The close contact of Christian Nubia with Coptic Egypt led to substantial influences on how Christianity was practiced in the kingdoms of the Middle Nile Valley from the sixth century onward.1 This influence concerned both the official liturgy of the church and per- sonal piety.2 Perhaps most importantly, the Coptic influence in Nubia brought…[Read more]

The present text, an Old Nubian land sale (DBMNT 700), was uncovered during the fourth and last season of the ARCE mission between 26 December 1965 and 26 April 1966. According to the preliminary report of Millet, the sale was found ‘at a considerable distance from the palace’, part of ‘Late Christian remains’. According to Millet, the palace…[Read more]

In my editio princeps of the legends on a painting in room 5 of the Southwest Annex of the Monastery on Kom H in Dongola (DBMNT 1364), I translated the verbal root ⲁⲣⲁⲅ / ⲁⲣⲁⲕ as ‘to bear, to be pregnant.’ This now appears to me to be an error. A far more natural rendering of several phrases could be achieved by translating ⲁⲣⲁⲅ as ‘to dance’,…[Read more]

What happens when one launches an independent academic press without the resources that an already existing university press (UP) has, without institutional backing of any kind, and without a so-called angel investor or private foundation grants? punctum books had none of these things when it started in 2011, but it had Eileen’s retirement s…[Read more]

In recent years, medieval studies have become increasingly aware of how enmeshed they are in fascist ideologies as medieval imagery is weaponized and scholarly discourse appropriated for political ends. These developments have brought into view how medieval studies as a discipline have its origins in the epistemic frameworks of 19th-century…[Read more]

Old Nubian is the modern designation for a literary language attested in texts from the Nubian kingdom of Makuria in the Middle Nile Valley between the late eighth and fifteenth century ce. This entry provides a concise overview of the language, its history, and its grammatical features.