Academic literature on the topic 'Coptic'

Abstract Digital Humanities (DH) within Coptic Studies, an emerging field of development, will be much aided by the digitization of large quantities of typeset Coptic texts. Until recently, the only Optical Character Recognition (OCR) analysis of printed Coptic texts had been executed by Moheb S. Mekhaiel, who used the Tesseract program to create a text model for liturgical books in the Bohairic dialect of Coptic. However, this model is not suitable for the many scholarly editions of texts in the Sahidic dialect of Coptic which use noticeably different fonts. In the current study, DH and Coptological projects based in Göttingen, Germany, collaborated to develop a new Coptic OCR pipeline suitable for use with all Coptic dialects. The objective of the study was to generate a model which can facilitate digital Coptic Studies and produce Coptic corpora from existing printed texts. First, we compared the two available OCR programs that can recognize Coptic: Tesseract and Ocropy. The results indicated that the neural network model, i.e. Ocropy, performed better at recognizing the letters with supralinear strokes that characterize the published Sahidic texts. After training Ocropy for Coptic using artificial neural networks, the team achieved an accuracy rate of >91% for the OCR analysis of Coptic typeset. We subsequently compared the efficiency of Ocropy to that of manual transcribing and concluded that the use of Ocropy to extract Coptic from digital images of printed texts is highly beneficial to Coptic DH.

AbstractThe sparse scholarship on the political role of Coptic Christians in modern Egypt almost always takes the Coptic Orthodox Church as a point of departure, assuming that the head of the church, the Coptic patriarch, is not only the spiritual leader of the community but its political leader as well. This article argues that the disproportionate attention afforded to the Coptic Orthodox Church in this scholarship has obscured intra-communal dynamics of the Copts that are essential to an understanding of their political role. Through an analysis of historical struggles between the Coptic clergy and the Coptic laity for influence in Egyptian politics, as well as a particular focus on how these struggles have played out in the arena of personal status law, the article demonstrates that Egyptian politics and Coptic communal dynamics are deeply intertwined, to a degree often disregarded both by Copts and by Egypt analysts.

During the past thirty years the production of two-dimensional images designed to be used in religion has flourished in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt. After generations with little or negligible activity, enterprising ateliers can today be found all over the country.' Many of them are strategically placed in influential convents and monasteries and at important educational institutions. In this production of art, the Section of Coptic Art at the Higher Institute of Coptic Studies in Abbasiya in Cairo occupies a leading position. Under the direction of Professor Isaac Fanous Youssef the section is attempting to develop a Coptic iconography and style — which the Coptic Orthodox Church does not have. Images of Christ, Mary, and the saints are central in Coptic cultic life, but there is a traditional openness to all kinds of styles and the dominant ones are European and Byzantinesque, well-known in both Western and Eastern Christianity. Also other artists are engaged in developing an especially Coptic iconography and style, but Isaac Fanous and his pupils have received the greater attention and also have the support of official church authorities. The primary aim given for images in Coptic religion is that of being tools for communicating with and partaking of the Holy World.' The focus of this paper is on the usages and functions which the images have in Coptic life, in particular how they serve the construction of ethnic consciousness and cohesion of the Copts. Coptic identity is an important issue for the Copts. The images in question are included in a conscious effort to formulate and mediate who the Copts are. Through choice of themes, composition of motifs, and style, the images impart Coptic self-conception.

“Why does the Coptic script have the character ϯ? A lone syllabogram sacralizes the script” – The Coptic character ϯ has several abnormalities within the Coptic script. On the one hand, it is the only syllabogram in the Coptic alphabet. On the other hand, it is not existent in all Coptic dialects and not at all in Old Coptic. Thus, the older explanation that this character did not evolve from a Demotic origin but is a ligature consisting of ⲧ and ⲓ should again be considered. In a second step, it is asked why Coptic has the character ϯ at all. There is hardly any evidence for phonetic reasons, and it is also not convincing to stress a better economy of writing provided by just one sign. Therefore, another explanation is proposed: In Late Antiquity, when the Coptic script emerged, mysticism of signs and numbers (Gematria) was a common exegetic strategy and cultural phenomenon. In this context, the letters ⲧ and ⲓ were, among others, heavily charged with supplementary meaning and also took part in the creation of monograms (like the Staurogram ⳨) and the special writing of nomina sacra. Furthermore, a strong cult of the cross has evolved since Constantine I. and has led to many visual and textual representations of the cross, which the sign ϯ obviously resembles. Thus the implementation of the otherwise not required ϯ can be seen as a sacralization, if not Christianization, of the Coptic Script whose progenitors were used in pagan or at least non-Christian contexts. Therefore, the rendering of the Egyptian-Coptic language by the Coptic alphabet, which consists of some extra characters originating from the Demotic script besides ϯ, became acceptable for Christian texts, although the Demotic script at this time almost exclusively occurs in pagan contexts. Although ϯ has primarily phonographic functions in most cases, it can serve as a visual marker of Christian creed. Thus, this contribution tries to connect Graphematics, Coptology, Patrology and Early Christian Art for a more holistic approach towards the understanding of the character ϯ.

