Ostracon Inv. No. 4746 Limestone Excavation at Zawiet el-‘Arian, 6th-8th century Ostraca are fragmentary pieces of pottery, stone or bone bearing inscriptions or a design. This ostracon shows part of a running horse, its body decorated with motifs and a Coptic word.   Ostracon Inv. No. 4382 Limestone Deir el-Bahari, 7th-8th century This limestone ostracon […]

Panel with inscription Inv. No. 928 Ivory The Church of Anba Shenouda, 13th century A rare panel of a sanctuary door carved in fine relief with verses from a Psalm in Coptic: “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the House of the Lord” (Ps 122:1). Containers Inv. Nos. 176, […]

The Copts were famous for their outstanding weaving skills and exported their products to other Mediterranean countries. The textiles were mainly made of plain linen in which the entire surface was decorated with dyed woolen threads. This technique is called tapestry. One of the finest examples was probably used as a curtain and is decorated […]

Two pages from the Nag Hammadi Library (Codex II) Inv. No. 10544 Papyrus H: 28 cm, W: 15 cm Jabal al-Taref, near Nag Hammadi, 4th century In 1945 a farmer discovered 13 codices (books) near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt. They were sealed in a large terracotta jar and wrapped in leather […]

Icon with St. Barbara Inv. No. 3451, Painted wood Western style / Italy ? St. Barbara Church, 15th century St. Barbara is among the most popular Christian saints in the East and West. She was locked in a tower by her pagan father, the rich Dioscuros from Nikomedia (today’s Ízmit in Turkey), who was envious […]

What We Do & How to Join It has been the trend in recent years to involve the civil society hand in hand with the government in various sectors. Hence, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) encouraged a group of intellectuals to establish a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) under the name of “Friends of the Coptic […]

HISTORY OF THE COPTIC MUSEUM Interest in Coptic art was revived at the end of the 19th century when Mr. Gaston Maspero, a French Egyptologist, brought together many pieces in dedicated rooms of the Egyptian museum. In 1908, Marcus Simaika Pasha, having obtained the approval of Patriarch Kyrillos V, succeeded in getting the Coptic Museum […]

COPTIC LETTERING Coptic is the name used to refer to the last stage of the written Egyptian language. Coptic should more correctly be used to refer to the script rather than the language itself. The Hieroglyphic, Hieratic, Demotic and Coptic are different scripts to one language, which is the Egyptian language. The ancient Egyptians devised a […]

THE COPTIC LANGUAGE     The Coptic Language is the Egyptian Language in its last phase. It was written with the letters of the Coptic alphabet which is derived from Greek letters and Demotic Egyptian signs. It differs in some respects from the classic Egyptian language due to common language modifications over thousands of years. […]

INTRODUCTION: COPTIC LANGUAGE by Dr. Kamal Farid Isaac The Coptic Language is the Egyptian Language in its last phase. It was written in the Coptic alphabet which was derived from Greek letters and Demotic Egyptian signs. It differs in some respects from the classic Egyptian language due to normal language changes over thousands of years. […]