{"id":312333,"date":"2021-03-17T16:31:42","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T14:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=312333"},"modified":"2021-03-18T12:02:23","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T10:02:23","slug":"egypt-team-led-by-romanian-archaeologist-discover-worlds-oldest-known-monastery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/egypt-team-led-by-romanian-archaeologist-discover-worlds-oldest-known-monastery\/","title":{"rendered":"Egypt: Team led by Romanian archaeologist discover world’s oldest known monastery"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Franco-Norwegian team led by Romanian archaeologist Victor Ghica discovered the oldest archaeologically attested monastic site in the world. The site is 370 kilometers south-west of Cairo, Egypt, and it dates back to the 4th century.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The discovery made at Tall \u011ean\u016bb Qa\u1e63r al-\u2018A\u011f\u016bz, in the al-Bahariya oasis, certifies that Christian monasticism was born in the Egyptian Desert, as the Tradition of the Church has always taught.<\/p>\n

The archaeologists discovered “six sectors constructed predominantly of basalt blocks and mud” and “a number of buildings which are dug partially, or completely, in the bed-rock,” including “clusters of living spaces for monks.”<\/p>\n

Four of the six buildings complexes that compose the site were found in an exceptional state of preservation, with all the walls intact.<\/p>\n

The walls of four of the rooms, including the walls of one of the churches, are completely covered with religious texts written in Greek, including a passage from Evagrius and another one from St Ephraim the Syrian\u2019s Sermo asceticus<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Victor Ghica via MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Romanian Victor Ghica, who coordinated the project, declared<\/a> that “the dig reveals a new face of the beginnings of organised Egyptian monasticism\u201d and it brings new information<\/a> on “the nature of monastic life in the region”.<\/p>\n

Based on stratigraphy, radiocarbon analysis, ceramic and glass assemblages and two coins, the foundation date of the sector can be situated in the mid-fourth, or even in the first half of the fourth century, making it the oldest preserved Christian monastic site that has been dated with certainty.<\/p>\n

According to the Romanian, the recently discovered site adds to the “19 structures and a church carved into the bedrock” discovered in 2020 in this region inhabited by the first Christian monks between the 4th and the 8th century.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Victor Ghica via MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Victor Ghica is a professor<\/a> at the MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society in Oslo and a graduate of Bucharest University. He specializes, among other, in Late antique archaeology, Coptic and Ancient North Arabian Epigraphy, and in Copto-Arabic and Syriac literature.<\/p>\n