they may be national treasures, they also belong to the whole world of scholarship; (2) that they will be published eventually, and then everyone will be able to make his or her interpretation of them regardless of the interpretations made at the time of publication; and (3) that those who have the writings but fail to make them available to all as quickly as possible do not thereby enhance their professional reputations, even though they may eventually be the ones to publish them. The Nag Hammadi library lay in Cairo, and parts of it even found their way into Europe. While scholars intrigued, vain attempts were made to form international committees, and political crises came and went. Then James M. Robinson of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity in Claremont, California took the matter in hand. He had two things in mind. First, the texts themselves should be published in clear photographic reproductions so that all qualified persons could make their own interpretations and the world of scholarship might discuss and debate the significance of this extraordinary find. Second, he undertook to produce an English translation of these Coptic texts so that they might be available to the scholar who was not qualified in the original language, and also to the larger public. Unlike his colleagues who dealt with other manuscript discoveries, Professor Robinson did not think that the publication of the texts themselves had to wait for detailed interpretations. With this view and surrounded by an invaluable and dedicated team of associates, he brought the texts to print in the original and in English. This was no mean accomplishment, as you will see in the following pages. But it has set a different pattern and high standards for dealing with newly discovered ancient writings. Those who still have unpublished materials from the Wilderness of Judea, from Tell Mardikh, from St. Catherine's, or from anywhere else would do well to emulate the example of the Nag Hammadi library, which is now common scholarly property.

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Not only did Robinson and his team publish the texts and their translation, but they also undertook archeological excavations and surveys in the immediate vicinity of the find. They soon found that they had an extraordinary site on their hands. They were dealing with materials that go back to the beginnings of the Christian monastic movement, as well as immensely rich Roman remains, the extent of which is yet to be explored. And they also had attractive materials from the 6th Egyptian Dynasty, showing the continuing importance of the Nag Hammadi region throughout the major part of Egypt's dynastic and subsequent history. All of this is reported here. There were more questions. Who found the texts? Where? When? How did they get to Cairo? What happened to them there? How did some get to Europe? Anyone who has tried to track down such events in the Middle East and make coherent sense out of them knows the enormous difficulties involved when local customs, ethnic social patterns, religious authorities, and national pride are involved. Imagine going back over 25 years later and ferreting out the story! The fascinating account of this is told in "The Discovery of the Nag Hammadi Codices." Indeed, in this special issue of Biblical Archeologist there is a comprehensive report on the Nag Hammadi library and its archeological context. What remains is for the reader to secure the texts-either in the original or in English-and immerse him- or herself in the thought-world of those who wrote the codices from Nag Hammadi.

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Jabal al-Tirif in back right.Irrigationlake in the foreground.


The

Sargon egen The American Schools of OrientalResearch are pleased to announce the publication of no. 4 in the ASOR Dissertation Series, The Sargon Legend, by Brian Lewis. In this comprehensive study of an ancient Akkadian text known as the "Sargon Legend" or "Sargon Birth Legend" Dr. Lewis gives particular attention to the presence of the mythological motif of the exposed hero, a motif also found in the birthstory of Moses. Combining historic-geographic techniques used in the study of folk tales with philological, literary, and textual analysis of the Legend, Lewis succeeds in reconstructing the hypothetical archetype from which the birth histories of legendary heroes-from Sargon to Superman-are derived. The first serious study of this material in more than seventy years, TheSargonLegend is available now at the special prepublication price of $6.30 hardcover and $4.20 in paper. To order, send check or money order to ASOR, 126 Inman Street, Cambridge, MA 02139.

Featured in the upcoming Winter issue is the last of a series of articles by ancient text specialist James H. Charlesworth, on the recent discovery

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Introduction

What is the Nag Hammadi Library? Sugar Factory in Nag Hammadi, a rather sumptuous The Nag Hammadi library refers to a collection of walled residential compound dating back to colonial ancientmanuscriptsdiscoveredin 1945in UpperEgypt, times, has been a hospitable home for investigators. ca. 595 km (369 mi) from Cairo, 127 km (78 mi) north Thus Nag Hammadi has become the "address"for the of Luxor. The nearest large town to the discovery site is Nag Hammadi. Father de Vaux said it is a misnomer to speak of the "Dead Sea Scrolls" since the scrolls were not found in the water, but in the cliffs around the Wadi Qumran. Similarly, the Nag Hammadi library was not really found in Nag Hammadi, the modern town where the railroad and highway bridge cross from the left to the right bank of the Nile, but in the cliff lining the Nile Valley some 10 km upstream from Nag Hammadi. So the discovery could more precisely have been named after that cliff, Jabal The discovery was called al-.Tlrif.because this location has "Nag Hammadi" probably served as a base camp for all modern scholars who have come to investigate the provenance of the library. From the first visit of Jean Doresse, the young French scholar who came in 1950, down to the most recent American archeological work at the site, the guest house at the

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discovery. Doresse himself wanted to name the discovery after Chenoboskion, the nearby village where Saint Pachomius was converted to Christianity in the 4th century and where one of his monasteries was located. As a matter of fact, Chenoboskia (as it probably should be spelled)-today the hamlet of al-Qasr--is the home of the native discoverers of the manuscripts and the place where the library was kept as it was being sold off bit by bit. But this name for the discovery did not catch on. The American public at large, to the extent it has heard about this discovery at all, probably knows of it only in terms of The Gospel of Thomas, one of the few texts published relatively early (1959). This collection of some 114 sayings attributed to Jesus is certainly the most important part of the library for understanding the historical Jesus and the beginnings of Christianity. It

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inscriptionin red paint on the east wall (bottom left).

202


alone would make the Nag Hammadi library a very important discovery, probably doing more as a single text to advance our understanding of the historical Jesus and of the transmission of his teachings than all the Dead Sea Scrolls put together. And it is only onethough in this regard certainly the most important one-of some 52 texts in the Nag Hammadi library. The Nag Hammadi collection contains 46 different writings, originally in Greek, 40 of which were previously lost (except for small fragments of 3 of them). They are a cross section of the ascetic literature of the Hellenistic world all the way from Syria to Egypt, spanning the first four centuries A.D. (if one may ignore an excerpt from Plato's Republic and sizable fragments of Genesis lining the cover of one of the Nag Hammadi codices). Thus, their interest is not confined to Upper Egypt where they were found nor to the last half of the 4th century A.D. when the surviving copies were written. They will supply many a missing link in our understanding of left-wing religion, philosophical theology, and biblical exegesis over a broad sweep of time and space. Not least interesting is the fact that the library did not survive in the Greek language in which it was first composed, but rather as translated into the Egyptian language of the time. This was written largely with the Greek alphabet and called "Coptic" (which just means "Egyptian"-its consonants CPT are a variant of those in the word "Egyptian," GPT). The fact that they are in Coptic has produced a language barrier impeding access to the library since the number of scholars capable of working in early Coptic is limited. Yet it would be an optical illusion of sorts, a distortion of perspective, to focus so much on the date, place, and language of the surviving copies that one overlooked the broad sweep in time and space and, hence, the general interest for our religious and cultural heritage that this library represents. The 46 different texts, like the "books" of the Bible, were not really book-length but more like an essay. This has to do in part with the fact that a scroll, if one is not

to unwind and rewind endlessly, had in practice a limited length and was written on only one side. If a text began to get too long, one sometimes cut it up into separate volumes. But at just about this time the art of book-making experienced an important invention which enlarged dramatically the length of a book and also made it practical to collect together the older and shorter essays of the scroll, such as the "books" of the Bible, into tomes of collected essays, such as the Bible itself. If one .cut an uninscribed scroll into breadths adequate for two columns of writing plus their margins and then folded such sheets down the middle at the central margin, one could also write on the backs, thus doubling the amount of text! By laying such folded sheets one in the other and attaching them together by thongs going through the fold much like a staple, one could produce a book format so convenient that we still use it today. This does not involve endless rolling and unrolling and provides a much more convenient and rapid way to read a book or look up a passage-one had discovered a book that one could "thumb!" And in

Nag Hammadi at dusk, with the Coptic

Churchon the rightand the Nile visible (left). Mubammad cAll and 'Umm Ahmad, his mother (top right). Exposed architectural remains of the Basilica of St. Pachomius (bottom right).

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terms of wear and tear the new format involved less abuse and so was more permanent. It also made possible larger books since a single book in the new format could contain a number of scrolls cut up into sheets and then written on both sides. Because of these many advantages the "scroll" gradually gave way in the early centuries A.D. to the new format, called the "codex." The codex as an enlarged book format invites the emergence of "collected essays," of which the Bible is the best-known instance. One can understand better how just 13 "codices"-with little more than 1240 inscribed pagescould contain at least 52 texts (including the duplicates)


if one recalls that the 13 codices were manufactured from about three times that many scrolls. Gnostic Ascetics What do all these different texts contain? The first reports described the contents as "Gnostic," some kind of radical, "drop-out," myth-laden asceticism best known as a "heresy"widespread in the early centuries of the Christian church. This early emphasis upon the Gnosticism of the library was intended, in part, to attract a potential purchaser eager to recover the suppressed writings of Christian Gnosticism. But, in fact, the emphasis is correct. Most of the texts are indeed in one way or the other Gnostic, so that Gnosticism is the focal center of the library. Thus, the critical edition being prepared through the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity carries the appropriate series title, "The Coptic Gnostic Library." Now that all the texts have been translated, it is clear that a visible minority are not Gnostic although they could have been and probably were interpreted in a way congenial to Gnostics. This is especially so if the Gnostics involved were not primarily theoreticians, demanding systematic consistency, but rather practicing ascetics who could identify with radical ascetic customs and practices even when the intellectual superstructure and confessional identification varied widely. This seems to be the way to understand the link that apparently existed between the copies that survived and the contemporary emergence of the Pachomian monastic movement. At its beginnings, this movement was probably not very standardized or doctrinally regulated but consisted, to a large extent, of hermits coming out of secluded lives, where thought and practice could be quite eccentric, to enter into communal monasteries where, over a period of time, Athanasian orthodoxy gradually eliminated such aberrations as the Nag Hammadi library. Significance of the Nag Hammadi Library The significance or importance of the Nag Hammadi library may lie precisely in this area of ambiguity as to just what Gnosticism is and what its ties to Christianity, Judaism, and other religions of the day must have been. Locationof the discoveryof the codices, indicated by arrowon right (northern)side of boulderon talus of the cliff.

Prior to the discovery of this library the source material on Gnosticism was so limited that one tended to work with a "construct," a relatively coherent model put together from bits and pieces of source material, a whole that probably never existed in such "purity"in historyat least not in the Nag Hammadi library! The library as a whole lacks a clear mythological or doctrinal unity-even the individual Gnostic texts do not fit nicely into the standard subdivisions of Gnosticism or, at times, into a proper definition of what we have understood as Gnosticism. Of course, this is in part because the scholarly community has only begun to interpret the bulk of the texts, so that for the moment more old views may have been put in question than new views firmly established. In any case, Gnosticism now seems to have been less a clear-cut religion or heresy with clearly distinguishable subsects than a trend, a directionality, a mood of the times, a practice, that came to expression within various religious traditions and in various mythological and quasi-philosophical formulations. It had in common with other religious and philosophical movements of the day, such as Jewish apocalypticism, primitive Christianity, Cynicism, and neo-Platonism, an acute awareness of the anguish of human existence. Lacking modern assumptions that science and technology can basically change the system, it sought a radical personal solution through withdrawal, inwardness, renunciation, illumination. Its appeal may have resided in retaining such a posture when other kindred movements may have seemed to some to be accommodating themselves too readily, as Christianity moved toward "orthodoxy" and Judaism toward "normativeness." Thus, the contribution of the Nag Hammadi library may ultimately lie in two areas: 1) the historian's improved reconstruction of the religious developments out of which "Christendom" emerged and 2) the clarification of a personal stance which can still today give pause for thought. James M. Robinson Claremont Graduate School

