Landscapes of memory: Pharaonic sacred space in the Coptic imagination

Using the Coptic reuse and reinterpretation of Pharaonic monuments and sacred landscapes as a window into the use(s) of the past by Christian communities in late antique Egypt (ca. 350--750 CE), this dissertation challenges the conventional scholarly assumption that Egypt's conversion to Christianity represented a decisive break with the memory of the country's Pharaonic past. Drawing on documentary papyri and epigraphic sources as well as archaeological and literary material, it is argued that the Copts were critically engaged with the ancient sacred landscapes in which their communities were embedded and that this engagement with the Pharaonic past was a vital factor in shaping Egyptian Christian identity. Evaluating this broad spectrum of Christian (re-)interpretive activity in its local contexts further reveals that we cannot speak of a universal "Coptic response" to pagan monuments any more than we can speak of a unitary "Coptic identity." Rather, it is argued that Pharaonic monuments served a multiplicity of uses in the Coptic imagination, validating a wide range of collective identities.