Of all of the “Oriental churches,” it is the Coptic church that has garnered the greatest scholarly attention. Nevertheless, the state of Coptic studies leaves much to be desired. Certain aspects have been studied in some depth at the expense of others that are equally important. Thus, while the Gnostic texts, the Christological controversies, the position of the Alexandrine church, and—to a lesser extent—the modern Coptic renaissance have received a good deal of attention, social history in the pre-modern period is sorely lacking, as is any serious attempt to understand the Coptic community in its Islamic context after the 7th century. Several previous synthetic works on the Coptic church, moreover, now appear problematic for their apologetic or polemical approaches to the subject. The present book, while not filling the lacunae, does provides a welcome, balanced synthetic history of the Coptic church.

AbstractThe question of when and where Egyptian Christians began to disuse the Coptic language and adopt Arabic remains a puzzle. The Apocalypse of Samuel of Qalamūn (ASQ) offers interesting hints about the process of language change by referring to the loss of Coptic in church functions. This paper argues that the ASQ represents Christians from the specific region of the Fayyūm and their struggle of identity maintenance that occurred after the Coptic language had generally fallen into disuse. Some scholars have speculated that the ASQ has a Coptic Vorlage, even though it is only extant in Arabic. This paper argues that the ASQ may have been originally an Arabic composition, perhaps written as late as the fourteenth century, as a means of connecting the Christian community to the Coptic language at a time when they were unable to access their tradition through Coptic-language texts.

Coptic language was an important period of the Egyptian language, coinciding with a period of social and cultural changes. Coptic is also associated with the Greek language, as its alphabet is used for the transcription of Coptic. Despite the fact that the Coptic element is strong in Greece, the theoretical background is rather weak. For this reason, it is considered necessary to create a software tool that aims to help in the translation of Coptic into Greek and at the same time to overcome various obstacles that the researcher may encounter while processing the various corpora or artifacts, such as processing issuer, diacritics etc. This tool consists of a database, a search engine and an interface.

ABSTRACT: This article attends to the entanglement of Coptic Christians and the Coptic Orthodox Church with a national politics centered around the citizenship concept and fraught with sectarianism. Since the early 1980s, the Coptic Orthodox Church has institutionally incorporated youth politics, pedagogy, and education through its Youth Bishopric. Following the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the rise of Coptic political movements that challenged the Church’s authority were portrayed by scholars as working in opposition to the Church’s politics and pedagogy. By weaving together accounts of the historical and contemporary programming of the Church’s Youth Bishopric and conversations around the discourse of citizenship in post-2011 Egypt among Coptic youth activists from the Maspero Youth Union, this article tracks Coptic contradictions of secular citizenship and debate over minority status. It specifically shows how Copts are engaging these contradictions in debate and ultimately parses out how the social conditions of such debate in itself may answer a call for an “ethical thematization” of religious difference.

<p><strong>This study aims to determine the impact of the Pan Arabism Movement initiated by Gamal Abdul Nasser in 1956-1970 on the religious identity, language, and culture of the Egyptian Coptic society. The method used in this study is a library research method by collecting data from various sources, then analyzing and describing the results of data analysis based on the cultural theory of the Egyptian Coptic society according to Malaty, 1993 and the Pan Arabism Policy theory according to Elie and Onn Winckler Podeh, 2004. Pan Arabism had an identity-changing impact on Egyptian Coptic society. In religion, the freedom to guard and protect their places of worship was restricted and the existence of the Coptic religion began to diminish. In language, the use of Coptic is increasingly restricted and Coptic is almost extinct because it is only used during worship as a liturgical language. Meanwhile, in cultural field, there was an ideological shift in Egyptian society and Egypt became more identical with Arab culture.</strong></p><p><strong><em>Keyword</em></strong> - <em>Pan Arabism, Gamal Abdul Nasser, Identity of the Egyptian Coptic Society.</em></p>

The essay points out some loci in the surviving part of the Coptic translation of De anima et resurrectione, written in Greek by Gregory of Nyssa. It shows how the Coptic text can be useful not only for amending the Greek text but also for understanding better the underlying theology of the Alexandrian Church, which promoted the Coptic translation. In this way, a reading of Gregory’s fragment will be read for the first time using the Coptic version on its own terms and not merely as a translation of Ancient Greek.