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Table of Tractates In The Nag Hammadi Library The table of tractates lists the following for the thirteen Nag Hammadi Codices and the Berlin Gnostic Codex 8502: the codex and tractate numbers; the tractate titles; and the page and line numbers from the Coptic manuscripts. I, 1 I, 2 I, 3 I, 4 I, 5 II, 1 II, 2 II, 3 II, 4 II, 5 II, 6 II, 7 III, 1 III, 2 III, 3 III, 4 III, 5 IV, 1 IV, 2 V, 1 V, 2 V, 3 V, 4 V, 5 VI, 1 VI, 2 VI, 3 VI, 4 VI, 5 VI, 6 VI, 7 VI, 8 VII, 1 VII, 2 VII, 3 VII, 4

The Prayer of the Apostle Paul (+ colophon) The Apocryphon of James The Gospel of Truth The Treatiseon Resurrection The Tripartite Tractate The Apocryphon of John The Gospel of Thomas The Gospel of Philip The Hypostasis of the Archons On the Origin of the World The Exegesis of the Soul The Book of Thomas the Contender (+ colophon) The Apocryphon of John The Gospel of the Egyptians Eugnostos the Blessed The Sophia of Jesus Christ The Dialogue of the Savior The Apocryphon of John The Gospel of the Egyptians Eugnostos the Blessed The Apocalypse of Paul The First Apocalypse of James The Second Apocalypse of James The Apocalypse ofAdam The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles The Thunder, Perfect Mind Authoritative Teaching The Concept of Our Great Power Plato, Republic 588B-589B The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth The Prayer of Thanksgiving (+ scribal note) Asclepius 21-29 The Paraphrase of Shem The Second Treatise of the Great Seth Apocalypse of Peter The Teachings of Silvanus (+ colophon)

A, 1-B, 10 (+ B, 11-12) 1, 1-16, 30 16, 31-43, 24 43, 25-50, 18 51, 1-138, 25 1, 1-32, 9 32, 10-51, 28 51, 29-86, 19 86, 20-97, 23 97, 24-127, 17 127, 18-137, 27 138, 1-145, 19 (+?145, 20-23) 1, 1-40, 11 40, 12-69, 20 70, 1-90, 13 90, 14-119,18 120, 1-149, 23 1, 1-49, 28 50, 1-81, 2 (+ missing end) 1, 1-17, 18 17, 19-24, 9 24, 10-44, 10 44, 11-63, 33 64, 1-85, 32 1, 1-12, 22 13, 1-21, 32 22, 1-35, 24 36, 1-48, 15

VII, 5

The Three Steles of Seth (+ colophon)

VIII, 1 VIII, 2

Zostrianos The Letter of Peter to Philip

IX, 1 IX, 2 IX, 3

Melchizedek The Thought of Norea The Testimony of Truth

X, 1 XI, 1 XI, 2 XI, 2a XI, 2b XI, 2c XI, 2d XI, 2e XI, 3 XI, 4

Marsanes The Interpretation of Knowledge A Valentinian Exposition On the Anointing On Baptism A On Baptism B On the Eucharist A On the Eucharist B Allogenes Hypsiphrone

XII, 1

The Sentences of Sextus

XII, 2

The Gospel of Truth

XII, 3 XIII, 1 XIII, 2

Fragments Trimorphic Protennoia On the Origin of the World

BG 8502, 1

The Gospel of Mary

7, 1-19, 5 (+ missing beginning)

The Apocryphon of John

19, 6-77, 7

The Sophia of Jesus Christ

77, 8-127, 12

The Act of Peter

128, 1-141, 7

BG 8502, 2 BG 8502, 3 BG 8502, 4

118, 10-127, 27 (+ 127, 28-32) 1, 1-132, 9 132, 10-140, 27 1, 1-27, 10 27, 11-29, 5 29, 6-74, 30 (+ missing end) 1, 1-68, 18 1, 1-21, 35 22, 1-39, 39 40, 1-29 40, 30-41, 38 42, 1-43, 19 43, 20-38 44, 1-37 45, 1-69, 20 69, 21-72, 33 (+ missing end) 15, 1-34, 28 (+ missing beginning and missing end) 53, 19-60, 30 (+ missing beginning and missing end) 35, 1-50, 24 50, 25-34 (+ missing end)

48, 16-51, 23 52, 1-63, 32 63, 33-65, 7 (+ 65, 8-14) 65, 15-78, 43 1, 1-49, 9 49, 10-70, 12 70, 13-84, 14 84, 15-118, 7 (+ 118, 8-9)


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James M. Robinson The modern search for the findspot of the Nag Hammadi codices: patient investigation has led to a reconstruction of the intriguing events that brought this important Coptic collection to light.

Our informationconcerningthe discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices has been derived, until recently, almost exclusivelyfrom publishedreportsbased on the investigationscarriedout by the Frenchscholars,Jean and Marianne Doresse, from September1947 through January 1950. Phocion J.

Tano, a Cypriotantiquitiesdealer of Cairo, alreadyhad visited Nag

Hammadiin the late spring of 1946. Some of the specific resultsof the investigationsof Doresse and Tano, apparentlymediatedthrough ltienne Drioton, Directorof the Egyptian Departmentof Antiquities,were recordedin a memorandumof a GermanEgyptologistresidingin Cairo, LudwigKeimer,dated 5 August 1950and conveyed to Gilles

Quispel on 13 April 1955. Subsequent

i

Jabal al-Tirif near Nag Hammadi.

visits to Nag Hammadi by Soren Giversen, accompanied by Edward F. Wente from the Chicago House in Luxor early in 1958, by Robert North in 1959, and by Martin Krause in the early 1960s did not add to the information already obtained. My visits on 3 March and 23 April 1966 produced a few leads, but I was not able to follow them up for some time because of the inaccessibility of the

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Egyptian countryside to foreigners from the Six-Day War in June 1967 until 1 November 1974. But I did get back to Nag Hammadi for a few days toward the end of November 1974, for visits of some days in January and September 1975, and for about a month each of the next three winters in connection with archeological excavations related to the provenance of the codices.

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younger Abtial-Majd,MuhammadcAlT's brother,who claimsto be the one who foundthejar, thoughMuhammadcAll brokeit (top left). 'Umm Almad, motherof the discoverers(top right). MubammadcAll withJabalal-TIrifin backgroundat leftandthe Coptic Monasterywithits churchtowersin the backgroundat right(bottom).

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The Story of the Discoverers The date of the discovery of the Nag The site of the discovery is at Hammadi codices can be established the cliffcalled Jabal al-Tarif, by two murders-not altogether uncommon happenings in the blood some 11 km northeast of feuds still found in rural Egypt! CAIT Nag Hammadi. (son of) Muhammad (son of) Khalifah of the al-Samman clan of outside the bend, on its southwest al-Qasr (Chenoboskia), a village near flank. The railroad tracks and paved Nag Hammadi, was a guard of irrigation machinery in the fields highway cross from the left to the about a kilometer from the village. right bank over the bridge at Nag One night he killed and beheaded a Hammadi and run diagonally toward the northeast, enclosing the fertile person, taken to be a thief, from Hamrah Dom, the hamlet at the foot land in the bend. The blood feud of the cliff where the discovery was involving al-Qasr, south of the tracks made. By the middle of the next inside the bend, and Hamrah Dim, north of the tracks beyond the bend, morning cAli's son, Muhammad (nicknamed al-Jamil, "handsome") polarized this tiny area and made found his father shot through the access to Jabal al-Tarif, the site of head lying next to the head of the the discovery, very dangerous. The alSamman clan is numerous enough person he had killed. Muhammad CAll (al-Jamil) recalls that this inside the bend for cAli's family to feel relatively secure as long as they happened about the time of the remain in the villages and farmlands Egyptian festival at the beginning of the grain harvest, christianized as the near al-Qasr. Where the railroad and highway Coptic Easter Monday festival of Sham al-NasTm("breathing the pass through the narrows at the air"-on the way to Emmaus). This northeast corner of the river bend, comes a week later than the church i.e., where the Nile and the cliff are calendar in the West. Muhammad only 2 km apart, a dirt road built on CAll dates the discovery of the jar an elevated irrigation dike turns left off from the highway in a northwest containing the Nag Hammadi codices some six months after this family direction toward a gravel quarry and a wadi in the cliff. The peaceful tragedy. The discovery was made while digging sabakh, soft soil used to village of 'Izbat al-Baisah lies near the fertilize the hard ground of the grain cliff on the left, northwest of the fields. This is usually done in road. This road approaches the Jabal December. When pressed, Mual-Tarif where the face of the cliff runs from south to north. The road hammad CAlI thought the discovery took place before the Coptic then turns and itself bends north, Christmas, 7 January. Since the running at ground level parallel to the cliff some 200 m out from the foot of Registry of Deaths in the Nag Hammadi Real Estate Taxation the talus, the inclined plane of fallen Office gives the date of the death stone and dirt at the foot of the cliff. of CAll Muhammad KhalTfahas 7 Only at the road does the arable land May 1945, one may move from a begin. But both the arable land to the east of the road and the desert land relative to an absolute chronology of between the road and the cliff (legally some precision. The date of the discovery of the Nag Hammadi belonging to the Department of codices was about December 1945, a Antiquities) are controlled by the time that harmonizes with subsequent walled and fortified village of Hamrah relative and absolute chronological Dim, some 2.5 km northeast of indications. cIzbat al-Bfisah. Hamrah Daim and The site of the discovery is at the its dependent hamlets to the northeast are inhabited by the Hawwdirl,a cliff called Jabal al-Tarif, some 11 km northeast of Nag Hammadi. fierce clan conceiving of itself as a Here the Nile flows from east to west, noble race of Arabs directly descended and there is a small bend south before from the Prophet. Hence, though the some six families in the village also curving around to the north. Nag Hammadi lies on the left bank, feud among themselves, they have a

more basic sense of hostile alienation from the surrounding population. Thus, on reaching the cliff, one loses continuity with the center of population along the river. This area is more related to the wadis in the cliff, which recedes around an arc as one moves northeast. This creates a small inland empire that is sufficiently isolated for the inhabitants often to have taken the law into their own hands without very effective governmental intervention. It is from this cliff area, as it arches back from the Nile in full view of the Basilica of St. Pachomius at Faw Qibli lying nearer the river, that both the Nag Hammadi codices and-farther east and a decade later-the bulk of the "Bodmer Papyri" seems to have come. In order to ensure law and order in al-Qasr, a strong man from the Hawwarah, ismacil Husayn of the alSayyid family of Hamrah Dim, had been imposed as sheriff. In al-Qasr, IsmaTil'sson Ahmad is thought to be cAlT'smurderer, though this was denied by the al-Sayyid family, which said that the location of the body near Ahmad's home was a plant precisely to arouse such suspicion. Sometime between a few days and a month after the discovery of the codices, Ahmad was sitting beside the road near Muhammad 'AlT's home in al-Qasr. He was asleep with his head between his knees and a jug of sugarcane molasses for sale beside him. On learning that their victim slept defenceless nearby, CAll Muhammad Khallfah's widow, Umm Ahmad-who had told her seven sons to keep their mattocks sharp-handed these instruments to her sons to avenge her. They fell upon Ahmad IsmT'il pitilessly. Aboi ai-Majd, then a teenager, brags that he struck the first blow straight to the head. After having hacked Ahmad Ism2iil to pieces limb by limb, they cut out his heart and consumed it among themthe ultimate act of blood revenge. A Coptic neighbor, Andariwus, the son of the priest CAbdal-Sayyid, called upon them to stop killing, whereupon they threatened to kill him if he interfered. They added that if the Christians wanted to intervene, the best thing they could do was to bury the remains. At the police investigation Andariwus and other villagers of BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGIST/ FALL 1979 209

al-Qasr denied being witness to the crime because of the wide-spread hatred of the sheriff and also fear of cAli's family. Though six of the sons of CAli were detained by the police and interrogated, the crime went officially unsolved. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the sons of CAlI did not go near the Jabal al-Tarif for the next 30 years. Their prudence was realistic. Blood feuds have their own momentum. Three months after Ahmad Ismacil's death his brother Abi al-Hamd killed two from the alSamman clan in revenge. But Ahmad's I1-year-old son Muhammad did not feel thereby personally vindicated and so, on reaching manhood, he looked for his own chance. It came in 1957-11 years after his father's death. There had been a death in the al-Sammi~nclan, which meant that a funeral procession in which cAli's family would participate would move to the Muslim cemetery on the near (northeast) edge of al-Qasr before the sun went down. At dusk Muhammad (son of) Ahmad Ismd'Tlwith six men to support him slipped to the edge of al-Qasr unnoticed. With the automatic weapons usually carried as sidearms by Hawwarah, they shot down a score or more. Muhammad Ahmad estimated the figures as 27 shot, of whom 9-11 were killed. When interviewed at Hamrah Dim on 13

