[Hist of Univ Museum Papyri Article, Expedition, Winter 1978] The University Museum's collection of Papyri and related Materials JOHN R. ABERCROMBIE In a second century A.D. Greek epistle a well-intentioned father offers some free advice to his son, who was probably wishing for a more tangible sort of response. He tells his "sweetest" lad to offend no one and to give his studies his undivided attention, for in this way a man will profit. The father then adds that he is sending his son money, monthly supplies and clothes (University Museum E 2805 = Oxyrhynchus 531). An Arabic letter dating to the 8th century A.D. describes what must have been a curious situation. A slave-owner demands his slave girl be returned at once with "the mail." He is upset, because she fled his house at night and entered another where she married (E 16423). In a Hebrew letter written during the Crusades, a displaced refugee and unem- ployed scholar bemoans his fate. The author laments how circumstances forced him to pawn his wife's jewelry, his own clothes, his Bible and unbound volumes. He then traveled to Damascus in hopes of finding employment, and later requested that his son be allowed to visit him there. But when his wife discovered that the boy had slipped away to visit his father, she sent a messenger who brought him back home. The scholar, when he heard what had happened, threatened divorce (E 16516). These three personal letters discovered in Egypt are samples of the informative and often entertaining papyri and related written materials in the University Museum's Egyptian collection. Many other personal, legal, administrative, literary and religious texts are also to be found among the collec- tion's 2000 or so pieces. Since 1898 the Museum has acquired this written material through purchases, excava- tions and gifts; however, most of it derives from two sources early in this century. Late in the 1890's and early in the 1900's, B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt, two British archaeol- ogists, conducted extensive excavations for Egyptian papyri at town sites and cemeteries in Oxyrhynchus, the Fayu/m region and Hibeh. Their work, which was undertaken in part to counter illicit plundering of sites for papyri, produced a great volume of written materials. Eventually, the University Museum and other interested organizations were awarded some /~p./ of these discoveries by the British Explora- tion Fund in repayment for their financial support of Grenfell's and Hunt's research. The second source, from which more than half of the collection derives, was the untiring effort of William Maxwell Mu%ller, noted Egyptologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Max Mu%ller became asso- ciated with the Museum shortly after its founding and early on encouraged the Museum's Egyptiam Section to take an active interest in the current papyri discoveries by beginning its own collection. In 1900 Mu%ller traveled to Egypt where he purchased papyri and other artifacts for the Museum's collec- tion. His entertaining letters from 1900 to 1902 relate how Mu%ller was able to barter with the native dealers in order to gain a favorable price. Even by comparison to prices of that time, Mu%ller proved to be a shrewd buyer and acquired papyri for a pittance. Two cigar boxes of fragments cost him 15 shillings ($3.75). From a Luxor merchant he purchased a Hieratic magical papyrus, several Demotic contracts and other fragments for a mere two pounds ($10.00). With the assistance of a Dr. Kern, Mu%ller bought sig- nificant Demotic temple records, a Greek papyrus and other fragments for 25 pounds ($125.00) or about half of what the dealer originally quoted. Mu%ller's major acquisition came some ten years later. In the summer of 1910 Mu%ller bought the main portion of a large private collection owned by Bernard Moritz, an Arabic paleographer in Cairo. Mu%ller originally negotiated to purchase the whole collection for $750, but when only $500 was made available to him, he acquired only part. This purchase from Bernard Moritz today comprises over half of the present collection and includes materials in several different languages. A smaller percentage of the Museum's present collection was not purchased but was exhumed in the 1920's by Clarence Fisher, Curator of the Egyptian Section (1914-1925). Fisher uncovered Hieratic and Hieroglyphic fragmemts at Drah Abu Neggah, a rich Ramesside cemetery near ancient Thebes. Surprisingly, his most important papyri find was made in the poorest tomb (No. 156, the tomb of Pennesittaui) on the site. Here Fisher discovered Demotic legal documents dated to the early Ptolemies (late 4th-3rd century B.C.) inside of two large beet shaped jars. The documents, probably part of a family's personal records, include a lease, marriage contract, divorce paper, promissory note, sales of part of a house, provision for the dead and other contractual arrangements. Over the years, several donors also have presented papyri to the Museum. One of these gifts, the missing conclusion to one of the Hieratic Tomb Robbery