"I greet your holy fatherhood": an early medieval Coptic letter on a potsherd

[Coptic]. Coptic ostracon.

€ 3,500.00

A pottery ostracon inscribed with fifteen partial lines of an early medieval letter addressed to a spiritual superior. Penned in Coptic prior to or contemporary with the Islamic conquest of Egypt, the text reads "Before [everything / the matter in question I greet] / your [holy or lordly] fatherhood [I informed?] / you about this m[atter] / namely, if you sent [...] / load/ lift (?) it northward / [...] in order that we load them (?) / [Give it to] my father Victor. From [your?] / [son?] Heroumanê (?). (Staurogram) Farewell / [in the L]ord (staurogram) / this man came southward / come [in] peace (?) / he is a poor man. And / a small ... / his heart. Do not die (?) / [...] houm".

During the period prior to the first wave of Islamic conquests across North Africa, Coptic was the most widely spoken and written language in Egypt, then ruled by Byzantium, and remains in use among the Copts of Egypt and the Coptic diaspora today as the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church, and an important cultural touchstone for Copts regardless of religious affiliation.

This letter shows a few unusual spellings ("ers", line 10, is spelled "erees") and presents the slightly peculiar name "Herouman", recalling an aspirated variant ("Rh") of "Rômanê" - a name that is attested in a Greek text - but with an end phonetically like "Germane".