Shenoute and a Recently Discovered Tomb Chapel at the White Monastery

In 2002, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) discovered and investigated a triconch funerary chapel at the White Monastery. Since 2006, this structure has been the focus of further excavation, conservation, and analysis by an international team currently sponsored by the Yale Monastic Archaeology Project (YMAP), in collaboration with the SCA. The funerary chapel features a subterranean tomb and evidence for an extensive program of figural and nonfigural wall paintings. During the December 2009 campaign, conservation of the paintings in the tomb revealed new details that connect this space with Shenoute, the famous head of the monastery during the fourth and fifth centuries C.E. In this brief article, the authors report on these recent discoveries.