papyri (dated to the 20th Dynasty or 11th century B.C.) in the British Museum, is especially noteworthy (49-11-1). These gifts, discoveries and purchases today provide the Museum with a fine collec- tion of ancient, medieval and early modern written material from Egypt. The entire collec- tion spans some three thousand years from about 1300 B.C. to modern times. The bulk of the collection, however, postdates the Persian conquest of Egypt in the 6th-5th centuries B.C. The Greek and Demotic materials date mostly to the Hellenistic and early Roman periods (circa 300 B.C. to A.D. 300). The Coptic, Hebrew, Arabic and Pahlavi materials as well as some Greek pieces were written in Byzantine times. Several Hebrew and Arabic documents are as late as the 17th century. A few Hieratic and Hieroglyphic pieces can be ascribed to the New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate periods (circa 1550 B.C. to 600 B.C.). Individual items in the collection are written on three different types of material; papyrus, leather and paper. Papyrus is the vehicle for the largest number of written pieces prior to the 4th century A.D. It con- tinued to be used until the 9th and 10th cen- turies, but was gradually replaced at first by leather (parchment and vellum) and later by paper. Other materials such as broken pottery (ostraca), cloth, bark or wood, stone and metal were inscribed in various periods and under various circumstances. No systematic analysis of the Museum's collection of these materials has as yet been attempted. The importance of all these writings inscribed in many languages and on different materials lies in what they reveal about the languages, history and cultures of Egypt and /~p./ the surrounding areas. Although much of the collection remains unedited, the Demotic, Greek and Hebrew documents so far pub- lished provide a panorama of life in ancient and medieval times. Indeed, one is somewhat surprised to discover how little certain aspects of life have changed through the centuries. For example, then as now the state levied various taxes. According to tax receipts and a tax list from the Hellenistic and Roman periods, an individual was responsible for paying the state tax collectors ten percent sales tax, poll tax, weaving tax, dike mainte- nance tax, profit tax, land tax, poor tax, temple tax, police and defense tax, festival tax, pig tax and many other taxes. One quickly recalls the aphorism about life's only certain- ties, death and taxes. Marriage and divorce contracts are not modern legal inventions. The Museum possesses several marriage contracts, some of which are from pre-Christian, Ptolemaic Egypt. These Demotic contracts stipulate that a husband was responsible for providing his future wife with shelter, food (four measures of wheat daily), one hin (or about ??s of a pint) of oil monthly, cloth and a bride's gift (one piece of silver). If a husband were to commit adultery and wanted a divorce, according to the marriage contract he could divorce her as long as he paid six pieces of silver and gave her half of what he owned. A complex agricultural system with cash crops, governmental incentives and controls, crop irrigation and regional distribution and storage operated in ancient times. Before the end of the Nile's annual inundation, the state granaries lent certain seeds to farmers for planting. The state, furthermore, controlled and restricted what farmers could plant in any year, The major crops -- cash crops -- were wheat (emmer) and barley, although lentils and cabbage were also grown, probably for private consumption. At harvest, farmers then sold their produce to the granaries and on occasion to private individuals. Religious beliefs were strongly held. Many different religious documents are pre- served in the collection and most appear to have been written with great care. Some are beautifully decorated, especially copies of the Egyptian Book of the Dead with its vignettes (on display in the Upper Egyptian gallery), Christian Biblical fragments and Muslim Quranic manuscripts. Also on display in the Biblical Archaeology gallery is one of the earliest fragments from the New Testa- ment, Matthew 1 (3rd century A.D.), found in the first season of excavation at Oxyrhynchus. Other traditional classics of literature were also read in earlier times. The Museum's Egyptian collection includes fragments of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey (E 2818) currently on display in the Classical World (Greek gallery), Euripides' Hecuba, Isocrates' Contra Sophistus, Demosthenes' Contra Timocratem, Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, a fragment of a Greek grammar by Theodosius of Alexandria, Arabic short stories and Rabbinic Hebrew treatises. Cataloguing, mounting, identification and study of the collection have taken place sporadically since the first acquisition. Today about half of the pieces are catalogued indi- vidually, most of these have been mounted and some identified; however, few have been thoroughly studied. Only an estimated ten percent of the collection has