Archaeology Magazine - June 1962 - 44

Faras

continued

OPPOSITEPAGE:
3. Upper left: Marblestele commemorating
BishopIoannes
of Pachoras,who died in A.D.606.

ing the two chapels. The same was done between the
second and third chapels.
The third room (27 on the plan), which has no 4. Lowerleft: Steleof BishopPetros,who died in A.D.662.
mural decoration, seems to have been adapted from
5. Upperright: Steleof Bishoplesu, who died in 972. The
a longer room by the expedient of building a mud- lines
of letters are painted alternatelyblack and red.
brick wall on the east. Two skeletons were found in
this chapel, each having at its feet a water-gourd and 6. Lowerright: Steleof BishopGeorgios,who died in 1097.
lamps. The skeleton nearest the north wall had beside
its arm a bronze bishop's key shaped like a Coptic cross.
This building is explained by a third building (26)
which shares its east wall and which was only partly
excavated during the spring. It is a rectangular conThe stone building must be one of the earliest of
struction of. baked bricks with a cupola and is erected the Christian era in
Pachoras, about the second half
on a mud-brick foundation (see Figure 7). Since the of the sixth
century. This fact is of great value for
height of the baked-brick wall is only 1.80 m., it is dating other Christian remains in Faras, according to
probably a tomb, similar to those found at Kasr Ibrim the use of stone or baked brick for walls. The remains
and Medinet Addah.
of the so-called Great Church and the Church by the
The complete answer to the riddle will be given River Gate, found
fifty years ago by Griffith's Oxford
only next season, after the clearing of this building Expedition- for which Griffith tentatively suggested
and the adjoining area. But we can already state the an
eleventh-century date- must now be dated to the
following relationship: the chapels (28) were in- second half of the sixth century.
serted between two previously erected buildings
(25, 26). The oldest seems to be the stone-walled The building activities of the eleventh and twelfth
building (25), where two inscribed, partially ham- centuries are represented by the church and monastery
mered blocks from a temple of Thutmose III were
(1 and 2 on the plan), built of mud brick and decofound. The brick building with the cupola (26) was rated
with mural paintings in a typical Coptic figure
also built before the chapels, which use its west wall
These were partially excavated by the Oxford
style.
for their east walls.
and have now been more closely investiExpedition
The Ioannes stele, the oldest, gives us a date at
us.
We found the entrance to the monastery
by
least for the construction of the cupola building, to gated
church in the southwest corner of the south wall, and
which it seems to belong. The stone building with the other
of frescoes representing the apostles,
window must be older, because its wall goes deeper. similarfragments
to those found by Griffith in the apse. More
The chapels were built not much later than 606,
still, we discovered the decorated arched
for the stele of Bishop Petros was surely inserted after important
entrance to the monastery, on the south side, leading
the chapel was built. These chapels were used as to vaulted corridors and rooms which
Griffith, looking
places of worship for about four centuries, since the from the north side, had thought to be only supermost recent stele belongs to the eleventh century. The structures of the church. This entrance leads to a
long
oldest stele is written in Greek, the latest in Coptic. corridor into which
vaulted rooms, and to a
open
Coptic influence prevailed in Faras from the eighth to flight of stone steps leading to the upper part of the
the tenth century. Therefore the frescoes are older
Here the remains of the plastered walls of
than that, and not much later than the first two stelae. building.
various rooms of the monastery have been cleared
They present us with the oldest examples (probably
the monastery church, which is on the
seventh century) of mural paintings in Nubia, with adjoining
same level.
characteristic features of Greco-Byzantine style. It is
The first campaign of the Polish excavations at
worth mentioning that the first Christianization of
Faras has brought to view, inside the Meroitic enLower Nubia was carried out on the instructions of
closure discovered by Griffith, the following:
Empress Theodora of Byzantium, through the Moa) 150 inscribed and decorated sandstone blocks
nophysiteMetropolitan of Alexandria. As the Christianfrom the temple of Thutmose III, the foundaization of Nubia took place in the time of Justinian,
tions of which have not yet been discovered.
between 542 and 548, and as Bishop Ioannes died in
606 at the age of 82, it is possible that he was the
b) Pottery and an ostracon (inscribed sherd) found
in a wall, permitting us to date the remains of
first bishop of Pachoras.
116

Archaeology Magazine - June 1962

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