El presente trabajo concierne las estelas funerarias del Egipto copto y nace de la necesidad que a menudo se observa en el ámbito de los estudios del arte copto, es decir, la organización y la estructuración de un ingente material de proveniencia arqueológica que, siendo casi del todo fuera de contexto, es de difícil encuadramiento cronológico y no más trazable proveniencia. De hecho, las estelas coptas, hacen parte de la gran cantidad de material arqueológico que ha sido penalizado por la moderna investigación arqueológica que, en el caso de Egipto, se había concentrado prevalentemente y/o exclusivamente en los hallazgos de época faraónica, dejando de lado, casi por completo, los testigos de la antigua tradición cristiana. La tradición de las estelas coptas se da, en Egipto, con epitafios en lengua griega y copta. El objeto príncipe de nuestra investigación es el estudio del fenómeno del arte figurativo. En efecto, en muchas estelas, aparecen figuraciones que, en su conjunto, nunca han sido sometidas a una sistemática indagación. Los datos procedentes del estudio de las representaciones, han sido aquí puestos en relación con las epígrafes para una evaluación completa de las piezas y, finalmente, el intento más ambicioso ha sido, el de colocar una producción tan dispersada y fuera de contexto, en un marco cronológico coherente con el fin de clasificar algunas macro áreas de atribución. Los argumentos tratados se desarrollan a lo largo de tres distintos capítulos. El primer capítulo se abre con un párrafo dedicado a la historia de los estudios. El párrafo sucesivo trata de los caracteres generales de la producción: materiales utilizados; marco temporal de atestación; difusión espacial; naturaleza de la documentación; aparato iconográfico, leguas utilizadas y características principales de los epitafios funerarios; peculiaridades de las estelas documentadas en Egipto. Sigue un párrafo de carácter exclusivamente arqueológico. Se examinan aquí pues las estelas funerarias halladas en situ y las estelas utilizadas en contextos secundarios. La primera parte del capítulo se concluye con una descripción de algunas de las principales colecciones de estelas coptas, con una mirada especial a las colecciones italianas. El primer capítulo sigue con el análisis de aquellos conjuntos de estelas que, fechadas antes del siglo IV, pueden ser consideradas como los antecedentes de las estelas coptas: las así dichas estelas de “de los palmireños” de Coptos, de Alejandría, de Therenouthis/Kom Abu Billou, de Oxirinco/Bahnasa, de Antinoe/Sheikh Abada y de Akoris. El capítulo se concluye con un párrafo dedicado a las nuevas concepciones funerarias introducidas por el Cristianismo en Egipto, subrayando, sin embargo, también aquellos factores de continuidad con la tradición que se quedarán visibles también en la producción de las estelas coptas. También en este caso, el análisis procede de la particular atención reservada al estudio de la documentación arqueológica. El segundo capítulo atañe los aspectos propiamente arqueológicos y vuelve a recorrer la historia de las actividades arqueológicas en los diferentes sitios, con relación al hallazgo de las estelas. En orden geográfico, desde el Delta hasta Asuan, se relatan los descubrimientos de las estelas efectuados en los diferentes sitios. En el tercer capítulo se analizan las figuraciones presentes en las estelas. Este es un aspecto totalmente inédito en el panorama de los estudios de la figuración copta, puesto que, nunca hasta ahora, ha sido tratado en detalle con respecto a la entera documentación de las estelas coptas. Aquí, ha sido posible analizar también todas aquellas estelas – numerosísimas -, privas de la indicación geográfica de procedencia (y por esto excluidas del capítulo precedente), caracterizadas, sin embargo, por un rico y abigarrado repertorio iconográfico. Los elementos figurativos han sido aquí divididos en distintos párrafos y agrupados por tipologías: elementos arquitectónicos; figuras humanas; símbolos; pájaros; mamíferos; elementos acuáticos y marinos; elementos vegetales; diferentes objetos. El tercer capítulo, incluye las conclusiones divididas en tres párrafos principales. En el primer párrafo, se interpretan y analizan las estelas dentro del marco histórico. En el segundo párrafo se examinan las estelas sobre la base del análisis integrado de epitafios e imágenes. En el último párrafo se individúan las principales macro-áreas en las que es posible dividir la documentación copta. Estas, se localizan en el Delta, en el Sinai, en el Fayum, en el Medio y el Alto Egipto. De todas, se ponen en evidencia los caracteres principales y se proporcionan hipótesis de motivaciones históricas.
Il presente lavoro concerne le stele funerarie dell’Egitto copto e prende avvio dalla necessità che spesso si osserva nell’ambito degli studi di arte copta di organizzare e strutturare un ingente materiale di provenienza archeologica, che, essendo quasi del tutto decontestualizzato, appare di difficile inquadramento cronologico, nonché di provenienza non più rintracciabile. Le stele copte sono, infatti, tra i materiali archeologici che sono stati penalizzati dai metodi della moderna ricerca archeologica, che in passato si era prevalentemente concentrata sul materiale di epoca faraonica, tralasciando quasi del tutto le testimonianze di epoca copta. La produzione delle stele si realizza in Egitto con epitaffi sia in greco, sia in copto. Oggetto principale di questa ricerca è lo studio del fenomeno figurativo. In molte stele infatti compaiono raffigurazioni che nel loro insieme non sono mai stati sottoposti a indagine sistematica. I dati provenienti dallo studio delle rappresentazioni sono stati posti in rapporto con le epigrafi in modo da effettuare una valutazione completa dei pezzi. Il tentativo più ambizioso è stato infine quello di collocare una produzione così dispersa e decontestualizzata in un quadro cronologico coerente e di disegnare alcune macroaree di attribuzione. Lo sviluppo degli argomenti è organizzato in tre distinti capitoli. Il primo capitolo si apre con un paragrafo dedicato alla storia degli studi. Il paragrafo successivo tratta dei caratteri generali della produzione: materiali utilizzati, arco temporale di attestazione, diffusione spaziale, natura della documentazione, apparato iconografico, lingue utilizzate e caratteristiche principali degli epitaffi funebri, particolarità delle stele documentate in Egitto. Segue un paragrafo incentrato su dati esclusivamente di natura archeologica. Vengono così trattate le stele funerarie ritrovate in situ e le stele riutilizzate in contesti secondari. La prima parte del capitolo si conclude con una descrizione di alcune delle principali raccolte di stele copte, con particolare attenzione alle raccolte italiane. Il primo capitolo prosegue con l’analisi di quegli insiemi di stele che, datate prima del IV secolo, possiamo considerare come gli antecedenti delle stele copte: le stele dette “dei palmireni” di Coptos, di Alessandria, di Therenouthis/Kom Abu Billou, di Ossirinco/Bahnasa, di Antinoe/Sheikh Abada e di Akoris. Il capitolo si chiude con paragrafo dedicato alle nuove concezioni funerarie introdotte dal Cristianesimo in Egitto, sottolineando però anche quei fattori di continuità con la tradizione che rimarranno visibili anche nella produzione delle stele copte. Anche in questo caso l’analisi si basa con particolare attenzione sulla documentazione archeologica. Il secondo capitolo è rivolto agli aspetti più propriamente archeologici e ripercorre la storia delle attività archeologiche nei diversi siti collegata al rinvenimento di stele. In ordine geografico, dal Delta sino a Assuan, sono descritti i ritrovamenti di stele effettuati nei diversi siti. Nel terzo capitolo viene affrontata l’analisi delle raffigurazioni che compaiono sulle stele. Si tratta di una tematica mai affrontata in dettaglio per tutta la documentazione delle stele copte. Si sono potute qui trattare anche tutte quelle stele, numerosissime, prive del tutto di indicazione geografica di provenienza, e per questo escluse nel capitolo precedente, ma caratterizzate da un apparto iconografico ricco e variegato. Gli elementi figurativi sono stati divisi in diversi paragrafi raggruppandoli per tipologie: elementi architettonici, figure umane, simboli, uccelli, mammiferi, elementi acquatici e marini, elementi vegetali, oggetti diversi. Il terzo capitolo racchiude le conclusioni, che sono raccolte in tre paragrafi principali. Nel primo paragrafo si interpretano le stele all’interno del quadro storico. Nel secondo paragrafo si interpretano le stele sulla base dell’analisi integrata degli epitaffi e delle immagini. Nell’ultimo paragrafo si individuano le principali macroaree in cui è possibile dividere la documentazione copta. Queste aree vengono individuate nel Delta, nel Sinai, nel Fayum, nel Medio e nell’Alto Egitto. Di tutte vengono evidenziati i caratteri principali e vengono proposte anche delle motivazioni storiche.
This work concerns Egyptian Coptic funeral stelae and arose from the frequently observed need in the field of Coptic art studies for the huge amount of material to be organised and structured for archaeological provenance. Almost all of it is now found out of context, making it difficult to frame chronologically, as well as it being impossible to trace the provenance. Coptic stelae are, in fact, among the archaeological material which has been penalised by modern archaeological research methods, which, ever since the end of the 19th century, have been mainly concentrated on material from the Pharaonic age, omitting almost all evidence of the Coptic period, considered to be less valuable artistically, and, therefore, also historically. The production of stelae in Egypt involved epitaphs in both Greek and Coptic. The principal objective of this investigation was a study of the figurative phenomena, until now rather neglected. In fact, on many stelae there are images of humans, animals, plants, symbols, architectural motifs and various objects which, taken together, have never been systematically studied. The data coming from the study of the representations have been painstakingly placed in relation to the epigraphy in such a way as to effect a complete valuation of the pieces. Finally, the most ambitious attempt has been that of bringing together such a dispersed and decontextualized production into a coherent chronological framework and outlining some macro-areas of attribution. The development of the arguments in this study has been organised into three distinct chapters, structured by paragraph. The first chapter opens with a paragraph dedicated to the history of these studies. The following paragraph deals with the general characteristics of production: materials used, time arc for attestation, spatial diffusion, nature of the documentation, iconographic apparatus, languages used and principal characteristics of the funerary epitaphs, particularity of stelae documented in Egypt. There follows a paragraph centred upon data of a purely archaeological nature. In this way, funerary stelae are dealt with by reference to their burial context, that is seen as an element of the funerary apparatus provided for the burial. The next paragraph is also centred on archaeological themes and deals singly with stelae found in situ and with stelae reused in a secondary context. The first part of this chapter concludes with a description of the principal collections of Coptic stelae, paying particular attention to the stelae conserved in the Italian collections, for which an overview has never been provided. The first chapter follows with an analysis of all the stela which, dated before the IVth century, we can consider to be the antecedents of the Coptic stelae: the ‘Palmyrene’ stelae from Coptos, the Alexandrian stelae, and the stelae from Therenouthis/Kom Abu Billou, Oxyrhynchus/el-Bahnasa, Antinoe/Sheikh Abada and Akoris. The chapter closes with a paragraph dedicated to the new funerary ideas introduced into Egypt by Christianity, but underlining those factors of continuity with tradition which will also remain visible in the production of Coptic stelae. In this case the analysis pays particular attention to the archaeological documentation. The second chapter is devoted to the more properly archaeological aspects and recounts the history of archaeological activity at the different sites where stelae have been found and these findings of stelae at the different sites have been organised in geographical order, from the Delta as far as Aswan. The third chapter deals with an analysis of the representations which appear on the stelae. This is a subject which has never before been dealt with in detail for all the documentation of Coptic stelae. The numerous stelae without any geographic indication of provenance, but characterised by a rich and variegated iconography, have also been dealt with here – and hence their exclusion in the preceding chapter. The figurative elements have been divided into different paragraphs grouped together by typology: architectural elements, human figures, symbols, birds, mammals, aquatic and marine elements, plant elements, other subjects. The third chapter contains the conclusions, which are collected together in three main paragraphs. In the first paragraph, the stelae are interpreted within the historic frame. In the second paragraph the stelae are interpreted on the basis an integrated analysis of epitaphs and images. In the last paragraph the principal macro-areas into which it is possible to divide Coptic documentation are identified. These areas are in the Delta, in Sinai, in Fayum, and in Middle and Upper Egypt. The principal characteristics of all of them are highlighted and historical motivations are proposed.