been edited and published in any form. The Greek papyri obtained through the British Egyptian Explo- ration Fund were published by the British excavators in Oxyrhynchus I-III, Fayu/m Towns and Their Papyri and Hibeh Papyri I. The Demotic rolls from Drah Abu Neggah have been dealt with in Mizraim and the Museum Journal. Many of the Hebrew docu- ments purchased by Mu%ller were published in the Jewish Quarterly Review. Some Pahlavi fragments are reproduced in Corpus Inscrip- tionum Iranicarum. But on the whole, numer- ous written pieces, mostly from Mu%ller's purchases, remain unpublished and in many instances unstudied. In 1966 Robert Kraft of the Religious Studies Department of Penn requested and received permission from David O'Connor, Associate Curator of the Egyptian Section, to examine the collection. Kraft and Antonia Tripolitis, an interested graduate student, found that numerous fragments were still stored in boxes and had not been mounted or flattened. They began by flattening and mounting the contents of one of the storage boxes. When it became apparent that frag- ments of what was originally the same papyrus might be found in several different boxes or might already be mounted under glass, the idea of mounting the materials immediately after flattening was abandoned. Instead, the flattened pieces were placed in lined folders for storage and classification until all the fragments of a document could be located. The fragments of each document at that future date will be mounted between glass or plexiglass. As it became apparent to Kraft that the bulk of the collection remained inaccessible -- indeed unknown -- to scholars and that some of the known material needed curatorial attention, he organized a "papyri project" in 1971 under the sponsorship of the Egyptian Section and the Religious Studies Depart- ment, with support from both the Museum and the University "work study" program. An immediate goal of the project was to organize the collection by language groups, inventory each of these subcollections, and thus make the materials more readily available for research. Soon this initial aim will be realized, at least in part. A catalogue of the Hebrew documents in the Museum's collection will be deposited in the Van Pelt and Museum libraries. This catalogue contains detailed descriptions and scholarly notes, and xero- graphic copies of each document. Such infor- mation will aid researchers in determining the state of preservation and the feasibility of further study of each document at the Museum. Similar catalogues of the relatively smaller collections of Hieroglyphic, Hieratic, Demotic and Pahlavi pieces should follow fairly quickly. The relatively large number of Greek, Coptic and Arabic documents will require a much longer time to catalogue although work has already begun. Yet much remains to be done simply in the more mechanical aspects of the project: classifying by languages and type of writing, rejoining broken pieces, mounting and labeling. The actual task of gathering philological and historical information from the materials remains for future investigators. _HD///%/ _CN A HISTORY OF THE ACQUISITION OF PAPYRI AND _CN RELATED WRITTEN MATERIAL IN THE UNIVERSITY _CN (OF PENNSYLVANIA) MUSEUM\1 _SP1 _DS The acquisition of papyri for the University Museum began at the close of the nineteenth century under Mrs. Sara Yorke Stevenson, the first Curator of the Egyptian section.\2 Mrs. Stevenson, one of those dynamic Victorian ladies, was an early supporter of the University Archaeological Association that eventually became the University Museum.\3 Along with other concerned Philadelphians, she was instrumental in the construction of the older part of the present building at 33rd and Spruce Spruce Streets. It was under her tenure as Curator that the Egyptian Section acquired a significant collection of antiquities before 1900. The Museum financially assisted the archaeological research of W.M. Flinders Petrie and other excavators; in return, the Museum received portions of the discoveries. This partnership, particularly between the University Museum and the British Egyptian Exploration Fund, proved beneficial, for it brought many artifacts from Egyptian discoveries to Philadlphia. Mrs. Stevenson sought other means to establish a fine collection. In 1898 she embarked on her own campaign to Egypt where in less than two months she acquired 42 cases of Egyptian antiquities for the American Exploration Society. In a press release, Mrs. Stevenson mentioned that papyri documents from Thebes were among those antiquities. Perhaps Mrs. Stevenson herself acquired the Museum's first papyrus piece, a Hieroglyphic recension of the Book of the Dead (E 3334 = AES 19).\4 At about the same time Mrs. Stevenson labored to establish the Museum's Egyptian collection, a British archaeologist. B.P. Grenfell, made a phenomenal discovery at Oxyrhynchus.