Author Description

In 2005, the Bible + Orient Foundation at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) enhanced its collection with a group of 68 ostraca, written in Coptic and Ancient Greek, and donated by the family of a Swiss collector. The expression "chine nsa" written on almost all the ostraca, leaves no room for doubt as to their origin: the monastery of Bawit, in Middle Egypt. The documentary texts on the ostraca concern the economic management of the monastery and were used for delivery requests of food, especially grain, from the surrounding fields. As a group, these ostraca are coherent and homogeneous. Repetition of personal names, toponyms and dates, as well as our ability to recognize the hand of a single scribe on several of them, suggest they come from one archive.