Malgré le regain d'intérêt qu'ont connu ces dernières années les archives de Dioscore d’Aphroditê (Moyenne-Égypte, VIe s. après J.-C.), les documents coptes qu'elles contenaient sont restés curieusement sous-étudiés : en apportant des données nouvelles par rapport à la composante grecque, mieux étudiée, ils concourent à une meilleure compréhension historique de ces archives bilingues. Par ailleurs, faisant partie d'un ensemble majoritairement grec, ils posent le problème de l'usage et de la fonction du copte face au grec, langue de l'administration, autrement dit des rapports entre la langue nationale des Égyptiens et celle du pouvoir byzantin. Cette thèse constitue l’édition commentée d’un corpus de lettres coptes en grande partie inédit des archives de Dioscore. Il s’agit en effet du genre documentaire le mieux représenté du versant copte de cet ensemble archivistique. Le premier volume est constitué d’une synthèse qui pose le problème du rapport entre grec et copte dans un milieu villageois du VIe s. comme celui d'Aphroditê, qui traite des traits dialectaux, paléographiques et formulaires du copte en usage dans cette région et qui étudie les données historiques susceptibles de compléter celles livrées par les archives grecques. Le volume II contient les éditions commentées de ces vingt-et-une lettres, alors que le volume III contient les annexes (textes complémentaires, index, bibliographie et planches)
Despite the renewed interest in recent years in Dioscorus’ archives from Aphrodito (Middle Egypt, sixth century AD), the Coptic documents they contained have remained curiously understudied: by providing new data to that provided by the Greek texts, the best studied part of this archive, they contribute to a better historical understanding of these bilingual archives. Moreover, as part of a predominantly Greek dossier, they raise the issue of the use and function of Coptic in relation to Greek, the language of the administration, i.e., the relationship between the national language of the Egyptians and the one of Byzantine power. This thesis is the annotated edition of a corpus of Coptic letters, most of which have not previously been published, from Dioscorus’ archives. This text type is the documentary genre best represented in the Coptic component of this archival dossier. The first volume consists of a synthesis, which emphasizes the problem of the relationship between Greek and Coptic in a village like Aphrodito in the middle of the sixth century. It also deals with dialectal features, palaeographic and Coptic grammatical forms in use in the area, and studies historical data that complement those delivered by the Greek archives. Volume II contains the editions of twenty-one letters, with commentary, while volume III contains the appendices (complementary texts, indices, bibliography and plates)

