Christian Funerary Stelae of the Byzantine and Arab periods from Egypt

Bianca Tudor provides the first comprehensive archaeological and epigraphical study of Christian funerary stelae from Egypt. Her research gives keen insight into the architectural and functional background of these monuments as well as into the phraseology and structure of their Greek and Coptic inscriptions in relation to their geographic, chronological and socio-cultural contexts. Nevertheless, the author displays a vivid picture of the Christian burial grounds of Egypt from the fourth to the fourteenth century AD. Bianca Tudor's thorough analysis of more than 800 epitaphs covering over ten centuries reveals the gradual metamorphosis of Egypt's vibrating urban and Hellenised centres into rural and monastic nuclei of local Coptic culture.