Jacques Van der Vliet | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

From the sixth century onwards, the kingdoms of Nubia, half-way between Egypt and Ethiopia, supported a vital Christian culture. Excavations revealed impressive churches and colourful mural paintings. However, written sources for Nubian Christianity are relatively scarce and not always easily accessible. The Sudan National Museum in Khartoum houses an important collection of Christian inscriptions on stone from medieval Nubia. Those written in Coptic are brought together in the present volume, those in Greek in a companion volume. Each text is reproduced, edited, often for the first time, translated and provided with an extensive commentary. Most of the over 120 Coptic pieces are funerary, some dedicatory in character. The presentation is arranged geographically in order to situate the texts as much as possible in their original archaeological context. Fully indexed, this collection of primary sources is an indispensable tool for every student of medieval Nubia and of considerable interest for the study of Coptic epigraphy in general.