December 1975, he affirmed that he then considered peace iestored, would feel free to go to the weekly bazaar at al-Qasr, and assumed that Muhammad CAll could come to Hamrah Doim without harm, though not to the dependent hamlet of Najc al-'Adi where Muhammad Ahmad now lives. Muhammad Ahmad would not speak to him but would walk on the other side of the street. Yet two days earlier when Muhammad CAll had been interviewed on the same topic, he held a very different view. He reported the casualties in the attack as 14, proudly pulled open his jallabiyah (the cotton robe worn by the fellahin), and showed the scar of the wound just above his heart to boast that Muhammad Ahmad failed to get him. He further asserted that if he could ever lay hand on Muhammad Ahmad, he would kill him. This presumably defines the status of the blood feud from the point of view of the al-Samman clan. Against the background of this feud the nature of the meager information concerning the site of the discovery becomes more intelligible. CAbdal-Majid Muhammad Badarri, then of al-Qasr, was guard for the Department of Antiquities at the Jabal al-Tarif during the period 194767. CAbdal-Majid maintained that shortly after the discovery he learned where the site was from Khalifah, one of the sons of cAli who was present

at the discovery. It seems clear to him that the discovery was under a large boulder in the flatland at the foot of the talus (the inclined plane of fallen stone and dirt at the foot of the cliff). But it has become equally clear that he did not actually know which boulder. On two occasions, 3 March 1966 and 15 September 1975, he identified one or another of the boulders almost 200 m (and on 19 November 1974 a boulder 600 m) south of the actual site of the discovery. When the two latter of these boulders were excavated with sterile results, he somewhat apologetically said (on 11 December 1975) that he did not want to produce further inconvenience by proposing others among the various boulders nearby. Thus, his information may have been based only on an oral report rather than an on-site identification, especially in view of the fact that during the period when he was guard, the source of his information (Khalifah) would hardly have dared to return to the site to point it out. A member of the same al-Sayyid family of Hamrah Dfim as was Ahmad Ismacil reported on 2 December 1975 that he had been near the tomb of Thauti to the north at the time of the discovery, but that his cousin,,. Abd al-NazTrYdsTncAbd alRahTmwas, at the time, farther south at the actual site of the discovery. The next day CAbd al-Nazir stood some

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50 m southeast of the gigantic broken boulder lying on the talus in the photograph of "the site of the discovery" in the original French edition of Jean Doresse's Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics. This is in the undulating terrain where the AM. talus gradually merges into the flatland. He conceded that he could not be sure he was standing on the precise spot but knew that he was within a dozen or so meters of it. He was some hundred meters south of the point from which Doresse photographed, yet within the area photographed. He was, in fact, in the midst of the area pitted with the depressions resulting from a clandestine excavation led by the Mayor of Hamrah Dfim, Abai of the HindSwiT family. This is presumably the same mayor whom Doresse mentioned as having identified on 27 January 1950 this pitted area as the site of the discovery. Since there was some skepticism among other villagers of Hamrah Dfim whether CAbd al-Nazir had even been with the discoverers, and since Muhammad CAlThad maintained that none of the camel drivers with him at the time of the discovery was from Hamrah Dfm, what CAbd al-Nazir identified may be no more than the site of the illegal digging in which he may be assumed to have been involved. It also apparently gave him a convenient point of reference by which the location would have been kept in mind. Since this pitting extends into the flatland and is more noticeable there than in the more undulated terrain midway up the talus itself, at least when seen from below, this referent would have tended to focus the memory onto the bottom of the talus and out into the flatland, as Doresse seems to have thought. This demarcation is not, in fact, very sharp at this location. The choice of this area for the illicit excavation, if not derived from CAbd al-NazTr,could have been derived from Muhammad CAll, who continued digging sabakh at the cliff for a few days or weeks prior to avenging his father's death. Or it may have come from those of the seven involved who were not sons of cAll and whose return to the cliff later would pose less of a threat to their safety.


Ludwig Keimer located the discovery in a "grotto"; Henri-Charles Puech had listed among options a "tomb, cavern, niche"; and Doresse had alluded to a "sepulcre"or "tomb." The cliff, both at the top of the talus and in outcroppings of live rock on its flank, is honeycombed with over 150 caves. Many of these are natural niches, but many are square shafts cut just large enough for a sarcophagus to pass, in theory descending to a burial room below, although many tombs of this type in the cliff were unfinished. A few were preceded by an entrance room for worshipers, with the shaft leading down from the back of this square, room-sized chapel. It was in terms of such alternatives that the initial interview with Muhammad CAlThad been conducted at al-Qasr on 16 September 1975, although he maintained the discovery had not been in a cave. When interrogated about the size of the area of the discovery, he said that one could stand up, conceding a comparison with the size of the room in which the interview was taking place. He also conceded that there was stone overhead and behind but mentioned no walls. Since it was neither at the top nor at the bottom of the talus, but somewhere in the middle, only the tombs of Idu and Thauti (T 66 and T 73), from the 6th Dynasty, though caves, seemed in any way to fit such specifications. In view of the ambiguous outcome of this interview, I tried to get Muhammad CAlI to return to the cliff. His flat refusals finally were overcome with the help of a financial consideration. It was agreed that we would ride past the cliff without stopping in order that he be given an opportunity to point out the location, but even this on the conditions he laid down: he would be camouflaged in my American clothes, seated on the cliff side of the back seat of an official, governmental, Russian-made jeep of the Sugar Factory familiar in the area as that of the Director, Hanny M. al-Zeiny, who was to ride in the front seat. I was to ride on the Hamrah Dfim side of the back seat, getting out of the jeep to trade places with Muhammad CAlTat the turnaround point. We would go toward

212


the end of the day when the hunger and thirst of the Ramadan season would have rendered the inhabitants of Hamrah Dfim lethargic in the relative cool of their homes. The clandestine excursion took place the next afternoon near dusk. It was explained to Muhammad 'Ali in driving past the tombs of Idu and Thauti that they had changed their outward appearance since he was last #it the cliff 30 years before, in that cement walls with iron gates had been installed to replace the facades long since robbed away for the antiquities market. Thereupon he pointed to the larger tomb, that of Thauti, as the site of the discovery. After the rubble on the floor of the upper chambers of this tomb had been cleared to bedrock on 26-30 November 1975, Muhammad CAlT was confronted on 30 November at the Sugar Factory with the absence of any confirming evidence. He was shown a floor plan of the tomb of Thauti, in part to inquire if he had ventured down the shaft to the darkened rooms below. He started

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afresh in trying to describe the site by taking a potsherd and leaning it at a 45" angle as the shape of the area. But this did not further clarify the site in view of the fact that neither this tomb nor any others in the area had such a sloping wall or ceiling. On 11 December 1975 Muhammad CAITwas induced, by challenging his courage, to return on an unofficial visit to the cliff at dusk in a private car and go on foot to the site. So as not to influence his choice, the car was stopped where the dirt road first reaches the southern part of the cliff area at the wadi and quarry. Muhammad CAITpromptly got out and marched unhesitatingly and directly north ca. 400 m to the broken boulder visible in Doresse's photograph midway up the talus. On reaching the nearer, southern edge of the boulder, he walked and crawled through the break between the two main parts, testing the ground and beginning to vacillate. But on reaching the far northern side he turned down along the flank of the barrel-shaped main part of the boulder, beneath whose curving overhang he fell to digging with his hands, announcing this to be the spot (at D:5 on the map, p. 210). He excused his identification of the tomb of Thauti as due to fear and pointed out the overhang of the barrel-shaped boulder as what he had sought to describe and even to illustrate with the potsherd back at the Sugar Factory. He furnished the supplemental details that he broke the jar a few meters farther down the talus and that his camel had been tethered on the southern side of the boulder. At the initial interview he had said that they had been afraid the rock might tumble down on them. The room-sized caves gave no cause for such fear, but our subsequent excavation under this overhanging boulder was limited by the workmen's fear that it might fall on them. Thus,

MulBammadcAll's drawing of the jar in

whichthe codiceswereburied,alongwith his signature(left). Thebowlusedas the lid of thejar in whichthe codiceswereburied.Other thanthe codicesthemselves,this is the only artifactto havesurvived(opposite).

in spite of efforts to have him identify a cave, which he had accommodated with a false lead, in addition to other instances of not impeccable veracity on his part, Muhammad CAll seemed to have made a serious effort to describe and then to point out what he recalled as the site of the discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices. When the site was excavated on 14-15 December 1975, no confirming evidence was found. Muhammad CAli maintained that a corpse with abnormally elongated fingers and teeth and legs lay on a bed of something like charcoal beside the jar and that it was reburied there. But he denied a rumor from earlier years that a staff and a rug were at the site. His younger brother AbUial-Majd denied that anything other than the jar was found. Whatever evidence there must have been-perhaps a leather cover or so, papyrus fragments, and sherds of the broken jar-may well have been eliminated by illegal digging and the passage of time; or the precise position on the flank of the boulder may have been a few meters from that identified and excavated, especially in view of Muhammad CAli'sinitial vacillation as to the precise spot once he was actually at the boulder. Nonetheless, this boulder may with reasonable probability be considered the site of the discovery in that it alone makes intelligible the various locations proposed. For this site could well have been identified orally at al-Qasr as "under" a

boulder, which would then have led to the various boulders pointed out in the flatland as that "under" which the jar was found. Yet it is not burdened with the improbabilities they share; namely, that the jar would hardly have been buried, or sabakh dug, literally underneath such boulders too heavy to move, boulders moreover that lie in the flatland. For a burial in the flatland is improbable since the annual inundations of the Nile are reported to have approached the foot of the talus before the High Dam had its effect. There are also no surface indications of a cemetery visible in the flatland. The results of the proton-magnetometer and resistivity survey conducted by Philip Hammond on 10-18 September 1975 in a section of the flatland nearby (though not in the pitted rocky terrain unsuited to the instrumentation) were likewise negative. Although Muhammad CArl headed directly for the tremendous broken boulder on the talus from a distance too far away to be able to see the pitting of the illegal digging, he in fact confirmed the general correctness of the clandestine excavation midway up the talus as well as the photograph in the French edition of Doresse's book, though he was not familiar with either. The talus itself proved to be a reasonable place for the jar to have been buried. A first small crude cave with a scattering of bones and sherds is ca. 20 m southeast of the boulder, and somewhat lower on the talus (T 1

on the map, p. 210). Some 800 m farther north midway up the talus, fragments of burial cloth were found in another cave (T 117). Carbon 14 dating yielded a date of the 5th century A.D. Thus, at least the talus was used as a burial site at the time in question. The nearest cave to the boulder in question, one that has a room-sized chapel at the front, is the well-cut but undecorated and unfinished tomb with a Coptic inscription of the opening lines of Old Testament psalms scrawled in red paint on the wall (T 8). The floor was strewn with a meter or more of rubble, near the top of which, at the height from which the inscription was written, a quantity of Byzantine coins was found. They date from the reigns of Anastasius I (A.D. 491-518) and Heraclius (A.D. 610-641). Thus, the talus would seem to have been frequented well down into the Coptic period by "holy men" from the nonChristian period of Greek Sarapis graffiti in the same kind of red paint in the tombs of Idu and Thauti. The account of the actual discovery given by Muhammad CAIT is as follows: Three of the sons of cAli and 'Umm-Ahmad-Muhammad, Khalifah and Aboi al-Majdwere digging sabakh with four other camel drivers at the time the discovery was made. Aboi al-Majd actually unearthed the jar, but Muhammad, the oldest brother (he was 26; Abii al-Majd was 15), had assumed the role of paternal authority over AbN. He took control. The pottery was red slip ware, distinguishing it from the creamy color of the modern Qindiware common in the region, and had four small handles near the opening. The jar was also large, with dimensions roughly illustrated by Muhammad CAli as 60 cm or more in height and an opening of some 15 to 20 cm widening to some 30 cm in the flank. The jar had been closed by fitting a bowl into its mouth. Khalifah had taken this bowl with him to the home in al-Qasr where he was a servant for the Copt, Salib CAbdal-Masih, who preserved the bowl intact. It is Coptic red slip ware of the 4th or 5th century with a rim decorated with four fields of stripes. The diameter at the outer edge is 23.3-24.0 cm, with a diameter


