THE FATE OF THE TEMPLES IN LATE ANTIQUE EGYPT.
As elsewhere the fate of the temples in late antique Egypt has often been perceived through the lens of the (Christian) literary works, which tell dramatic stories of the destruction of temples and their conversion into churches. When one looks at the other types of sources available from Egypt--ins...
| Publicado en: | Late Antique Archaeology Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 389 - 437 |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Brill Academic Publishers
2011
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| Sumario: | As elsewhere the fate of the temples in late antique Egypt has often been perceived through the lens of the (Christian) literary works, which tell dramatic stories of the destruction of temples and their conversion into churches. When one looks at the other types of sources available from Egypt--inscriptions, papyri and archaeological remains--however, it becomes abundantly clear that the story of what happened to the temples was usually much less dramatic. This article argues that, in order to get a more reliable and complex picture of the fate of the temples, it is best to study them within a local or regional context and from a variety of sources, especially material remains since they can provide the most detailed picture of a whole range of methods of reuse, if the building was reused at all. A case study (of the First Cataract region, Southern Egypt) confirms that violence against temples and their reuse as churches were indeed exceptional and but two aspects in the complex process of the changing sacred landscape of Late Antiquity. Le sort des temples d'Égypte durant l'Antiquité tardive a souvent été perçu à travers l'écran des sources littéraires chrétiennes, lesquelles donnent une image dramatique de la destruction de temples et de leur conversion en églises. Lorsque l'on observe les autres types de sources disponibles en Égypte (inscriptions, papyri et vestiges archéologiques), il devient tout à fait clair que le sort des temples fut en général beaucoup moins dramatique. Cet article soutient que pour se faire une idée plus fiable et plus complexe du sort des temples, il vaut mieux les étudier au sein d'un contexte local ou régional et à partir de sources diverses, tout particulièrement des vestiges matériels. Une étude de cas, portant sur la région de la première cataracte dans le Sud de l'Égypte, confirme que les manifestations de violence contre les temples et leur conversion en églises étaient bien exceptionnelles. |
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