\5 In 1896 Petrie had begun excavating this site, but soon determined that most of what could be found there was Greco-Roman. Petrie then turned over the excavation to Grenfell who first finished the necropolis that Petrie had started to explore. Grenfell next excavated the various low rubbish mounds dotting the site. He guessed that the mounds contained the remains of buildings and would be a likely place to find papyri. Grenfell's educated guess proved correct beyond his imagination, for in the first season alone he discovered 300 Greek literary pieces, 2000 non-literary documents, 30 Latin pieces, 100 Arabic rolls, 40 or 50 Coptic documents, two or three Hieratic and Demotic pieces, and several hundred thousand minor fragments.6 The Oxyrhynchus discoveries and preliminary publications, especially of the New Testament and classical fragments, aroused great interest in America. Several news accounts about the discoveries appeared in the American press.\7 The minutes of the Executive Council of the British Fund also referred to American anticipation over these new documents.\8 The British Honorary Secretary, J.S. Cotton, suggested several methods for converting American enthusiasm into tangible financial support of the newly formed Greco-Roman division, the umbrella organization for the research and publication of the Oxyrhynchus and other papyri discoveries. The British decided on a public appeal for support for the Greco-Roman division. Their appeal did not go unheeded in America, for chapters of the Fund, such as the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh chapter which was associated with the University Museum, responded to the call. This chapter donated some _{_245 ($1,225) to the division between 1898 and 1908.9 Although philanthropic support of scholarly research was probably one reason why the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh and other chapters aided the British Fund in this project, a second motivation is revealed in the correspondence between Cotton and Mrs. Stevenson.\10 Cotton promised that the Fund would reward any financial support of the Greco-Roman division with part of the discoveries. In other words, some of the Greek papyri would be dispersed to the American financiers and their associated institutions if aid was forthcoming. This type of incentive was a common practice used for other earlier discoveries and not a unique arrangement devised especially for the Oxyrhynchus finds. In January 1901, four years after the beginning of American support, the Museum received official notification that several Greek papyri would be donated to its collection.\11 This fact had already been "leaked" to the press about two months earlier. A release, originating in Cambridge, England, stated that some Oxyrhynchus papyri would be donated by the Fund to Hamilton College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and other institutions.\12 The story then reported that the Fund would donate the New Testament fragment of Matthew 1 to one of those institutions. The first shipment of Greek papyri was received late in February 1901.\13 The Museum staff quickly organized an exhibition of several pieces, including the fragment of Matthew.\14 Subsequently, three more shipments were made to the Museum prior to World War One, although the available records do not reveal exactly when each was received.\15 In all, 84 papyri from Oxyrhynchus and other sites were "awarded" by the British Fund. Most of these pieces came from Oxyrhynchus (E 2746-66, E 2793-2823, E 3074-79), but a few derive from the Fayu^m towns (E 2767-74, E 2776-92) and Hibeh necropolis (E 2824-25, E 3068-75). All the papyri were catalogued by Grenfell and A.S. Hunt and their team. They were recatalogued twice by the Museum staff, in 1901-1910 and in 1948-1949. Full or partial publications of these pieces appear in the volumes of _Oxyrhynchus _I-III_, Fayu^m Towns and Their Papyri,_ and Hibeh I_.\16 The donations of the British fund were one of the two major sources for the acquisition of papyri and related written materials in the Museum's earliest collection. The second source was the untiring efforts of Wilhelm Maxwell Mu%ller, noted Egyptologist, who was associated with the Museum for more than three decades. In the 1890's Mu%ller performed special tasks for Mrs. Stevenson such as cataloguing part of the Egyptian collection, translating inscriptions, identifying artifacts, and organizing the various materials received. Mu%ller, in fact, catalogued the first papyrus acquisition, the Theban Hieroglyphic roll mentioned above (n.4). Fortunately, many of his notes have been preserved in the Museum's archives regarding not only the papyri collection but also other parts of the Museum's Egyptian collection. But Mu%ller's primary contribution to the papyri collection was as a buyer on the antiquities market. In 1900 Mu%ller traveled to Egypt with a mandate to purchase Egyptian artifacts for the Museum's collection. Mrs. Stevenson must have given him specific instructions on what to acquire, because in one letter Mu%ller tries to convince her of the desirability of purchasing papyri and of his special ability as the buyer.