Religious Belief in Burial: funerary Dress and Practice at the Late Antique and Early Islamic Cemeteries at Matmar and Mostagedda, Egypt (late fourth – early ninth century CE)

A.D. Plesa

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

This essay explores local, individual expressions of religious belief in a burial context, using the
evidence of funerary dress and burial practices from the late fourth-to
early ninth-century
CE cemeteries
of Matmar and Mostagedda, in Middle Egypt. It proposes that the communities at Matmar
and Mostagedda, although most probably nominally Christian, developed particular practices and
beliefs that to a large extent continued older local traditions. The mixing of elements of traditional
and Christian beliefs is best described in terms of religious syncretism, engendered by concerns
related to salvation, protection in the afterlife, or a desire to express the piety of, and veneration
practiced by, members of these agricultural communities.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)18–42
JournalArs Orientalis
Volume47
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

Keywords

  • Egypt, Late Antiquity, Archaeology, funerary practice

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