inside the bowl of 18.2-18.7 cm, adequate to close a mouth large enough to admit the codices, whose broadest leaves, in Codex VII, measure up to 17.5 cm. There are a few black tarlike stains about 2.0 cm from the outer edge on the under side of the rim, perhaps vestiges of a bitumen used to seal the bowl into the jar. Thus, the jar probably could not be opened readily to investigate its contents, which would explain why it was broken by its discoverers. This also would explain the excellent state of preservation of a number of the codices and suggest that much of the deterioration of the others may have taken place prior to their burial or subsequent to their discovery. At first Muhammad CAli feared to break the jar, thinking there might be a jinn inside. But on reflecting that it might contain treasure, he regained his courage. Raising his mattock, he smashed the jar. He described a strange material, like sand but perhaps capable of turning into gold, swirling up and disappearing into the air. This would seem to be a conflation of the jinn and the treasure, perhaps a mythopoeic experience of papyrus fragments. For when Muhammad CAl opened a codex, he experienced its being transformed into very small pieces that disappeared into the air. Muhammad CAlI decided to

divide the codices on the spot among the seven camel drivers present. Evidence of only 12 codices survives today. What is called Codex XIII consists of only eight leaves, which were removed from the center of a codex in late antiquity in order to separate out a tractate inscribed on them and then laid inside the front cover of Codex VI. These leaves probably would not even have been noticed by the discoverers, much less considered a separate codex. Yet when pressed, Muhammad CAli maintained that the number of codices in the jar was not 12 but 13. Thus it is possible, though unconfirmed, that a quite fragmentary codex was completely lost at the cliff. Since the number of codices was fewer than enough for each camel driver to receive 2, Muhammad CAll prepared seven lots each consisting of a complete codex and parts of the

214


others torn up for this purpose. Muhammad CAll has maintained that covers were abandoned at the cliff, which would account for the missing cover of Codex XII as well as for that of any unattested codex. The other camel drivers, ignorant of the value inherent in the codices and fearing both sorcery and Muhammad CAlT, renounced their claims to a share. He then stacked the lots back together in a pile, unwound his white headdress, knotted them in it, and slung the whole bundle over his shoulder.

The account of the actual

discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices was given by Muhammad CAli. Unhobbling his camel, he rode back to his home in al-Qasr, in the courtyard of which the animals were kept and bread baked in the large clay oven. Here he dumped the codices, loose leaves and fragments, on the ground among the straw that was lying by the oven to be burned. 'Umm Ahmad has conceded that she burned much of the ripped-out papyrus and broken covers, perhaps parts of the covers of XI and XII, in the oven along with the straw. The removal of leaves from their cover at the cliff and the subsequent burning of some in the oven may be correlated to some extent with the condition in which the material was first examined and recorded in detail. If another codex existed, no trace of it has been brought to light, since the surviving unplaced fragments either seem to have the same scribal hands as do the codices that survive, and hence, presumably, to have come from them, or are too small or preserve too little ink to provide a basis for conjecturing the existence of further codices. The cover of Codex XII and the vast majority of the leaves of Codex XII, and probably of Codex X, are missing. Since, in both cases, the extant material is from different parts of the codex and of different sizes and shapes, the loss cannot be wholly attributed to natural causes such as rot, worms, or rodents

but is best explained in many instances as having taken place after the discovery. The same is true of individual missing leaves (one in Codex II, nine in Codex III, one in Codex VI, three in Codex VIII, and two in Codex IX) and of large and small fragments missing from otherwise intact sequences of fragments having continuing contours. Although relatively minor losses may well have taken place even before burial or at later stages-after the discovery-in the transmission of the material (most seriously apparently in the case of Codex III), the massive losses must have taken place right after the discovery in 1945, as the principals concede. Thus, hopes of identifying more materials from this discovery in private or public collections are reduced correspondingly. The Story of the Middlemen The initial disappointment that the hoped-for buried treasure turned out to be only a stack of old books was confirmed by Muhammad CAli's inability to sell them among the villagers for a few piasters or cigarettes. A Copt of al-Qasr, Zakhari Hannan, refused to buy any, though he observed that they were books of the church, a comment probably based on no more than the recognition that the writing was not Arabic but Coptic. The early efforts to dispose of the books seem thus to have been directed primarily to Copts. A codex would be offered for an Egyptian pound, to show what they were like, with the assurance that the others would be brought if this one would be purchased; then, the price would go down to no more than 15 or 25 piasters, still without a sale. Since Muhammad CAli drove a camel for Ilyas Balimin Ghubriyal of alQasr, he left three or four codices with him for a couple of days, but Ilyas refused to buy them; his son Milik recalls laughing together with Muhammad CAli over their worthlessness. Sahygn Gaddfs was offered one for sale but refused, assuming that it was a Coptic Bible which he thought the church already had. The priest from al-Qasr, living at al-Rahminryah Qibli, "al-Qummus" Matti SarjTyis, already of a very advanced age at that time, turned down an offer for ?E 3.

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IbrahimPashaStreet(top left).

Zaki Basli (bottom left). He was the main

middlemanof the regionwho took Bahij cAll (right) with Codices II and VII to

Cairoand sold them to Tano. At the time of the murder of one or more of the Ahmad IsmaclT1, codices were put on deposit with Muhammad cAli's neighbor who was the priest serving the village church of al-Qasr at the monastery of St. Palamon. This priest, "al-Qummus" Basilyfis CAbd al-MasTh,stored them in a drawer of the chifferobe in his bedroom, but after a month they were retrieved. His wife, Rtimah, today the matriarch of the family at al-Qasr, was the daughter of Andarawus "alQuss" CAbd al-Sayyid.

Andarawus' son Raghib taught history and English from village to village on a circuit of Coptic parochial schools. At the time, he lived in Dishna, 22 km upstream from al-Qasr. When he came to alQasr, he usually visited in his sister ROmah'shome. On being shown one codex (Codex III, as it turned out), he recognized its potential value, which he proudly attributes to his being a teacher of history. He asked "al-Qummus" Basilyis if he might have it, a request readily granted. When he took it to the home of his father Andarawus, he was immediately told to leave, since the police investigation of the murder which Andarawus had witnessed was taking

place, and he wanted to have nothing to do with those involved. But Raghib inquired of the youngest of the sons of 'Umm Ahmad whether he could acquire any other codices. He was told that he would have to wait since the police were detaining the other brothers. A day or so later this brother brought a second codex (probably Codex I). Righib had paid nothing for the first codex since, he has explained, it had been a gift to "'al-Qummus"Basilyis, but he offered some 50 piasters for the second. The offer was declined with the comment that, after all, he was a neighbor. Righib, no doubt recognizing the hollowness of such a gesture, offered him a coat, whereBIBLICALARCHEOLOGIST/FALL 1979 215

upon the lad said he wanted a for which purpose Raghib .allabiyah, gave him a small amount of money. He added that Rdghib should not tell his brothers, from which Raghib has inferred that the boy had in effect stolen it from them. Since Rdghib lived on the ground floor and feared that mice might damage the codices, he deposited them in the room of his housekeeper Bahiyah Jirjis on the floor above. At the end of March 1946, Phocion Tano, the Cypriot antiquities dealer at Cairo, mentioned to Zaki Basta, a well-known antiquities dealer at Qind, that a week earlier he had acquired two codices from peasants of al-Qasr working at Giza. Since Zaki was given no name, they may remain Bast. unidentified. "Abfin~" Dd'9id has spoken of a carpenter selling a codex in Cairo at such a profit that he was able to remain there. Or, the seller may well have been Fikri Jibr7il Khalil. Muhammad cAli has reported that Fikri acquired two codices, for which he paid with sugar and tea from his al-Qasr shop. Bahij CAli Muhammad Adam, Zaki Basta's contact in al-Qasr, also identified Fikri as having acquired a codex. Fikri's brother cAziz is reported to have maintained that Fikri had a codex, though he did not see it. Kamal Fu'Bd of Nag Hammadi, Fikri's brother-in-law, recalls FikrT having told him on his return from Cairo that he had just sold one or more codices-he does not recall the specifics. Fikri, originally proprietor of a small store in al-Qasr, improved his situation by moving his business to Nag Hammadi at about that time. A decade later he moved to Cairo, where he is proprietor of the Nag Hammadi Store of food staples on alQubaysi Street in the al-Zahir district. This success story is attributed by R~ghib to the start provided by the sale of the codices. When interviewed at his Cairo shop on 26 December 1975, he denied having owned any of the material, though he did recall that Muhammad CAll and his brothers were offering codices to any Copt for a piaster or so and that N~ishid Bisada, a grain merchant at Nag Hammadi, had one or two which he sold for next to nothing. When pressed on these matters in 216


On his returnfrom Cairo Bahij CAliacquired all that was left

of the codices from OUmm Ahmad.

December 1976 by Righib, Fikri became angry, conceding that he had been offered some of the material but not that he had acquired any. Thus, Fikri seems to be the only one among the interviewed discoverers and middlemen (or, if deceased, their sons or other relatives) to be unwilling to confirm what the other party of the transaction and other middlemen have affirmed and what Fikri himself had earlier confided in his own family circle. Such'hesitancy may well be motivated by the long-standing fear of the authorities with regard to such transactions. Zaki Bastd had a one-fourth interest in Qinm'sCinema Firydl until it closed, but his main business has been to circulate among the villages and antiquities sites of the region collecting antiquities for the small shop upstairs in his home and for the antiquities market of Cairo. His contact person at al-Qasr was Bahij cAli, notorious there as a one-eyed outlaw. He acquired some of the codices from 'Umm Ahmad, cAlT's widow, shortly after the discovery. Bahij Alli wrote to Zaki Bastd and then took two codices to show him in Qind. ZakT bought one from him, which sale Bast.seems in substance to have amounted to an agreement to divide the costs and the profit. Accompanied by a jeweller of Qind named Ayyfib, they went to Cairo, where they stayed three or four days at the Port SacTd Hotel. They went to the "M. A. Mansoor" antiquities shop of Mansur CAbd al-Sayyid Mansur on IbrdhTmPasha (now Opera) Square in the same building as .Shepheards Hotel. Zaki Bastd recalls that Mansur telephoned a foreigner to come and see the codices. Since the foreigner did not speak Arabic, they did not talk with him but observed from the back of the shop. The foreigner insisted on buying not just the two codices but the whole lot which they should go and bring, but

would not pay the LE 700 that they asked for the two codices. Since Bahij cAli did not produce the others, the negotiations were not completed. Mansur then telephoned Tano, who came to Mansur's shop and acquired the two codices for ?E 200 each, which Zaki BastAand Bahij cAll divided equally. Jacques Schwartz, fellow at the Institut franqais d'archeologie orientale du Caire in 1945-48, now the papyrologist of the University of Strasbourg, reports having been telephoned by Mansoor (as Schwartz spells the name) one afternoon late in March 1946 to the effect that he would like to show him two codices that he had on 48-hour consignment. Schwartz went late that same afternoon and was shown Codices VII and II: The name of Seth recurredratherfrequently[VII]. In one thereoccurredthe title "Apocalypseof Peter"[VII]. The leathercover of anothercarriedthe image of a serpent[II]. Since they were in Coptic, Schwartz himself was not interested but reported the same evening to the Director of the French Institute, Charles Kuentz, who accompanied him to the shop the next morning. Though disparaging the codices as just books of spells, as is appropriate in such haggling, Kuentz did recognize their value and offered ?E 100 per codex for the total of seven codices reported to be involved. Mansoor seemed to think this was a reasonable opening offer, for he agreed to negotiate on their behalf and let them know the outcome. A fortnight later Schwartz, having heard nothing, contacted Mansoor, who reported that the owners had taken back the two codices, and though he had sent a representative to negotiate with them further, up to a price of some ?E 150 per codex, he could not make a deal. Tano finally made the purchase for what was said to be ?E 7,000 for the whole lot. Kuentz has reported that he followed up the lead by going to Tano and unsuccessfully seeking the necessary funding from Paris. He reported the matter to the Abbot ltienne Drioton, then the Director of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities.