\17 Mu%ller's argument proved persuasive for he made several purchases in that year. He bought numerous Arabic, Coptic, Demotic, and Greek fragments from a peasant at Luxor.\18 Mu%ller described this purchase as two cigar boxes full of insignificant fragments (E 16749?- 16772?) from different manuscripts. He considered them to be of limited value except for one Coptic letter written by a woman. Mu%ller's second Luxor purchase was a box containing four rolls.\19 When Mu%ller later examined these pieces, he concluded that the documents, three complete Demotic contracts (E 16725?-16747), fragments of other Demotic contracts, and a small Hieratic magical papyrus (E 16724?), were form the necropolis of Gebelen.\20 Mu%ller's major acquisition in 1900-1901 consisted of eleven large Demotic rolls purchased from a "well-known" Gizeh dealer. The merchant was originally reluctant to sell the rolls at Mu%ller's price; in fact, the dealer wanted double that amount. Either Dr. Kern, the representative of the American Exploration Society who assisted Mu%ller, or Mu%ller himself decided to break off negotiations. Later in 1900 or early in 1901 after Mu%ller had returned to America, he wrote to Kern to follow up on the Gizeh material, since Mrs. Stevenson was again interested in establishing a papyri collection. Kern discovered that the merchant was now willing to sell the collection for a more reasonable figure. Kern purchased the documents and later shipped them to the Museum. \21 In a preliminary analysis conducted late in 1901 or early in 1902, Mu%ller revealed the value of the material. According to Mu%ller, the rolls (E 16728-16743) were temple ledgers for tax payments and receipts. They provided detailed information about the administration and tax base of a Ptolemic temple. Mu%ller futher speculated that the provenance of the pieces was Fayum or Sokorapaui Nesos.\22 Max Mu%ller's next acquisitions, which constitute more than half of the Museum's present collection, came some nine years later. During the interim Mu%ller participated in the Carnegie Institute's Philae project (1904,1906,1910) and continued his teaching duties at the Reformed Episcopal Seminary in Philadelphia. Mu%ller was still associated with the Museum, though at no time was he on the staff; nevertheless, Mu%ller was always willing to aid the Museum in some capacity. In July 1910, he wrote to George Byron Gordon, the Museum Director, that a dealer desperately in need of money would sell a "good-sized" box of about 100 fragmentary Greek papyri (E 16537- 16542).\23 Mu%ller received permission and purchased those pieces which he eventually brought back from Egypt in his steamer trunk. A few days after Mu%ller wrote his first letter to Gordon, he wrote again to Charles Custis Harrison, the current Museum Board Chairman and former University Provost. He informed Harrison that a substantial private collection could be acquired for a reasonable sum.\24 The Museum quickly agreed to this purchase and attempted to raise the requested amount for the cost of acquisition, shipment, and restoration. Unfortunatly, only a lesser sum was procured and then sent to Mu%ller. When the lower amount arrived, Muller was embarrassed, because he had given his word to Bernard Moritz, the owner and respected paleographer residing in Cairo, that no attempt would be made to haggle for a lower price.\25 Moritz was insulted by the Museum's actions, as he perceived them, but agreed to sell 90 percent of his collection for the lower figure.\26 The Moritz purchase today is divided into two collections, the Ellen Waln Harrison (E 16235-16546) and the John F. Lewis (E 16561- 16702), named after the financial patrons who sponsored the purchase and establishment of the collections. Each collection contains numerous Arabic, Coptic, and Greek fragments. In addition, several Demotic (E 16322-16341, 16482), Hebrew (E 16504-16527, 16250, 16527), Pahlavi (E 16483-16502), along with one Hieratic (E 16248) and one Hieroglyphic (E 16532) pieces are also part of the Harrison collection; the Lewis collection has one Demotic (E 16698) and one Hieratic (E 16699) piece besides the numerous Arabic, Coptic, and Greek fragments from the Moritz materials. Mu%ller began cataloguing and preserving the Moritz and earlier purchases, but was unable to complete the task for several reasons. Mu%ller could only devote part of his time to the Museum's collection given his heavy teaching and publishing schedule. He encountered some difficulties in organizaing the collection, especially in the requisition of glass. At one point, Mu%ller even threatened - hopefully a bold bluff - to fit one large piece to the available glass by cutting off a section of papyrus if he did not receive the correct sized glass.\27 Mu%ller also was involved in a controversy during World War One that must have kept him from devoting as much time as he might have liked to the collection. Another faculty member charged him with being a German sympathizer; Mu%ller, thus, became subject to a government intelligence investigation. Mu%ller's untimely death in 1919 put an end to this period of collection and organization of the papyri collection.