Woman monks are not uncommon to find in Coptic and other hagiographic literature. They were described to dress into male attire and travel to anchoritic monasteries where they would get a single cell to devote their lives to God through seclusion, prayers, fasting, meditation, studies, and other daily chores, all the while not being known as women by most of the men in their brethren. It was a tough life for a man and it would have been a tough life for a woman. In this study, five hagiographies about woman monks will be examined: three Coptic, one Christian, and one found in both traditions. These women performed miracles and went through changes in both body and mind. The woman Hilaria is one of the most popular saints in Coptic belief and her story is the corner stone of this thesis. Her legend is also considered to be one of the oldest and might be the origin of these kinds of stories, which makes it remarkable on its own. Nonetheless, four other female saints will be examined to find what this essay seeks to answer: What are these women, as women, doing and why? What is the meaning of these stories? Why do they go to anchoritic monasteries? Are we dealing with portraying ideals on Coptic and Christian women? These are some of the questions that this essay is based upon. It combines Egyptological, Christian, literary, as well as gender research for a relevant and fresh view on these texts and their meaning.
Kvinnliga munkar är inte ovanliga att hitta i koptisk och annan hagiografisk litteratur. De klädde sig i manliga kläder och reste till anakoretiska kloster där de fick en cell för att viga sitt liv åt Gud genom avskildhet, böner, fastande, meditation, studier och andra vardagliga sysslor, allt medan de flesta av männen i deras brödraskap inte visste att de var kvinnor. Det var ett hårt liv för en man och det var ett hårt liv för en kvinna. I den här studien kommer fem hagiografier om kvinnomunkar att undersökas: tre koptiska, en kristen och en som återfinns i både traditioner. Dessa kvinnor utfärdade mirakel och gick igenom förändringar i både kropp och sinne. Kvinnan Hilaria är ett av de mest populära helgonen inom koptiskt trosväsende, och hennes historia är hörnpelaren i denna uppsats. Hennes legend anses också vara en av de äldsta och kanske ursprunget till dessa sorts historier, vilket gör den enastående i sig själv. Trots det kommer fyra andra kvinnliga helgon att undersökas för att hitta de svar som denna uppsats söker: Vad gör dessa kvinnor som kvinnor, och varför? Vad betyder dessa historier? Varför går de till anakoretiska kloster? Har vi att göra med porträtterande av ideal för koptiska och kristna kvinnor? Dessa är några av de frågor som denna uppsats bygger på. Den kombinerar egyptologiska, kristna, litteratur- och genusstudier för ett relevant och färskt perspektiv på dessa texter och deras betydelse.