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codices from 'Umm Ahmad. He recalls the amount as four further codices, plus the material torn up at the cliff, though he estimates that over half of this had already been burned. Since Muhammad cAl had spoken of the ripped-out leaves as having been stuffed into a cover by BahTjCAli to make a book or so, and 'Umm Ahmad reported that the second time BahTj AlTiobtained five books (indeed Bahij cAll had originally spoken of having acquired a total of four books in good and four books in bad condition), this miscellaneous unit may have included not only leaves without their cover, such as Codex XII, but a cover without most of its leaves, such as Codex X. Bahij CAli recalls the price he paid as some ?E 12 to ?E 18, whereas Muhammad CAli recalls the payment as ?E 12 plus 40 oranges.

BahTjCAlTthen returned to Cairo alone, since he now knew the way, as he puts it, or, as Zaki Basta puts it, so that he would not have to divide the profit. He went directly to Tano and sold them for a rate he will not divulge. ZakT Basta takes it to be the same rate of ?E 200 per codex. Since the remainder of the material torn up at the cliff that was acquired by Bahij cAll seems to have been lumped together as a single unit (even though it may well have consisted of ingredients of more than one codex), one reaches a total of seven, which is the total number mentioned to Schwartz. But the price of ?E 7,000 for the lot cited by Mansoor may have been inflated to justify his not having acquired the lot for the French Institute. Since neither ZakT Basta. in nor Mansoor was directly involved the second transaction, neither may have been privy to the actual figures. Bahlj CAlTbought farm land with his

Cameldriversfromthe regionaround Nag Hammadifrequentlydig for fertilizer(sabakh)at the baseof the Jabal al-Tirif(background). profit and has been on bad terms with Muhammad CAli ever since. Now that the value of the codices had become evident to the brothers at al-Qasr, three of them went armed to Rdghib at Dishnd several times to retrieve the two codices he had obtained for practically nothing. They threatened his life and that of his three daughters living at al-Qasr and demonstrated their seriousness by shooting at his house. On their first visit he returned the second codex he had acquired from the youngest brother and would have returned the first if he could. But he had already sent it to Cairo with YannT Buqtur, a fellow-teacher in Dishni, to see if some learned person there could tell anything about its worth. R.ghib BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGIST/ FALL 1979 217

immediately telegraphed to Yanni to return the codex. When YannT returned without the codex, having left it in Cairo with a relative and refusing to return to Cairo to get it, R~ghib seized him by the collar and said: "You must go back to Cairo and bring the book or else I will kill you or you me, since otherwise the brothers will kill me!" Raghib gave Yanni ?E 5 to go back to Cairo to fetch the codex. The Mayor of alQasr, "al-Muqaddis" Tanyis CAbd alMasTih,a neighbor and relative of Raghib, warned the brothers, whom he had aided somewhat at the time of the police investigation, not to resort to violence. Before Yanni came back with the codex, RSghib had to make a financial settlement of some ?E 15 to ?E 20 with the brothers. YannT, now living in Cairo, does not recall these details still so vivid in the memory of Righib, who reports that YannTshowed the codex to the Patriarch of Alexandria, the Coptic Pope residing in Cairo, then to Yassa CAbd al-Masih, curator of the Coptic Museum, who wished to keep it; YannThimself reports that he only showed it to Georgy Sobhy (see below). YannTalso recalls mailing the codex back to Rdghib. Righib thinks the codex was returned with five or six leaves missing. This would account for the fact that Codex III, among the codices in relatively good condition, lacks the most leaves (six inscribed and three uninscribed, as well as others of which little survived). Righib also reports that in the process of housecleaning Bahlyah found one or two leaves which she did not preserve. These may also have come from Codex III. One may already observe an unmistakable inflation in the market for the codices at al-Qasr. After the other camel drivers at the cliff had turned down their share of the discovery, offers from the family of 'Umm Ahmad to sell for a few cigarettes or piasters, for an Egyptian pound or the lot for ?E 3 had also been refused. One codex became, in effect, a gift to "al-Qummus" BasTlyis and from him to Raghib. If Raghib responded to a second "gift" of a codex with a "gift" of a few piasters to buy a jallabTyah, the actual sales began as barter for sugar and 218


tea at the local shop of Fikri. Then it progressed to 40 oranges and a cash amount of ?E 12, according to Muhammad cAll, or a cash purchase of from LE 12 to LE 18 according to Bahij CAli, which would mean a price per codex of some ?E 2 or ?E 3. Reflecting the impact of Bahij CAll's success in Cairo and the threats to Raghib's life, his settlement reached from ?E 15 to ?E 20 for Codex III. Zaki recalls Righib Bast.

Codex I, the only multiple-quire codex, is also the only surviving manuscriptto have been transmittedin more than one lot. offering him a codex for a price too high to pay. Thus, in terms of market value it must be at about this juncture that a purchase by Nashid Bisada was made for a price that is reported by Muhammad CAlI to have been ?E 11, though Nashid's family speaks of ?E 30, ?E 50, or more. However, Bahij had purchased all that was left with the family of Muhammad cAll and sold them to Tano. If the purchase by Nashid followed that sale, the codex he purchased must have been that which had been recovered from Righib. Though born at al-Qasr, Nishid Bis~da was a grain merchant in Nag Hammadi at the time. Nishid, now deceased, is reported by BahTjCAll to have bought some torn leaves with their covers from 'Umm Ahmad, and Fikri JibrZiTlalso recalled Nashid having bought a codex. Nashid's younger son Husni, a cobbler now working in his uncle's shop at Nag Hammadi, is less well informed than an older brother Jamail, who has continued his father's business as a grain merchant at al-Qasr. Whereas Husni guessed that there might have been 7 or 8 leaves, Jamail, who did not actually see the codex either, thought there might have been some 25 loose leaves, complete except at the margins, so soft that if rubbed they would come to pieces, with a leather cover. Nashid paid a price that Jamal did not recall exactly but initially estimated at almost LE 200. Nashid entrusted the codex to the gold merchant of Nag Hammadi,

who would know Masc~d better itsIsk.aros, value, to take to Cairo and sell. Mascid went to Cairo without Nashid, sold the codex for a price he said was ?E 350, reimbursed Nashid the ?E 200 he said he had paid, and divided the profit with him. Another version of the figures is to the effect that Nashid paid ?E 50 and received ?E 200, whereas Mascid sold in Cairo for ?E 350, making a profit of ?E 150, indicating that they divided equally a profit of ?E 300. Jamil NSshid Risada lives in Ahmad Ism•cil's home that his father purchased after the murder of Ahmad. This was about the time Nashid's share of the profit became available for investment. Mascid Iskiriis died in a cholera plague in 1947 and was succeeded by a son, Shawql, who became wealthy enough to move to Cairo, whereupon Nabih, an older brother who had become a lawyer, took over the goldsmith shop. He recalls the story in considerable detail. In his view only ?E 100 had been provided by N~shid, the other ?E 100 having been funded by his father. He recalls with irony what may well be the same incident reported above concerning "al-Qummus" Matti SarjTyfis:Ten codices (which would be the whole collection, counted in terms of leather covers, once Codex III had been left with "al Qummus" Basilyfis) had once been offered to Mascid for only ?E 3, but he did not buy them, since a Coptic priest sitting with him at the time said the writing did not look old and the books must hence be recentactually they looked different because they were so much older than the oldest books he had ever seen. Nashid's codex had a cover made of the hide of a gazelle (which term seems to function in the region as a generic way to refer to leather). He could tell that it was not a complete codex, since he could see where leaves had been ripped out at the spine. There were about 40 leaves, which he copied out by rote (though he did not know Coptic) in hopes someone would be able to identify it. Unfortunately, he no longer has his copy. He later heard that the Coptic Museum had seized nine and a half codices and inferred that this included the other half of the codex. It was no

The Nag Hammadi Library on Peter's Confession Jesus said to His disciples, "Compare me to someone and tell Me whom I am like." Simon Peter said to Him, "You are like a righteous angel." Matthew said to Him, "You are like a wise philosopher. " Thomas said to Him, "Master, my mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom You are like." Jesus said, "I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring which I have measured out." And He took him and withdrew and told him three things. When Thomas returned to his companions, they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?" Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the things which he told me, you will pick up stones and throw them at me; a fire will come out of the stones and burn you up." The Gospel of Thomas II, 2: 34, 30-35, 14

The Nag Hammadi Library on Peter's Sermon at Pentecost And Peter opened his mouth, he said to his disciples, "Did our Lord Jesus, when he was in the body, show us everything? For he came down. My brothers, listen to my voice." And he was filled with a holy spirit. He spoke thus: "Our illuminator, Jesus, came down and was crucified. And he bore a crown of thorns. And he put on a purple garment. And he was crucified on a tree and was buried in a tomb. And he rose from the dead. My brothers, Jesus is a stranger to this suffering. But we are the ones who have suffered at the transgression of the mother. And because of this, he accomplished everything according to a likeness in us. For the Lord Jesus, the Son of the immeasurable glory of the Father, he is the author of our life. My brothers, let us therefore not obey these lawless ones .. ." The Letter of Peter to Philip VIII, 2: 139, 9-29

The Monastery Library In each house the house manager or his assistant kept all the surplus clothes locked in a cell until they needed to wash and to wear them. The books also were within a little enclosure under the care of these two officials. He also taught the brothers to pay no attention to the loveliness and beauty of this world, whether it be beautiful food or clothing, or a cell, or an outwardly seductive book. The Life of Pachomius, chaps. 59 and 63

The Consecration of the Basilica of St. Pachomius The legend of the consecration of the basilica was composed in Coptic and is preserved in an Arabic manuscript of the 14th century. It recounts that the Pachomian Abbot Victor went to Constantinople and revealed himself to Emperor Theodosius II as his natural son, whereupon he received unlimited authorization to build the basilica. It was completed under his successor, Abbot Martyrius, who went to Constantinople and requested Emperor Leo I to authorize its consecration. Leo wrote the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, Rome and Ephesus to attend. They, together with 880 bishops, 6,000 monks of the Monastery of Pabau where the basilica was located, and 2,300 monks from the other Pachomian monasteries, not counting lay persons, assembled for the consecration which was to be performed by Patriarch Timothy of Alexandria: While I was in bed, the night of the fifteenth [11 XII 459 A.D.],dreamingof the angel in the field, he againcame towardme,hadmearise,andsaidto me:"Ariseandgo to the church,for behold,the Lord has come to consecrateit, he who consecratedthe heavenlyJerusalem.Hastento go, for it is the Lordwho sent me to you who callsyou to this place with his angelsand his saints."I raisedmyselfand followed the angel;I was terrifiedandtrembled.Havingarrivedat the church,I saw that its doors were open; I smelt a powerful odor the likes of whichI had neversensed.I sawthe church full of thrones,all aroundthe dome.Whentheangelsawme trembling,it dissolvedmy fear, conductedme to the altar and took my hand. I sawa magnificentthroneraisedabove all the thrones,on which a man was seatedin splendorwhom I could not behold because of the light and the fear-extremely beautiful.Nothingamongcorporealbeings could expresshis nobility.I fell down, I, on my face before him. He had me arise, encouraged me and said: "Oh Timothy,Timothy,do not have any fear. It is I, Jesus the Messiah,your King!I havecome to consecratethe earthly Jerusalemso thatthosewhoservemeon earthmaycelebrate here,just as I haveconsecratedthe heavenlyJerusalemfor my servantswho are in heavento celebratethere."On the spot Michaelbeganto take up the basinof water;the Lord consecratedall the church.I myselfsawit withmyowneyes! And he said to me:"Behold,I haveconsecratedit at firstin secret,but you againwill consecrateit openlyfollowingthe canons of the apostles. Behold,I have put in it a powerful force.Threeangelswillabidehereat all times,watchingover thosewho prayherein everymoment.Theywillgivesightto the blindandwill makethelameto walkandcausethelepers to be purified,the dumb to speak, the deaf to hear and Satansto beexpelled.Theywillhealeverysickness.If people takewaterfromits resevoirand oil fromits lampandanoint themselveswithfaith,theywill obtainhealing.... Whenthe Lord had finished telling me these things, he ascended gloriouslyto heavenwithhisangelsandsaints,andtheangel who hadconductedme led me to my bedanddepartedfrom me. Arn. Van Lantschoot, "Allocution de Timoth6e d'Alexandrie prononc6e a l'occasion de la d6dicace de l'6glise de Pachome & Pboou," Le Musion 47 (1934) 13-56.