\28 The Moritz and earlier Mu%ller purchases remained largely as Mu%ller had left them until Battiscombe Gunn, Curator of the Egyptian Section from 1931-1934, catalogued the collection. Gunn abandoned Mu%ller's numeric and alphabetic notations that still appear on many pieces in favor of the newly established Museum inventory system. In the few months he worked on the collection (April-June, 1932), Gunn recatalogued all Mu%ller's purchases. Most of this cataloguing was accomplished without detailed study of individual pieces; the system apparently followed the sequence of boxes, divider sheets, and envelopes in which pieces had originally been stored by Mu%ller or Moritz. Occasionally Gunn did examine a specific piece and made pertinent notes on the catalogue cards or on the glass mounting; however, Gunn seems to have had little opportunity to study the various pieces or reorganize the entire collection into a more logical format. Gunn also failed to study in detail Mu%ller's correspondence about the purchases. Gunn, for example, catalogued all the purchases made in 1900-1901 as if they came from Dr. Kern. This clearly is not the case since Mu%ller made two earlier purchases without Kern's assistance. Gunn's error renders it difficult today to identify materials from the Gurna and Luxor purchases; hence, the question marks appearing above after the catalogue numbers of pieces suspected of having been part of those two purchases. In the last sixty years, scholars have examined, studied, or published few documents from the Mu%ller purchases. Mu%ller perhaps hoped to publish at least the Demotic Temple ledgers, but this ambition was never realized.\29 In the 1930's, S.L. Skoss examined the Hebrew material in the Moritz purchase; he realized that most of the pieces came from the Cairo Geniza. S.D. Goitein later published some of these Hebrew pieces.\30 In the 1940's, G. Levi Della Vida studied and prepared a catalogue of the substantial Arabic material.\31 This catalogue was never published, and to date all that has been found in the Museum records is a detailed inventory list of about one-third (88 pieces) of the Arabic collection then available. Della Vida did publish one Arabic block print in 1942.\32 In 1958, J. de Menasce published photographs of the available Pahlavi collection, without transcriptions or translations.\33 As for the Coptic and Greek material, a few pices have been published recently and several have been studied from time to time.\34 But by and large, most of the Coptic and Greek collections have not been examined carefully. The history of the Museum's acquisition of papyri and related material continues after the Moritz purchase in 1910, even though most of the present collection had been acquired by then. Additional donations of papyri (Coptic, Demotic, and Greek pieces E 12937, 12972) were made by Mrs. Dillwyn Parrish, who in 1914 gave the Museum 2,000 artifacts from her husband's private collection.\35 In the same year, Mrs. E.W. Lehmann donated a roll (E 510) which first received systematic attention in March 1978, from R.A. Kraft when it proved to be a conglomerate of materials from various periods written predominantly in Greek, Coptic, and Demotic, formerly held together with linen wrappings. In 1917 Mrs. Florence Sibley gave the Museum numerous Coptic fragments, some Greek pieces, and one Hieroglyphic piece (all catalogued as 29-209-53) that her uncle purchased while in Egypt. Just before World War Two, John F. Lewis, Jr. donated three papyri rolls: one (38-28-45) is covered with resin and has not been unrolled; the other two, one Hieroglyphic (E 17319) and one Hieratic (38-28-49A), are recensions of the Book of the Dead. The most recent gift (49-11-1), donated by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, had been stored in a bottle labeled, "Egypt papyrus from Thebes," and sealed with a note, "Presbyterian Board of Publications (Sept. 1st, 1873)." When opened and unrolled, this papyrus proved to be a priceless treasure, the last three columns of an already published document (BM 10383).\36 The last source or papyri and related written material was the Edmund B. Coxe excavation at Drah Abu Neggah, a Rameside cemetary near Thebes. Clarence S. Fisher, Curator of the Egyptian Section from 1914-1925, conducted several seasons of excavation from 1921-1923.\37 Prior to his excavation, a small village had been built over part of the site; in fact, cellars to some of the houses, used by the inhabitants as sleeping quarters, stables, and storage areas, were made from Rameside tombs. Fisher began by clearing a gulley near the village and proceeded to excavate the tombs and debris along the gulley towards the town. In the process he found some Hieroglypic, Hieratic, and Coptic fragments (29-86-487 through 29-86-503). At the northern end of the gulley lay the remains of one of the poorest tombs (Tomb No. 156, the tomb of Permesuttaui) both in size and character of decoration. This tomb recently had been divided into apartments. In the corner of one of those apartments Fisher's workmen discovered two large beet-shaped jars lying side by side. When opened they were found to contain Demotic documents (29-86-504 through 29-86-525), a collection of a Ptolemic family's legal transactions. Nathaniel Reich, a Demotic scholar chosen by the Museum, eventually published detailed notes, some transcriptions, and photographs of this collection.