Nubica Onomastica Miscellanea I: Notes on and Corrections to Personal Names Found in Inscriptions from Faras

Abstract

This paper offers corrections and new readings to names found in eleven inscriptions originating from Faras. Inscriptions were discovered at different periods, ranging from the visit of Karl Richard Lepsius in 1844 to the rescue excavation by the Polish archaeological mission of Kazimierz Michałowski in 1961–1964. The material covers different types of sources (epitaphs, visitors’ inscriptions, subscriptions, and an owner’s inscription) in three languages (Greek, Coptic, and Old Nubian) and spans roughly the whole Christian period in Nubia, from the seventh to the fourteenth or even fifteenth centuries. The corrections include both ‘cosmetic’ improvements in reading (e.g. from the form ⲁⲛⲁⲛⲉ to ⲁⲛⲁⲛⲏ) as well as identification of ghost-names (e.g. the highly unusual name Theoria, which is in fact a misreading of Theophil).

Keywords

• Christian Nubia
• Faras
• Greek
• Coptic
• Old Nubian epigraphy
• onomastics