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doubt in the same connection that he learned that the codex had to do with the first Christians in Egypt. Nabih is sure that, had Mascuid known this, he would not have sold the codex. Masctd hid the codex under the floor of his home for a few months and then in July or August went to Cairo, taking his son Nabih with him. They went to a gold merchant whom Masctd knew, Jurji Andarawus, who

220


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sent for an antiquities dealer named The inside of the leathercover of Codex I (the The were Jung Codex). carried Tawfiq. negotiations on in the shop of Jurji Andarawus. The final figure was ?E 300. Nabih recalls that it was he who put the codex into the hands of Tawfiq. He Since Codex I is also the only multipleheard that the codex was later sold to quire codex, it most readily could a foreigner for ?E 5,000. have given the evidence of leaves This may well have been Codex I, having been ripped out, in that one or the only surviving manuscript to have more binding thongs could be seen to been transmitted in more than one lot. be empty. Furthermore, on 18

February 1949, Albert Eid wrote to Warner G. Rice, Director of the University Library of the University of Michigan: In spite of the fact that I have at present an offer in Egypt of ?E 5,000 from a donorthroughthemediationof Professor J. Doresse, I prefer to give up the manuscripthere, for I do not desireto returnthis moneyto Egypt. Thus, the figure of ?E 5,000, though never actually paid, became associated with Codex I. Eid wrote Father B. Couroyer, the Coptologist at the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem, that the number of leaves in the codex was 40, "with its leather cover," and on 13 January 1947 Eid wrote to Rice that there were 41, though one was "in very bad condition," which may well have meant that it was simply a collection of miscellaneous fragments, since three leaves classified as only "in bad condition" were described as having "a fourth of the text missing." Thus, the number of leaves would seem to agree with the report of NabTh. Furthermore, Eid reported that the material "has been entrusted to me by one of my customers for sale." This suggests that it was still owned by Tawffq and only on consignment with Eid. A. and Ed. C. Anawati were proprietors of a shop in Alexandria called Khan Khalil. On 20 January 1947, Ed. C. Anawati wrote to Rice: The writerhas beenentrustedby the ownerof the manuscriptto disposeof it in the regionof the Delta, and Mr. Eid was to market it in Cairo and Upper Egypt. This is beingwrittento you afterthe consentand approvalof Mr. Eid. A brother of Ed. C. Anawati is Father Georges Anawati, today Director of the Institut dominicain des &tudesorientales in Cairo. Couroyer returned to Jerusalem from a visit to the Cairo Dominican house at the end of the spring semester of 1946. He assumes, with some uncertainty, that it was shortly after his return, but in any case the same year, that he received two photographs from Father Anawati for identification. He requested enlargements, which were hardly an

improvement, but on the basis of such photographs of Codex I (pp. 7, 8, 43, and 44) and after consultation with H. J. Polotsky, he returned the following report, which Eid sent to Rice on 13 January 1947: The language used is not pure Akhmimicnor even Sub-Achmimic(the language of the Manichaeanwritings), butratheran intermediary betweenthese two forms. It is a dialect still poorly enough known that the presentmanuscriptcan contributegreatlyto its study. One finds oneselfin the presenceof two differentworks, the second in a more cursivehand. The contentof pp. 7-8 is a dialogue of our Lordwith his disciples,especially with St. James. The vocabulary and content are relatedto the literatureof whichPistisSophia,andthedialoguesof Jesusafterhis resurrection,are the most strikingrepresentatives.One finds oneself on the border between orthodox theologyand Gnosticism.In the case of the presentmanuscriptI do not believe that one is in the presenceof a purely Gnostic work. Our Lord speaks to his disciples,butclearly,not in parables.The "logos"is like a grainof wheat,etc. But since one has no subscription(I do not know if such exists in the manuscript), one is reducedto approximations. Thus, within a year of its discovery, Codex I had been subjected to a first scholarly assessment, in that the dialect was defined, the two hands and Tractates 2 and 4 were distinguished, and Tractate 2 was provided with a remarkably accurate analysis. When Doresse first visited Eid's shop in October 1947, only the first lot of 40 or 41 leaves and the cover were there. But by the time Eid arrived in New York in January 1949, he had gained access to a second lot of 11 leaves from the same codexand had purchased both. The reason for the delay of the second lot and the channel through which it reached Eid are not known. But Ludwig Keimer's report of 1950 presumably presupposes both lots: The book in the possessionof Mr. AlbertEid had beensold first of all to a Copticgrainmerchantof Nag Hammadi. Tano was informedthat the merchant was in possession of this book. The

merchantand Tano reachedan agreementon the sumof ?E 300as the priceof this book. But the merchantchangeshis mind;he demands?E 800-the agentof Tano had notifiedthe latter.The agent andTanothinkthattheCopticmerchant wouldgive up the book at ?E 300, in any case at a pricesignificantlyinferiorto ?E 800. Tano and his agent do nothing. Tano returnsto Cairo.The Copticgrain merchantfrom Nag Hammadi comes some time laterto Cairo.Therehe meets anotheragent who takes him to Albert Eid who buysthe book for ?E 500 or ?E 600. This book, it would seem, is at present in the USA. Michigan had offered $12,000, but Albert Eid demanded$25,000.The book of Mr.Eid is composed of about 50 leaves (= 100 pages). Bahij cAll has reported that Nishid Bisada had only 12 leaves and with Mascafd sold them to Tano on one of two trips Tano made to Nag Ham-

Withina year of its discovery Codex I had been subjected to a first scholarly assessment. madi looking for whatever was left, which suggests that Tano was not completely unsuccessful in Nag Hammadi, where he may have acquired some or all of the 19 leaves of Codex I that he owned. In Keimer's report the Coptic grain merchant might be Naishid Bisida, Tano's agent, perhaps Bahij cAll, whose commission was circumvented by Masc~id selling directly on the Cairo market to Tawffq. The reference to the grain merchant going to Cairo would either be due to overlooking a link in the chain, MascGfd, or it may be that Naishid took the second lot directly to Cairo so as to bypass the commission of Mascld. For the reference to the trip as "some time later" than Tano's visit to Nag Hammadi may point to the last lot of 11 leaves. (Since Fikri Jibri'Tl was also a grain merchant, he could be considered here.) If Eid paid ?E 500 to ?E 600, this sizable markup would presumably not only reflect the passage of time but also would have included the final lot of 11 leaves. On BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGIST/ FALL 1979 221

10 May 1952 Simone Eid sold the two lots to the Jung Institute for 35,000 Swiss Francs, involving a markup from about $2,500 to some $8,000. At an interview with Tano in his shop on 20 December 1971, he mentioned that he had obtained codices from small dealers in several lots. This would seem to be confirmed by the subsequent investigations. These tend to indicate that he may have obtained two codices from FikrT JibrT1l, two from ZakTBasta and BahTjCAli (Codices II and VII), then four plus remains of perhaps two others (Codices X and XII) from Bahij CAli alone, and finally part of one (Codex I) if not also from Bahij cAll, then perhaps from Nashid Bisada. Thus, his total holdings were eight codices (II, IV-IX, XI) and parts of four others (I, X, XII, XIII), which he would have purchased as a total of little more than nine units. If one may conjecture that he was able to retain a stable pay scale, his costs may not have reached ?E 2,000. When interviewed he reported British and Swiss offers of ?E 100,000 but bitterly reported that once the codices were sequestered and nationalized, he received only ?E 5,000. Codex III was not among the codices that passed through Tano's hands. It made its way to Cairo in a very different manner. The Bishop of Qina, "al-Mutran al-Anba" KTrullus, heard that Raghib had a valuable book and, on a visit to Dishnar,asked Rdghib in the presence of a dozen important personages if this were the case. Righib was too frightened to speak publicly, but when Bishop Kirullus took him aside, he admitted that he had a codex. The bishop insisted that he take it to Cairo to learn its value. Raghib got a tin box to contain the codex and a bouquet of roses for the bishop. He then went to the station to meet the train on which Bishop KTrulluswould be riding when it passed through Dishinf at 11 P.M. At the station he happened to meet another teacher, Ahmad CAbd al-Karim, who, on hearing that the bishop was on the train, accompanied Raghib to greet him. Raghib passed the tin box with the codex and the bouquet through the train window to

222

BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGIST / FALL 1979

Codex IIIwas not among the codices that passed through Tano's hands.

the bishop, who was very angry, thinking Raghib had brought Ahmad along as a witness. A month or more later Raghib heard that Bishop Kirullus had returned to Qina, and went to call on him, accompanied by the headmaster of the Dishna Coptic school, Shakir Maksi. When the bishop inquired angrily why Raghib had come, he said to inquire after his health. When, after some small talk, the bishop repeated his question, Raghib said he had come to say goodbye. Taking Raghib aside, the bishop reproached him for bringing a witness to the train station and refused to accept Righib's explanation that it was pure coincidence. He demanded that Righib sign a receipt for the return of the codex and tell no one. Righib feared that the government had seen the codex and, if he signed, would put him in prison. He refused to give a receipt, pointing out that he had asked no receipt from the bishop. Bishop Kirullus threatened to dismiss Raghib from his position as teacher, to which Righib replied that the bishop could do as he liked but that he would not sign. A servant of the bishop, Sidrah, intervened but was struck on the cheek and sent away. Righib left in tears, but two servants ran after him and brought him back. Bishop KTrulluspulled the codex from his bag and began counting the leaves. Raghib said this was unnecessary since he had not counted the leaves when he turned it over to the bishop. Bishop Kirullus told him to take the book and leave. Raghib replied that he would not leave without the bishop's blessing. Bishop Kirullus forgave him, agreeing that Ahmad had not been brought as a witness. He advised Raghib to give the codex to the Coptic Museum, laid his hand on his head, and put the sign of the cross upon him. Raghib took the codex to the Qina train station and waited for the train, sitting in the

coffee shop with the tin box between his knees. When a policeman entered the caf&,Raghib, thinking he had been sent to capture him, trembled and thought of abandoning the codex in the caf&.But after getting a drink of water, the policeman went away, and Raghib took the train back to Dishna . When the summer vacations came, Raghib went to Cairo himself, accompanied by a relative, a priest of Nag Hammadi, "alQummus" Ishaq Hannan. They stayed in New Cairo with the brother of Raghib's father Anda.rawus, Diryas "al-Quss" CAbdal-Sayyid. They first visited a wealthy Coptic Pasha, who was ill in bed and refused to see them, until "al-Qummus" Ishdq Hannan said that he wished to bless him, whereupon after some two hours they were admitted. When the Pasha saw the codex, he put on his monocle to examine it more closely and announced that Raghib would become very wealthy, himself a Pasha. Raghib was so overjoyed that he felt like a king between heaven and earth. The Pasha said that, if they would return in three days, he would take them to the hotel of an American who would pay any price for the codex. But without waiting, they went to Georgy Sobhy "Bey," a Coptic physician also involved in Coptic studies. Sobhy was so delighted that he jumped up and down and declared that Rdghib would become wealthy. He suggested that they return the next day at 6 P.M. so he could examine the book again and asked for their Cairo address. "Al-Qummus" Ish•iq, who was ill and hoped for free medical aid from Sobhy, suggested to Rdghib that they leave the codex overnight with him. R~ghib, noting a telephone on Sobhy's desk and fearing he might telephone the police, agreed. When they returned the next day, they were shocked to see limousines with chauffeurs in livery before the door. On entering, those inside arose and were introduced as ltienne Drioton, Director of the Department of Antiquities, Togo Mina, Director of the Coptic Museum, as well as other museum officials. Drioton interrogated Raghib as to the source of the codex. When Raghib maintained that