\38 After the completion of publication, half of the Demotic collection from Drah Abu Neggah was returned to the Egyptian Department of Antiquity.39 The University Museum's present papyri and related written material collection, consisting of over 2,000 pieces, has had no subsequent acquisitions since 1947 and is by all accounts a varied library of ancient, Byzantine, medieval, and early modern documents. Most of the material, still unpublished and in many instances unstudied, is written in Arabic, Coptic, and Greek. Demotic, Hebrew, Hieratic, Hieroglyphic, Latin (one), and Pahlavi pieces comprise the rest of the collection. Most documents in the collection date from after the Ptolemic period (first century B.C.E.) to the Byzantine and Islamic periods (9th century C.E.). A few pieces predate the Ptolemies, mostly recensions of the Book of the Dead, while other parts of the collections (especially some Arabic and Hebrew) date as late as 18th century.\40 _NP _CN NOTES _SP1 _SS 1I wish to acknowledge the assistance of the Museum staff and others in the preparation of this short history. I especially wish to thank Professor David O'Connor (Associate Curator of the Egyptian Section) and David Silverman (Assistant Curator of the Egyptian Section) for their kind assistance and comments as well as their supports of the current Papyri Project and giving permission for preparation of this and other articles on the collection.. The primary sources for this history are the preserved archival material in the University Museum and the University of Pennsylvania, newspaper accounts, and the recollections of members of the Museum staff. An earlier history of the collection had been prepared by Patricia Crown in connection with the Papyri Project organized by Robert A. Kraft; however, the material has been completely reworked for this essay. The history of the papyri and related written material collection deals with only materials inscribed on papyrus, leather, paper, and vellum; it does not include inscriptions on stone, metal, fabric, ostraca, and the like. \2"Sara Yorke Stevenson." _Dictionary of American Biography_. ed. by Dumas Malone (New York 1935) Vol. 17., pp. 635-636. \3Percy C. Maderra. Jr. _Men in Search of Man_ (Philadelphia 1964) 15-24. David O'Connor and David Silverman "The University Museum in Egypt," _Expedition_ 12:2 (Winter, 1979) 4-43. 4"To Explore the Nile," _Philadelphia Bulletin_ (January 1, 1898). "Trip of Mrs. C.Y. Stevenson," _Chicago Tribune Herald_ (January 2, 1898). "Antiquities from Egypt," _Philadelphia Press_ (March 19, 1898). Clippings are preserved in the Museum Archives. \5B.P. Grenfell, "Oxyrhynchus and Its Papyri" _Egyptian Exploration _Fund Archaeological Report_ (London 1896-97) 1-12. 6_Ibid_.,p.11 \7"Recent Discoveries in the Land of Egypt," _Atlanta Journal_ (January 22, 1898). "Delving Deep in Egypt's Sands," _Philadelphia Press (April 30, 1898). John J. Bernard, "Glimpse of Old Writing Recently Recovered in Egypt." _Philadelphia Sunday School Times_ (September 24, 1898). Clippings are preserved in the Museum Archives. \8"The Honoarary Secretary's Report, 1896-97," _Egypt Exploration _Fund Report_ (1897) 17-20. W.C. Winslow, "Exploration in Egypt," _New York Times_ (June 10, 1897) p. 6, col.7. "Exploration Fund. Papyri to be Published," _New York Times_ (December 1, 1897) p. 6, col. 5. \9According to the financial records of the University Museum, the following individuals contributed to the Papyri fund: Mrs. John Harrison, Calvin Wells, Mrs. Cornelius (Sara Yorke) Stevenson, Mrs. John Wister, Elickley B. Coxe, Jr., Daniel Baugh, Mrs. Randolph Ellis, Mrs. George Harrison, and Mr. John Sparhawk,Jr. Later financial support for the Oxyrhynchus and other papyri came from Mrs. Dillwyn Parrish. 10_Letter_ from Cotton to Stevenson (May 21, 1897). \11_Letter_ from Emily Peterson to Stevenson (January 15, 1901). \12"Egyptian Papyri for Universities," _Philadelphia Press_ (November 28, 1900) p.1. \13"Rare Papyri in the Free Museum," _Philadelphia Press_ (February 28, 1901) p.5. \14"Rare Papyri are now on View at the University Museum," _Philadelphia Press_ (March 1, 1901) p.6. \15From the preserved archival records, there appears to have been four shipments: (1)Group One (E 2746-74) received by February, 1901; (2) Group Two (E 2775-2812) 1901-1902; (3) Group Three (E 2814-25) arrived prior to June, 1907; and (4) Group Four (E 3068-79) received before 1910. \16B.P. Grenfell and A.S. Hunt, _Oxyrhynchus_ I (Oxford 1898). _Oxyrhynchus_ II (Oxford 1899), Oxyrhynchus_ III (Oxford 1903), _Fayu^m Towns and Their Papyri_ (Oxford 1900), and Hibeh Papyri_ I (Oxford 1906). \17_Letter_ from Wilhelm Mawell Mu%ller to Stevenson (May 22, 