Wine and monks in

Christian Egypt
Jennifer Cromwell, British Museum
For the better part of three months, Ie been obsessed with wine
and monks!
"he monks in #uestion were residents of an Egyptian $Copti%&
monastery dedi%ated to 'pa "homas and lo%ated in Wadi (arga, a
alley in %entral Egypt, dating from the si)th to late eighth %enturies
'* $from the fourth %entury, Egypt was one of the most important
%entres of monasti%ism in the early Christian world&! "he site was
e)%aated in a single season before the First World War and the
British Museum was the prin%ipal re%ipient of ob+e%ts found at that
time, almost -,.// ob+e%ts made from pottery, glass, metals, wood,
stone, bone, and te)tiles! "he Museums *epartment of 'n%ient
Egypt and (udan also holds the original e)%aation notes and
photographs of the e)%aator 0eginald Campbell "hompson!
*espite this wealth of material, the monastery is often oerlooked
in studies on Egyptian monasti%ism!
'r%hial photograph showing remains of the monastery of 'pa "homas at
Wadi (arga $'E( 'r 1-2/&
3ne of the reasons for this is that less than 145 of this material
has been published! My three6month postdo%toral fellowship in the
*epartment of 'n%ient Egypt and (udan has been part of the
pro%ess to re%tify this, as part of Wadi (arga at the British
Museum, a larger pro+e%t under the dire%tion of %urator Elisabeth
3Connell! "his pro+e%t brings together spe%ialists from a%ross the
78 and oerseas, fo%ussing on different aspe%ts of the %olle%tion!
My fo%us is on the written eiden%e from the site!
' sele%tion of te)ts from Wadi (arga $%lo%kwise from top left&, E'
42291 $fragment of a liturgy&: E' 44;;. $an order to pay wine to a nun %alled
Irene&: E' 2<..< $a broken ins%ribed bowl, presering =Jesus Christ, Brother
>&: E' 44.;2 $a wine re%eipt, dated . (eptember&
(ome 9.4 te)ts written on pie%es of pottery, or potsherds $the
standard writing medium at the site, known as ostra%a&, limestone
stelae, papyrus $now in the British ?ibrary&, and wall graffiti were
published in 1<--! 3er 1,/// additional items bear te)t of some
type, from letters to lists to labels! My first task was to photograph
all this material! ' sear%h for @Wadi (arga ostra%onA in the
Museums %olle%tion online now returns 1,BB1 ob+e%ts with images!
"his resour%e is aailable for eerybody interested in this topi%,
and means that I %an %ontinue my own work on the monastery
upon my return to 'ustralia $Ma%#uarie 7niersity, (ydney&!
My main interest is how these monks lied and how the monastery
fun%tioned, how they spent their time, what they ate and drank,
and who they %ommuni%ated with in the outside world and why! In
eerything, wine looms large!
Jennifer Cromwell, Costdo%toral Fellow in 'n%ient Egypt and (udan,
photographing ostra%a from Wadi (arga
"he monastery owned ineyards throughout Egypt, as far north as
the Fayum, almost B// km away along the Dile! (omewhere
between 1/,/// and -/,/// litres of wine entered the monastery
ea%h year! ' proportion of this wine was used to pay labour wages
for %amel herders, %raftsmen, and goods suppliers and was sent
out to other %ommunities! But the monks also %onsumed a fair
share themseles! Wine was the main drink in this period of
Egyptian history and the monks were no e)%eption: remains of
glass goblets $%urrently being studied by my %olleague Jane
Faiers& attest to its %onsumption on site! In addition to standard
wine, whi%h didnt hae the same al%oholi% %ontent as that whi%h
we %onsume today, we find @newA wine, @oldA wine $probably not
@intageA E there was no ChFteau6?afite 0oths%hild being supped
oer dinner&, and @unmi)edA $pure& wine! 'fter %onsuming the wine,
many amphorae, easily identifiable by their thi%k pit%h internal
%oating, were broken and used to write other te)ts, often
themseles mentioning wine!
"he names of many monks are known, but its diffi%ult to build
biographies of most of them and to understand who they were! We
know een less about what they looked like, but eery now and
again we are treated with a more personal glimpse! "wo
unpublished ostra%a presere broken isages! "he first, E' ;/;22,
has a doodle of a shaggy6haired monk with a thi%k mono6brow
aboe two heay eyelids! "his $selfG6& portrait was drawn in a
moment of boredom from pra%ti%ing writing e)er%ises and is one of
a %ouple of doodles on this s%hool te)t! "he se%ond, E' 2<.;<, is
part of a bowl with the name Chib s%rat%hed into the surfa%e! 3n
the broken base of this bowl are the s%rat%hed6in eyes, nose, hair,
and hands of Chib, his hands waing at us from oer 1,9// years
ago!
E' ;/;22 $left& and E' 2<.;< $right& showing broken images of monks from
Wadi (arga
"he te)ts, as part of a large body of material from Wadi (arga,
proide an e)%ellent sour%e for understanding life in these
%enturies, and are the ne)t best thing to a%tually sitting down with
Chib oer a glass of wine and pi%king his brain!