Coptic is the latest stage of the indigenous Egyptian language written in the Greek alphabet with some additional characters taken from the Demotic script. Due to climatic conditions many manuscripts have survived from Egypt. The bulk of Coptic manuscripts of the 1st millenium A. D. is preserved in fragmentary condition and the remains are scattered – often as single leaves or small groups of leaves – over collections on three continents. So a major aim of scholarly work is the virtual reconstruction of codices. Assigning a fragment to a specific manuscript is often not easy. It’s not only necessary to compare the script for similarities but also to take into account the contents in order to identify the manuscript of origin and the position of the leave therein. In the case of known texts which have been recorded in a manuscript as full texts a mathematical approach can be used to estimate the position of a fragment. Special problems arise with manuscripts of uncertain arrangement, e.g. liturgical codices that do not have one continuous text. They combine texts from the scriptures, hymns, prayers, or lifes of saints. In these cases reliable estimates can only be given by comparing the identified text / texts on a single leave with a representative amount of data: this means collecting and indexing as much known material as possible and arranging it according to liturgical usage. The lecture presents ways of assigning fragments by use of palaeography to known codices. An important tool is the “palaeography data base” developed in the Institut für Neutestamentliche Textforschung at Münster (INTF) as a base instrument for virtual reconstructions in the Virtual Manuscript Room (VMR) of the INTF. Furthermore, electronic tools will be shown that are a by-product of the lecturer’s PhD for identifying texts, the order of manuscripts as well as for further research.

