170
T. G. WILFONG
published or copied. A little information on findspots did make its way
into the publications of the site and the ostraca, and, from this we can
tell that a number of Coptic ostraca--given the field number 29.211--were
discovered in square N 11 on the site plan.2 Additional published
statements suggested that these ostraca were probably found in the cellar
of House 34.3
I have been able to confirm and supplement the published account
of the find from unpublished sources in the Oriental Institute Museum
Archives and Museum Registration files.4 This information shows that
the find given the field number 29.211 was made on December 20, 1929
at the coordinates N 19.00 and 11 4.00 on the site plan. This information
definitely places the location of the find in the cellar of house 34. The
majority of the objects found there were ostraca: thirty pottery ostraca,
all probably inscribed in Coptic, came from this find. Also found in the
cellar of house 34 were a bone button of Coptic date5 and two faience
beads of pharaonic date,6 which are now in the collections of the
Oriental Institute Museum. A ceramic lamp now in the Cairo Museum
may also be from this same find.7 Although this information provides a
more complete account of the discoveries in square N 11 than the
2U. H1lscher, The Excavation of Medinet Habu, V: Post-Ramessid Remains
(Oriental Institute Publications 66, Chicago 1954) 50 and Elizabeth Stefanski and Miriam
Lichtheim, Coptic Ostraca from Medinet Habu (Oriental Institute Publications 71,
Chicago 1952) xi.
3Miriam Lichtheim, Demotic Ostraca from Medinet Habu (Oriental Institute
Publications 80, Chicago 1957) vii n. 2.
41 would like to thank John Larson, Oriental Institute Museum Archivist, Ray
Tindel, Oriental Institute Museum Registrar, and Glenn A. Carnagey, Oriental Institute
Museum Assistant Registrar, for access to and assistance with this material. A summary
of all the known unpublished information on the findspots of the published Medinet
Habu ostraca will be published elsewhere.
5OIM 15877, unpublished; see Terry G. Wilfong, "Another Egypt: Coptic Christians
in Western Thebes (7th - 8th Centuries A.D.), List of Objects" (Chicago: Oriental
Institute Museum, 1990), object number 70, for a brief description.
60IM 15328a-b; these two beads, both unpublished, are in the form of the emblem
of the Egyptian goddess Neith. There is no way to determine whether the presence of
these pharaonic beads among material of much later date is due to later re-use or not.
Such re-use of pharaonic objects (and structures) is well-attested at Jeme.
7Cairo JdE 59687, published H1lscher, The Excavation of Medinet Habu V, fig. 94 f
on p. 70 and pl. 40:18, number IX f of the corpus of lamps. Although not explicitly
described as being from house 34 in the publication, the lamp is stated to have come from
a Coptic house in square N 11. Given the way Holscher described the provenances of the
finds, it is likely that he was referring, in this case, to house 34.