1901). \18_Letters_ from Mu%ller to Stevenson (May 22, 1901, December 7, 1901, January 25, 1902, March 11, 1902, December 13, 1902). \19_Letters_ from Mu%ller to Stevenson (May 22, 1901, December 7, 1901, March 11,1902, November 15, 1902, December 13, 1902). \20The Hieratic papyrus was subsequently published: I.E.S. Edwards, _Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum_, Fourth Series (London 1960) 111-112. \21_Letters_ from Mu%ller to Stevenson (January 18, 1901, September 9, 1901, January 25, 1902, March 11,1902, November 15, 1902, December 13, 1902). \22_Letter_ from Mu%ller to Stevenson (November 15, 1902) \23_Letter_ from Mu%ller to Gordon (July 21, 1910). \24_Letter_ from Mu%ller to Charles Custis Harrison (August 12?, 1910), \25_Letter_ from Mu%ller to Gordon (November 27, 1910). \26Most, if not all, of the remaining 10 percent of Moritz's collection was purchased by the Oriental Institute of Chicago, Miroslav Krek, _Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts in the Oriental Institute _of Chicago_. (Chicago 1961). \27_Letter_ from Mu%ller to Miss Jan McHugh (July 29, 1902). "I have placed the papyri [sic] on you desk to show that it has glasses which are considerably too short. I have bent in the pieces, which are not covered, to protect them for the moment. This would of course not do for any length of time. Could you procure broader glass? Possibly 2 pieces can be cut and fitted at the end. I would like to arrange this best piece of the collection of papyri as soon as possible and to have pasted its frame over the glasses. If the present glass has to do, I should cut up the last page of the papyrus and put it under a special glass, but this would be a pity." \28"Dr. W. Max Muller, noted Orientalist, Drowns at Shore," _The Philadelphia Inquirer_ (July 13, 1919), p.1. "Dr. W. Max Muller, Scientist, Drowns in Surf at Wildwood." _The North American_ (July 13, 1919),p.1. "Wilhelm Maxwell Muller," _Dictionary of American _Biographies_ (United States, 1934) Vol. 13, pp. 320-321. \29Hermann Grapow referred to E 16720-22 in his discussion of Spell 17 from the Book of the Dead: Hermann Grapow, _Urkunden_ V 75ff. Mu%ller acquired this piece either at Luxor or Gizeh in 1900-1901. Another recension of the Book of the Dead (E 2775) may or may not have been purchases of Muller. Though its provenance is Thebes, the purchase or donator was unknown in 1932. The piece is referenced in: H. Ranke, _Die A%gyptischen Personennamen_ (Germany 1935) 33:16, 197:18, 249:9, 119:13, 389:19. of the University of Pennsylvania," _JQR_ 49 (1958-59) 32-52. \31Giorgia Della Vida, "Notes on the Arabic Collection." University Museum Archives. \32Giorgio Della Vida, "An Arabic Block Print," _Scientific Monthly (December, 1943) 473-474. \33J. de Nebascem "Pahlavi Ostraca and Papyri," _Corpus Inscriptionum _Iranicum_ 5 (London 1957). \34Peter Maurer, "Two Pennsylvania Papyri," _Arch P_ 22 (1973) 151- 154. Leslie S.B. MacCoull, "A Coptic Letter in the University Museum, Philadelphia," _BASP_ 13:1 (1976) 15-16. Robert Kraft, "An Unpublished Coptic Sahidic Psalter Codex at the University Museum, Philadelphia," _Armenian and Biblical Studies._ ed. by Michael E. Stone (Jerusalem, 1976). \35Mrs. Dillwyn Parrish was a contributor to the acquisition of the Oxyrhynchus and other papyri from the British Fund. See n. 9. \36T. Eric Peet, _Ther Great Tomb Robberies of the Twentieth Egyptian _Dynasty_ (Oxford 1930) 122-127. Rudolf Anthes and Lanny Bell both identified and catalogued E 49-11-1. See David Silverman and David O'Connor. _The Egyptian Mummy: Secrets and Science_ (Philadelphia 1978) 55 n. 51. \37Clarence S. Fisher, "A Group of Theban Tombs," _Museum Journal_ 15 (1924) 28-49. "Excavations at Drah Abu Neggah," University Museum Archives. \38Nathaniel J. Reich, "A Demotic Divorce," _Mizraim_ I (1933) 135-139; "The Legal Transactions of a Family: Preserved in the University Museum, Philadelphia," _Mizraim_ 2 (1936) 13-25; "Barter for Annuity and Perpetual Provision of the Body," _Mizraim_ 3 (1936) 31-50; "The Papyrus Archive in the Philadephia University Museum," _Mizraim_ 7 (1937) 12-19; "The Papyrus Archive in the Philadelphia University Museum," _Mizraim_ 8 (1938) 7-14; "The Papyrus Archive in the Philadelphia University Museum," _Mizraim_ 9 (1938) 7-18; and "Marriage and Divorce in Ancient Egypt," _Museum Journal_ 15 (1924) 50-57. \39The following Demotic documents were returned to Cairo in 1951 after considerable delay: No. 1 (29-86-523B), No. II (29-86-508), No. III (29-86-509), No. V (29-86-505). No. VI (29-86-505), No.VII (29-86-510A), No. X (29-86-518), No. XI (29-86-520), No. XIV (29-86-510B), No. XV (29-86-504), No. XVI (29-86-522), No. XVII (29-86-511), No. XVIII (29-86-513), No. XX (29-86-504), No. XXI (29-86-515B), No. XXII (29-86-523A), No. XXIII (29-86-515A), No. XXV (29-86-506), No. XXX (29-86-505), No. XXII (29-86-X). Photographic Prints and catalogue descriptions of these pieces are still available from the Museum's archives. \40See John R. Abercrombie "Egyptian Papyri," _Expedition_ (Winter, 1978) 3-12. _NP