Winlock H.E., Crum W.E. The monastery of Epiphanius at Thebes: Part I: The Archaeological Material - The Literary Material

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1926. — 443 p. — (Publications of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian Expedition 3).The present work is appearing after a delay of more than ten years from the completion of the excavations which it describes, but the authors feel that their explanation of this circumstance will be readily accepted by the reader. The preliminary study of the material from the second season, that of 1914, had scarcely been started when the War broke out and all of those who were to have been engaged in the preparation of the book soon found themselves drawn into activities of a very different nature. Thus passed more than four years, and at their conclusion it was found no simple matter to restart the interrupted undertaking, and almost impossible to surmount the difficulties which then beset any large undertaking in printing and publishing. Particularly was this a handicap to the preparation of the texts, translations and commentaries on the documents which constitute Part II of this book, holding up the completion of Part I, which of necessity is largely founded upon it. Furthermore, the three original collaborators in the undertaking—Winlock, Crum and Evelyn-White—were widely separated by diverse activities, in Egypt, in America and in England, and even when the work was resumed exchanges of view between them by post were naturally slow and cumbersome. To this cause the reader must lay repetitions and possibly even apparent inconsistencies between their various contributions, and—more to be deplored—the lack in Part I of any comments upon the Greek elements from the pen of Evelyn-White, whose untimely end has thrown upon Crum the task of attempting some estimate of this phase of the subject. On the other hand, while such have been the drawbacks inherent in the delay, this very delay has had its compensations. Thus it has made possible the correction or amplification in Part I of various statements made in Part II; and furthermore, since important material has been unearthed, even during the very last stages of the preparation of this book, such material has been incorporated into it whenever feasible.