Going beyond an inventory of “Old Testament apocrypha” transmitted in Coptic, this chapter focuses on the conceptual problems inherent in the study of Coptic literature, and of Coptic apocrypha in particular. First, the complicated linguistic situation of late antique and early medieval Egypt is sketched, which as far as Coptic sources are concerned resulted in a fragmentary and discontinuous record. Secondly, the Coptic sources are considered in their social setting, which is primarily the liturgical life of Christian, predominantly monastic communities between the fourth and the twelfth centuries. It is argued that terminology such as “Old Testament apocrypha” is not only descriptively inadequate but bars a proper understanding of the texts as embedded in local Christian genres and practices.

This is an attempt of interpretation of a picture that draws from mystical tradition. It is about the comprehension of a topic in a painting by the Spanish artist Alonso Cano (1601–1667, Granada), from the National Gallery in Prague (O 14 690) Lactatio S. Bernardi – presenting the miracle of lactation, in which the Virgin Mary is squirting milk from her breast into the mouth of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (a historically very famous saint and major representative of the Cistercian Order). Traces of iconography lead up to the Coptic Church, where the typology of the milking Virgin was probably first originated (Galacto Trofusa in Greek or Maria lactans in Latin). The starting point is perhaps the portrayal of the virgin goddess Isis milking her son Horus. In many cultures, milk symbolises physical and spiritual food (e.g. the Milky Way evoking the ancient myth about spurted divine milk). On the other hand, milking is also present in the Old Testament as the image of special blessing; it is a symbol of eternal beatitude and wisdom. The dream/vision of her milk is then – apart from the rest – a sign of abundance, fertility, love, and fullness. The lactation of St. Bernard is an allegory of the penetration of the divine science in the soul. Thanks to this act the saint receives God’s guide, which he can then discharge into his writings.

The goldthread genus Coptis includes 15 species disjunctly distributed in eastern Asia and North America. Here, we provide a dated phylogeny for the genus with all 15 species. Our results indicate that Coptis contains two strongly supported clades (I and II). Clade I consists of subg. Coptis and sect. Japonocoptis of subg. Metacoptis; clade II composes sect. Japonocoptis of subg. Metacoptis. Central leaflet base, sepal shape, and petal blade carry a strong phylogenetic signal in Coptis, while leaf type, sepal and petal color, and petal shape exhibit relatively higher levels of evolutionary flexibility. Our dating and biogeographic analyses indicate that a vicariance event between Japan-North America occurred in the middle Miocene, resulting in the split of Coptis and its sister group. Subsequently, a colonization event occurred at 9.55 Ma from Japan to mainland China. Both vicariance and dispersal events have played important roles in shaping the current distribution and endemism of Coptis, likely resulting from eustatic sea-level changes, mountain formation processes and an increasing drier and cooler climate from the middle Miocene onwards.