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authorities came out to negotiate with him. He was offered LE 300, or if he could wait some months, ?E 600. He agreed to the price of ?E 300, but when he returned to Togo Mina, assuming he would receive the money, he was told that he was foolish to think that the money was at the Coptic Museum. He should address himself to the Ministry of Education. Raghib spent the rest of the summer vacations and all his funds in going from office to office and giving tips to persons he thought would help him. His hopes of vacationing in the sea breeze of Alexandria never materialized; he had to be back in Dishni for the start of school in October. Finally Togo Mina told him he was foolish not to wait for the higher price, but that if he would contribute ?E 50 to the Coptic Museum, his name would be inscribed on an alabaster plaque at the museum and he would receive ?E 250 at once. Righib also wanted to sign the Registry of the Coptic Museum so as to become famous. He received a check for ?E 250 from the Ministry of Education, which he cashed at the National Bank of Egypt in Qind. When he visited the Coptic Museum on 11 December 1976 and did not find the plaque, he was

bitterly disappointed. He had long felt that Bishop KTrullus'wrath was responsible for his misfortune with Codex III. But his name was recorded for posterity in the Registry of Acquisitions of the Coptic Museum, which is the following entry, neglected for a generation, perhaps because it was written in Arabic: 4851. Papyri, manuscript in Coptic, Sahidic, about fourth century, with cover. Seventyleaves. Most of themare damagedand incomplete;some of them are very smallfragments.Price:LE250. Purchasedfrom Righib "Effendi"Andardwus"al-Quss"CAbdal-Sayyid.ReceivedOctober4, 1946.Archive:5/13. Raghib has reported that an Italian woman was caught taking the bulk of the codices to the airport, intending to give them to the Pope in Rome. The Minister of Education, Taha Husein, told her that she could not export them; rather, the government would purchase them from her for ?E 300 each, the rate established in the case of Righib's codex. But she refused, went to Luxor, contacted Righib, and suggested he meet her there with a view toward taking joint action


against the government. But after having consulted a lawyer who advised him that he would not win such a case, Raghib declined to meet with her. This is Rdghib's version of the role played by Maria Dattari, who was Tano's front when his codices were sequestered by the government and ultimately nationalized. When Righib was in the museum in 1946, he saw Togo Mina busily putting the leaves of the codex in order as well as repairing them with transparent tape. On 5 December 1946 Mina showed the codex to

FranqoisDaumasand HenryCorbin, with whom he made plans to have the leaves conservedbetweenpanes of glass before Daumaswould returnthe followingautumnto edit the codex. Noting the title of the Apocryphonof John on the verso of the front flyleaf, Daumassuspectedit of being Gnostic,and Corbinthoughtthat, given the nameJohn, it would be Gnosticmysticism.In Paris early in the summerof 1947Daumastold AntoineGuillaumontof the discovery, at which time they discussedthe then

still-unpublished copy of the Apocryphon of John known to be in the Berlin Codex 8502. On 20 September 1947 Etienne Drioton left Marseille for Cairo. He was accompanied by his pupil Marianne Doresse (nee GuentchOgloueff) of the Musee Guimet and her husband, Jean. In Cairo, Marianne's former classmate and suitor, Togo Mina, had already made plans to publish the codex with her husband by the time Daumas returned in November. On 10-11 January 1948 both the discovery and the publication plans for Codex III were announced in the Cairo press, somewhat to the distress of Georgy Sobby, who had hoped to edit the codex himself. If thus the discovery had become public and the history of research had begun, the death of Togo Mina in October 1949 and the resultant decline in Doresse's role meant that the trail grew cold regarding the story of the discoverers and the middlemen of the Nag Hammadi codices. The decisive clue to the reconstruction of the story was Raghib's name in the Registry of the Coptic Museum. On

224


28 August 1975 I asked Abram Bibdawi,then Sub-Principal of the Boys' Secondary School of Nag Hammadi, if he had heard that name. He replied that he had studied under him! Furthermore, the teacher of English at his school, Wadic Falta•'is CAbd al-MasTh, lived in al-Qasr and could put me in contact with the discoverer. Through Abram I was introduced to MunTr"al-Qummus" Basilyfis CAbd al-MasTh, Secretary to the Criminal Investigation Agent at the Nag Hammadi Court House. Thus I was able to interview both Munir's neighbor Muhammad 'All in al-Qasr and Munir's uncle Raghib in Qina, from whom came the bulk of the story and many leads to further details. It is primarily through the intelligent, energetic, and loyal assistance of these local Copts that the story has been pieced together.

James M. Robinson is the Arthur Letts, Jr., Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate School and the Director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity. He is the secretary of the UNESCO International Committee for the Nag Hammadi Codices and the General Editor of The Coptic Gnostic Library and The Nag Hammadi Library in English.

Reporton the discoveryof the Nag Hammadicodices,10December1976,in Cairoat the secondmeetingof the InternationalCommitteefor the Nag HammadiCodices,withwhichthe First InternationalCongressof Coptology opened.Leftto right:JamesM. Robinson,AbramBibawT (who brought Robinsonin contactwith Muhammad cAli and Raghib),LabibHabachi(Chief Inspectorfor UpperEgyptof the Departmentof Antiquitiesat the timeof the discovery);RdghibAndardwus "al-Quss"CAbdal-Sayyid(whosold CodexIII to the CopticMuseumin October1947),HilmiSahytinGaddis (whosefatherwas offereda codex) beinginterrogatedby GillesQuispel.

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As the various documents in the Nag Hammadi library became known and their significance realized, interest in an investigation of the area of the discovery increased. Plans for an archeological excavation to be directed by Paul Lapp in conjunction with James M. Robinson were developed from 1966 to 1969 (Robinson 1966). They were at the point of being implemented when the license was "postponed for the time being" due to the closing of the Nag Hammadi region to foreigners after the Six-Day War. This was followed by Lapp's tragic death in the spring of 1970. However, the raising of the travel restrictions in November 1974 made possible new planning for excavation that began in 1975. One phase of the preparations for the Nag Hammadi excavation was a protonmagnetometer and resistivity survey of a section of the area where the codices reportedly were found. This was conducted by Philip Hammond of the University of Utah on 10-18 September 1975; the results were used in locating probe trenches in the first season.

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first centuries A.D.-burial cloth was dated by Carbon 14 to the 5th century A.D. Some caves were occupied presumably by anchorites during the early Coptic centuries, to judge by the inscriptions in red paint and coins in a cave with opening lines of Psalms in Coptic on a wall (T 8) as late as the 7th century. There are no ruins of a building, with which the site of the discovery had at times been speculatively associated. Trial trenches were dug in the flat land in front of the talus in order to check the existence of the lower

The First Season 27 Novemberto 19 December1975 The first season of archeologicalwork (see VanElderenand Robinson1976a: 71-79; 1976b:18-24for a preliminary report)centeredin the area of the Jabal al-Trif, ca. 350 m high, which Jean Doressehad identifiedas the site of the discovery.Over 150caves are locatedat the middleor top of the talus of the Jabal;six of them wereexcavated.One, a previously published6th-Dynasty(ca. 2300 B.c.) tomb of the "governor"Thauti(T 73), provedto have lower chamberswith extensivereliefsand hieroglyphson the walls that have neverbeen published.Some smallertombs also high up on the talus belong to the 226


cemetery mentioned by Doresse, as well as to investigate every spot pointed out by local persons as a possible site of the discovery. The result was-in each case the same-a layer of debris disturbed by diggers for sabakh below which there was virgin soil, the silt deposit used for fertilizer and brick. The Second Season 22 November to 29 December 1976 The second season (see Van Elderen and Robinson 1977a: 57-73; 1977b: 36-54 for a preliminary report) began •

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portantsurfaceevidenceof Romanoccupation.Theoveralllengthof the stoneis 1.39m, andthe preservedwidthis 43 cm. Editedandtranslatedby BastiaanVan Elderen(oppositetop). Caves101-7in outcroppingof live rock on talusof Jabalal-Tarif(opposite bottom).

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the excavation of the monasterybasilica complex of St. Pachomius at Pabau (modern Faw Qibli), some 18 km northeast of Nag Hammadi. This site, hitherto not investigated extensively (Debono 1971: 191-220), is of major importance for the history of Christianity in Upper Egypt, since Pachomius was the founder of the monastic movement in this area. The ruins of the Pachomian monasterybasilica complex lie on the outskirts of Fdw QiblT.Over a wide area lie the architectural remains, chiefly pillars, of a large building. Seven probe trenches or squares were dug in these ruins to ascertain the stratigraphy of the area and the dimensions of the major structure identified as the basilica. Although the exact dimensions of the basilica were not ascertained in this season, the remains uncovered gave evidence of its large size. A portion of the western wall was uncovered, and remains of two stylobates (support walls for columns) were uncovered north of the large nave of the basilica, thus indicating that the structure was a five-aisle church. The existence of a smaller church below the basilica was ascertained. Portions of its walls and inner stylobate were uncovered. Below this smaller church another structure was identified containing a large room with many large storage jars, dating from the late 3rd or early


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4th century A.D. In a stratum below this building traces of a large building complex were found in various parts of the site. Possibly this also dates from the 3rd century. The 1976 season thus identified four building phases on the site, two of which relate to the Pachomian occupation. The destruction of the basilica, attributed to Khalif alHI;Ikimin the I Ith century, was confirmed by a destruction level on which building debris and architectural members toppled, dated by its pottery to the I Ith century. A survey of al-Qasr (ancient Chenoboskia) yielded evidence of Roman occupation, including a Greek inscription from the early 2nd century A.D. The Third Season 24 December 1977 to 25 January 1978 During the third and most recent season -of the Nag Hammadi excavation, work continued in the area of the Basilica of St. Pachomius. A major objective was to ascertain the dimensions of the large basilica. This was achieved, and other features of the basilica were delineated. Ten new trenches or squares were opened in the area of the basilica. With the identification of the north, south, and east walls (the west wall was

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identified in 1976), it was possible to determine the size of the basilica: 75 x 37 m. In the early 13th century Abf Sdlih (1895: 282) gave the dimensions as 150 x 75 cubits, which reflect the same two-to-one proportions; if a cubit is 1.5 feet, the metric equivalent would be 68.58 x 34.29 m, only some 10%smaller than the empirical measurements, a discrepancy perhaps due to rounded numbers being given in the source. Thus, the basilica is one of the largest ancient churches in Egypt. During the second season the stratigraphy of the site was more precisely defined and elaborated. Five building phases could be distinguished and dated according to the potsherds and artifacts found in the various strata. The following is a survey of the architectural and occupational history of the site with the supporting evidence. Islamic Building 11th to 12th century (Phase V) Evidence of this building appeared in Square 12 located in the northeast part of the basilica. The lower courses of a wall made of fired bricks were

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uncovered. This is part of the east wall of a building with part of the northeast corner preserved. It was built over the remains of the basilica and can be dated in the I Ith or 12th century on the basis of sherds found near the south and east walls of the basilica. The architecture from this period does not appear extensive since it has been found in only one part of the site. The Large Basilica 5th to 7th century (Phase IV) The existence of a major building on the site is evident from the extensive architectural remains on the surface and from the archeological work in 1976. The work of the third season confirmed these preliminary conclusions through the location of the outer walls of the building. The North Wall. Square 8 was placed north of Squares 5 and 6 (excavated in 1976) where the two stylobates on the north side of the basilica had been identified. In this new square the north wall was found. One course of large limestone blocks laid on a layer of fired bricks was uncovered. The width of the founding level of this wall is 2.3 m. This is unusually wide, although the actual exposed wall may have been about 1.8 m wide.

The South Wall. Square 9 was placed south of Square 4 (excavated in 1976) where the outer south stylobate had been identified. The laborious task of digging through a 2-m deposit of debris from the modern village in addition to the usual 2-m layer of alluvial deposit and destruction debris of the basilica was rewarded with the discovery of the fired-brick foundation of the south wall. In this section of the wall the blocks were robbed out with the exception of one in the west balk of the square. Traces of a brick structure in the south balk suggest the possibility of a porch or anteroom on the south side of the basilica. Squares 13 and 15 were located in the southwest part of the basilica in order to ascertain the relation of the western row of columns (of the return aisle) and the south wall. Traces of the south wall were found along the south balk of Square 13. In Square 15 clear traces of the south wall were found-the fired-brick foundation, then two courses of limestone blocks with bricks in turn laid on the blocks, possibly suggesting an alternation of stone masonry and brickwork. The East Wall. Squares 14 and 16 were placed east of Square 7 (excavated in 1976) in order to locate the east wall. This east wall was identified in Square 14; in Square 16 the northeast corner with a portion of the north wall was uncovered. In addition to the identification of the outside walls and the method of their construction, some internal features of the basilica also were uncovered. Square 11 was located between the two stylobates on the north side of the nave ca. 10 m west of the apse. In this square a portion of the basilica floor was uncovered. In the 1976 season scattered limestone slabs were found in Squares 4, 5, and 6 (sometimes bedded in a layer of sand) and tentatively identified as fragments of the basilica floor. This was confirmed in Square 11 where a number of slabs were found in situ. Connected with this section of the floor was the foundation of a small brick structure. A decorated stone found in the debris apparently came from this structure-possibly the ambo (pulpit).

