2 research outputs found
The Italian Egyptian Project of Study and Conservation of the Monastery of Abba Nefer at Manqabad 2018 - 5th Campaign
The 2018 fieldwork was long enough to
consent both archaeological and restoration
activities and to go on with the topographical
survey in order to provide a complete and georeferenced
map of the site. It was also possible to
start an overall pottery survey, and to conduct a
preliminary investigation of the area immediately
South of the town wall.
The thorough survey of the selected Areal
Units allowed us to confirm some preliminary
considerations about the Northern Sector
complex raised from the 2014 campaign. The
complex appears as composed of two long rows
of buildings, realised in successive phases. All
the AUs selected for investigation in the 2018
survey pertain to our Pattern 2 (Pirelli et alii
2017), where the northern row is occupied by a
cell (HU) and the southern one appears as an
extension of it, and is formed by an open court
that, in later phases, was completed with some
service structures32. However, we realised that
this pattern is more various than we expected
based on the observations of the 2014 survey.
All the HUs that we have surveyed (AU 2,
3, 833 and 26) belong to type 1, and underwent
lesser changes through time, both architecturally
and structurally. They were originally completed
in the South by a simple open court, which was
limited, on the East, West and probably also
South sides by thin walls (12/14cm) intended
ideally to separate the monks from each other,
however without creating an effective isolation
and without forcing them to be really
independent. Actually, as far as we could
observe, during the first phase, none of the HUs
was furnished with hearths, external storerooms,
wells or basins. It was in a second phase that
important changes occurred in the open courts in
front of the cells, some of them common to all
the observed AUs, others differentiating them
from each other. In most cases, the West walls
were reinforced to host niches with embedded
vases, hearths, and store-boxes, while the floors
were raised and sometimes paved with limestone
slabs and reused architectural ceramic, granite
and limestone elements, not only from the first
Christian phase, but also from the Pharaonic
period (AU3S, AU8/9). In a third phase, some
walls were reinforced once more to support
staircases that were to give access to upper
(AU3S) or underground storerooms (AU8/9S1);
it is likely that the addition of these storerooms
caused the closing of some of the annex rooms of
the underground space of the cells.
The preliminary observations on (baked
and unbaked) bricks, building techniques and
plaster types demonstrate that the major
architectural changes also correspond to different
qualities of materials and to different degrees of
accuracy in realising and/or repairing structures
(B.2 and 3).
The newly discovered texts and stone
architectural elements point, once more, to a
lively and refined cultural environment and a
long and complex history of the monastery,
which are also confirmed by the first results of
the two pottery surveys. They were conducted in
different areas of the site and with different
approaches (see above B5 and 6) and notably
enrich our data on this category of material, as
the study in 2014 included only complete and
mostly decorated items kept in the storehouse of
el-Ashmunein. The samples analysed on the site,
by contrast, were diagnostic fragments belonging
to more varied types, mostly ranging from the
late 4th/early 5th to the 7th century, and belong
both to Egyptian original and imitation
production and to imports.
As to the Egyptian production, several
items could be attributed to well known Saqqara
and Assuan types, but several different wares
collected all over the site - including the area of
the southern dump - point to the possibility that a
local production also occurred. The imported
wares interestingly draw a noteworthy network
of - direct or indirect - relations and trade with
not only Gaza and Proconsular Africa, but also
with Cilician and eastern Mediterranean ports, as
the abundant presence of fragments of LR1
demonstrates. The chronological time span of
some of them seems to confirm that the origin of
the site dates back far beyond the 6th century, and
this is pointed to also by some monumental
remnants of structures both in the Central Sector
of the site34 and outside the southern side of the
town wall (Fig. 45)35. On the other hand, many
reused materials of the Pharaonic period found in
different areas of the site also suggest the
closeness to structures of much older times.
As expected (Pirelli 2019), the survey of
the large dump, South of the town wall, proved
to be highly productive. The pottery and
topographical surveys carried out in this area
revealed a very complex situation that needs to
be investigated more in depth, but the presence
of different structures (see B.5, B.6 and note 35)
and numerous fragments of burnt ceramics and
bricks burnt by overexposure to heat - among the
large amount of stratified pottery fragments and
ashes - already make it possible to suggest that a
productive area and kilns were present here,
although their specific nature cannot be yet
determined.
An important part of the activities of the
last campaign was dedicated to restoration and
conservation questions. The analyses of the
materials and techniques employed both in
paintings and in buildings were aimed at two
main objectives: carrying out urgent
interventions on the fragile and threatened
paintings and mud brick structures of the selected
AUs (see above D), and making a master-plan of
conservative restoration of the whole complex,
also functional to a proposal of site management