Abstract Unmanned air vehicles or drones have become ubiquitous in our daily lives; they are deployed in performing many tasks from dangerous military missions to simple recreation activities. One air vehicle that has become very popular is the quad-copter driven by four vertical and parallel propellers. Today quad-copters are deployed in many video recording and remote monitoring almost everywhere in the world. One area of interest for quad-copters has been in farming operations; these vehicles are used in farming operations for not only aerial monitoring of soil nitrogen levels but many other farm monitoring operations. One common aspect of most quad-copters is that they are teleoperated by the user, i.e., most of them are not yet fully autonomous. There must be a remote pilot who is connected to the quad-copter by a video link so that he/she can control the maneuver of the vehicle along the intended path. This paper intends to show that a quad-copter can be programmed to run autonomously along a predetermined trajectory by using sliding mode control strategy. Since trajectories in most farms are clearly well known in advance, then they can be programmed into the controller for the quad-copter to autonomously track. The design process involves using the intended trajectory to define the 3-D sliding surface and then letting the quad-copter controller switch about that surface while keeping the vehicle in the target trajectory. The workspace is defined as a 3-D space where the sliding surface is defined by fitting weighted spline functions on the coordinates of the intended trajectory to define the stable sliding surface whose stability lever increases as the vehicle moves towards the target point. Preliminary results compare the trajectories followed by the quad-copter and the intended trajectories by using the mean square deviation. As would be expected, the performance depends heavily on the speed of the quad-copter; higher speeds on sharp curvature are associated with large tracking errors than low speeds on similar curvatures, while the performance on straight line paths was considerably good. This is most likely due to the switching speed because it seems that higher speeds should be associated with higher switching speeds also. The future work intends to study if parameterizing the 3-D splines using speed and time can improve the tracking performance where the switching rate will be made to be proportional to the number of spline functions that define the trajectory irrespective of the speed of the quad-copter.

A prototype of a mower-chipper typeharvester was developed for cutting small stems in cooperation between LSFRI Silava and SIA Laflora. The prototype produces chips and eco-pellets of various lengths in short rotation coppice, shelter belts and overgrown agricultural lands. The innovative element of the harvester is use of gravity force (bending of stems by a tractor own weight and formation of bunch of shoots with header and underframe) to feed in circular saws and chipper, thus significantly reducing energy demand for bending of shoots into the chipper, which is the most energy demanding operation in other commercial willow harvesters. Time studies were implemented in Skrīveri region in August 2022 in short rotation coppice fields established in 2011. Willows of tree different ages (1, 3 and 5 years) were harvested. The main factor influencing productivity in the study sites was growing stock of the coppice crops. The driving speed of the base machine cannot be significantly increased to avoid clogging of the chipper infeed and to retain good quality of chips; therefore, reduction of growing stock cannot be compensated with faster driving in the field. It was also noted that wood chip quality becomes significantly worse if the stump diameter of an average shoot is less than 1 cm and the saw blades are more often blocked by thin, flexible shoots. Similarly, clogging related issues were found in the 5 year old plantation. Optimal work conditions were in the 3 year old coppice crop; however, the driving speed of the base machine (MTZ82 tractor) was still too high. The recommended speed in such conditions is 0.8-1.2 km·h-1. The yield obtained in the tests under these conditions in the 3 year old coppice crop was 2.4 tons of dry matter per hour. The productivity could be raised by increasing the power of the base machine. There is still space for technical improvements to avoid clogging of material in the chipper and jamming of saw blades, as well as to improve the quality of chips.

This paper examines whose voices narrate official Coptic heritage, what the in-built biases in representations of Coptic heritage are and why, and some of the implications of omissions in narratives of Coptic heritage. It argues that the primary narrator of official Coptic heritage during the twentieth century was the leadership of the Coptic Orthodox Church. The Coptic Orthodox Church is the body that holds authority over the sources of heritage, such as church buildings and manuscripts, and also has the resources with which to preserve and disseminate heritage. The Church hierarchy’s leadership was not entirely uncontested, however, a middle ground was continually negotiated to enable lay Copts to play various roles and contribute to the articulation of Coptic heritage. Ultimately, though, alternative voices must operate within the limits set by the Church leadership and also negotiate the layers of exclusion set by society and state.

Entendiendo el gobierno abierto como un modelo de interacción entre el Estado y la ciudadanía, se hace necesario la definición e implementación de estrategias que faciliten la comunicación entre estos actores, permitiendo así que el ciudadano pueda ejercer su derecho a la intervención en la gestión de la administración pública. Gracias al avance tecnológico ha cobrado más relevancia este modelo de gobierno lo que ha llevado a un desarrollo de políticas a nivel nacional tendientes a la modernización del Estado colombiano, así como a la definición de estrategias de transparencia, participación ciudadana y rendición de cuentas. El proyecto aplicado pretende construir una estrategia de gobierno abierto en el Consejo Profesional Nacional de Ingeniería – COPNIA, para lograr así incentivar la participación de los inscritos en el registro profesional. Para este trabajo se aplicó la metodología de criterios ponderados, incluyendo un planteamiento de alternativas, así como la definición y evaluación de los criterios de selección y el análisis de actores, dando como resultado implementar el portal del inscrito, un portal web exclusivo para los profesionales que se encuentran en el registro profesional del COPNIA.