The Apse. Through the integration of the surface remains with the excavated architectural remains, it became more and more evident that most, if not all, of the apse of the basilica was under the modern houses on the east end of the site. Squares 10 and 17 were placed along the north side of these buildings in order to uncover any possible architectural remains of the apse and its adjacent area outside the modern buildings. In the eastern part of Square 10 a northsouth wall of limestone blocks was found; it was also identified in Square 12 north of Square 10. Peter Grossmann judges this to be the western wall of the sanctuary which on the north side had two chambers. Bricks on the edge of the blocks suggest that this wall was faced with a skin-wall of brick. In the western part

Ceramic evidence from Square 11 confirmedthe 4th-century date of the early church.

of Square 10 there was a stratum of lime with some deposits of sand-the underlayment for the basilica floor. The absence of the inner northern stylobate in this part of Square 10 suggests to Grossmann that it had here been discontinued to make place for a secondary triumphal arch before the apse. In Square 17 the founding levels of an east-west wall were uncovered. This appears to be the northern sidewall of the apse. Although the superstructures of the large basilica have been demolished and/or robbed out, the traces that have been uncovered have provided the basic architectural pattern. They also give promise of more extensive evidence regarding the basilica on the site, especially where there are sizeable amounts of building debris and stratification. Hopefully, the modern construction on the east end of the site has not greatly disturbed the antiquities. In

the squares that have been dug, numerous sherds were found in the strata relating to the basilica. Unfortunately, robbing activity in connection with the walls often disturbed the strata and contaminated the pottery. However, where strata clearly could be delineated as undisturbed (and in a few instances as sealed) the upper strata contained 7th-century material and the lower, 5th-century. This suggests that the basilica was built early in the 5th century and possibly abandoned in the late 7th or early 8th century. Tradition and some archeological evidence place its final destruction in the 1Ith century. The Earlier Church 4th to 5th century (Phase III) The evidence for the earlier church was found in Squares 5 and 6 during the 1976 season. Further evidence of this structure appeared in Square 11 below the level of the basilica floor. Uncovered here was the northeast corner of a building whose walls were made of fired bricks in regular courses. The north wall of this earlier building agrees with that identified in Square 6 in alignment and construction. The ceramic evidence from Square 11 confirmed the 4th-century date for this earlier church, as suggested in 1976. Such a date places this construction contemporaneous with or shortly after the time of Pachomius. This building may be the oratory built by Pachomius. An Earlier Building Late 3rd or Early 4th century (Phase II) In Squares 5 and 6 it was ascertained in 1976 that the walls of the earlier church were built over a still earlier structure in which one large room contained many large storage jars. Many of these had been sheared off to accommodate the floor and walls of the later building. In the 1977-78 season numerous sherds of large storage jars were found in Square 8 adjacent to Square 6. No other walls of this storage room were identified. Some architectural remains, partly disturbed in the building of the basilica wall, were uncovered in the northwest corner of Square 8.


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more than 250 m. The numerous sherds and some intact pottery uncovered by this digging date from the Ist century A.D. This evidence suggests a very large Roman settlement in the area, which also may have been the source of some of the architectural elements used in the .basilica. This evidence has clarified some problems with regard to the environment of the basilica. Until 1968 the village and fields of Fiw Qibli were flooded for about six weeks each year as the Nile overflowed its banks. This annual flooding left an alluvial deposit each year-an accumulation of over 2 m in 2000 years. This suggests that the site of the basilica would have had to have been an island during the flood season at the time of its use. The Life of Pachomius (chap. 60), which refers to going to the monastery by boat, may reflect such a situation. Further evidence regarding the previously unknown provenance of the bulk of the Bodmer papyri was obtained in 1976 and 1978, tending to confirm earlier conjectures that this collection also may have come from

the vicinity of the Jabal al-1-Trifand Fdiw QiblT.In this way three major indications of early Christianity are located in the vicinity of Nag Hammadi-the Gnostic codices, the Bodmer papyri, and the Pachomian monastic movement. These phenomena provide some challenging and interesting problems of integration and historical sequence.

Bibliography Debono, F. 1971

191-220. Robinson,J. M. 1966

American Schools of Oriental Research Newsletter 4 (1965-66).

Slih, A. 1895

The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and Some Neighboring Coun-

tries.Trans.B. T. A. Evetts.Oxford: Clarendon.

Bastiaan Van Elderen is Professor of New Testament at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and participant in many archeological excavations in Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan, where he has served as the acting director of the American Center for Oriental Research. He has been the field director of the Nag Hammadi Excavations since they began in 1975.

from

Unciena Persia:The Art of an Empire

new

Ancient

La basilique et le monastere de St. Pach6me. Bulletin de I'Institut franCais d'archeologie orientale 70:

Van Elderen, B., and Robinson, J. M. 1976a The First Season of the Nag Hammadi Excavation 27 November19 December 1975. Gottingen Miszellen 22: 71-79. 1976b The First Season of the Nag Hammadi Excavation 27 November19 December 1976. American Research Center in Egypt Newsletter 96: 18-24. 1977a The Second Season of the Nag Hammadi Excavation 22 November-29 December 1976. G6ttingen Miszellen 24: 57-73. 1977b The Second Season of the Nag Hammadi Excavation 22 November-29 December 1976. American Research Center in Egypt Newsletter 99/100: 36-54.

Edited by D. Schmandt-Besserat

-

Invited Lectures at Texas, vol. 4,

96 pp., 45 plates, $18.50 (hard), $14.50 (soft). Articles focusing on Persian art of the Achaemenianperiod, includingcontributionsby A. Farkas,O.W. Muscarella,A. Spycketand S.M. Goldstein.

Hurrian PersonalNamesin the RimahArchives By J.M. Sasson - Assur2/2, 32 pp.,$3.40. A collectionof Hurrianpersonalnamespreservedin the Old Babyloniantabletsuncoveredat Tell alof Hurriansat Rimah, and a Rimah, with statisticson names of Hurrianderivation,stratification discussionof the "ethnicconcentration" of Hurrians.

Tera PreliminaryReports

TPR 8: Objectsof the ThirdSeason,by L. Mount-Williams- SMS3/2. In press. TPR 9: Potteryof the ThirdSeason,by W. ShelbyandE. Griffin- SMS3/3. In press. TPR 11: Fourth Season: Introductionand StratigraphicRecord, by G. Buccellati SMS 4/1. In press. Evidence for a major urban settlement at the end of the fourth and the beginning of the third millennium, and the stratigraphicrecordof an importantKhanaperiod cuneiformarchive. write: information, Foradditional titles,anda generalcatalogue, flyersof individual descriptive UNDENAPUBLICATIONS. P.O.Box97, Dept.B.A..Malibu,CA90265


Peter Grossmann After the third season of excavating, several new architecturalfeatures were discovered which helped Grossmann to restore the original shape of the basilica.

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After the second season of the Nag Hammadi excavation at the end of 1976 the interpretation of the excavated architectural remains at QiblTwas somewhat uncertain F.w (Van Elderen and Robinson 1977a: 57-73; 1977b: 36-54). During work at QiblTin 1977-78, however, F.w several new features of the. basilica were uncovered so that it is now possible to create a relatively clear idea of the original shape of the church. The archeological team was able to determine how far the main structure of the church extended in all four directions. It appears that the great basilica of QiblTwas a very long building F.w aisles, with a return aisle along of five the west side (as is usual in early Christian architecture in Egypt), and probably a fine sanctuary at the east side. The western return aisle and the outer aisles on both sides of the nave are particularly narrow and, thus, demonstrate that they belong together architecturally. They form something of an ambulatory surrounding the three inner aisles on three sides. Doors must have existed in the west wall as the western row of columns would allow. The three inner aisles are considerably wider than the ambulatory. Contrary to the usual situation in Egyptian churches, these inner aisles do not differ very much from each other in width. The central nave is narrower than the combined width of the inner side aisles; in relation to other examples of aisles in Egyptian churches, this must be considered as Square5 from the Basilicaof St. Pachomius,showingseverallargestorage pots and a columnwhichfell onto the burnedlevel (left).

DecoratedstonefromSquare11of the Basilicaof St. Pachomius(opposite).

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shafts are with one exception 5.35-5.38 m long. This conformity in length contrasts markedly with both the irregularities in the position of the columns and the differences in the elevation of the bases. Furthermore, two different types of columns are to be distinguished: one type has a fully developed entasis (a slight convexity in a shaft of a column) and traditional profiles on the top and the footing, as they are known from the Hellenistic and Roman periods; the other type is without entasis and already has the profiles of the Byzantine column. In spite of these differences, however, one should not conclude that these columns were produced during widely separated periods of time. The first type of column shaft was used for the inner rows of columns on both sides of the central nave, and the second type was used for the two outer rows between the inner and the outer side aisles. The stylobate was raised about 40 cm above the floor level. To facilitate movement from one aisle to the other, small steps were constructed in the stylobate. A part of the floor could be identified at the eastern end of the inner left aisle where a few limestone slabs of the original pavement remained in situ (Square 11). Nearby, two large granite pedestals of the northern inner row of columns survived in relatively good condition.

really quite narrow. (By comparison, in the North Basilica of Abu Mena, an example of a more typical Egyptian church, the nave is three times as wide as the aisles; cf. Jaritz 1970: 69ff., fig. 7.) Perhaps in the particular case of the great basilica at Fdw QiblT,the group of three aisles in the center of the church replaces the single nave in the ordinary basilica. In addition, it is surprising that in front of the eastern wall of the nave (Square 10), where the end of the inner northern stylobate is to be expected, no indication of such a stylobate was uncovered. Thus, the possibility must not be excluded that at the last column the stylobate was turned toward the center of the nave. Two inner columns may have been added in front of the apse, like those in the basilica in the court of the temple of Medinet Habu at Thebes; in this way something like a secondary triumphal arch may have been formed. In the case of the basilica of Fdw Qibli, however, I am unable to restore these additional columns in such a way that the space between them corresponds correctly with the presumed width of the apse (Villard 1954: 51-53, fig. 57). The separation of the different aisles is accomplished by the use of four rows of huge, reused granite columns. Where the lengths could easily be measured, the complete

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Although little of it has been uncovered, the sanctuary of the church had two northern side chambers separated from one another by a rather thin wall. At the same time, the outer walls at the northeast corner are unusually thick. One should note, however, that this is the case only for the foundation, which was constructed in this manner to provide the corner especially with greater strength. In the much smaller main church at the monastery of Apa Jeremias at Saqqira, large blocks of granite were used for the same purpose (cf. Grossmann 1973: 145-46, fig. 1). Wace, however, tried to explain the same feature in the basilica of Hermopolis Magna by suggesting a staircase inside the north wall, but this explanation does not seem very satisfactory (cf. Wace, Megaw, and Skeat 1959: 49, pls. 4, 5). The apse and the chambers on the south side of the sanctuary are situated below some houses of the modern village of Fdw Qibli. There is no doubt, however, that the arrangement of rooms on both sides of the apse was more or less symmetrical. Since the central nave was quite narrow, the apse must not have been very large. At the west end of the church there is reason to surmise that there was an open narthex, although to date no positions of it have been uncovered. Its existence is indicated, however, by certain granite bases which were placed near the west end of the church. These bases are of a very different shape from the pedestals used for the inner rows of columns within the church. Finally, the church also possessed a portico along its north side. Since many column bases are to be found along the north side (though many have been overturned), this outer portico must have extended nearly the entire length of the church. Only the foundations of the walls of the church have survived. They are of extraordinary breadth (north wall-2.30 m; northeast corner2.90 m). Above the ground, however, the walls must have been considerably smaller. If one reduces the breadth of the inner edge by about 20 cm and the outer edge by about 30 cm, the


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