Religious Studies 735 (Fall 2006) Papyrology -- PAGE UPDATED PERIODICALLY

Robert A. Kraft

Quicklinks:

• eMail Communications
• Primary Class Project PPennMuseum E16542A -- WIKI page for transcription, paleography, preparing the text for proposed article(s).
• Individual (or Paired) Projects (see the end of this file): Homer, Biblical fragments
• Conservation: cartonnage ;
• Identifying literary fragments
  

Overview.-- This work-seminar will introduce participants to the study of ancient papyri, both documentary and literary, with a focus on Greek and Coptic materials (also some attention to Latin, Demotic, and Arabic). Hitherto unexamined fragments will be available for possible publication, from the collections here at the University as well as elsewhere. There will also be an opportunity for hands-on work with small cartonnage fragments (conservation, separation, classification and decipherment).

Topics will include:

• History: the study of papyri, in story and film.
  
• Materials: stone, bone, wood, papyrus, leather, pottery, clay, metal, other.
• Languages: Egyptian (hieroglyphic, hieratic, demotic, coptic), Semitic (hebrew, aramaic-syriac, arabic), Pahlavi, Greek (Ptolemaic to Byzantine [with transcription]), Latin, pseudo, other.
  
• Availability: collections and images: owning, indexing, accessing.
  
• Manufacture & External Formats: scrollology, codicology, letters, lists, leaves, tablets, other.
  
• Types & Internal Formats: art and letters -- representational, literary, paraliterary, documentary, private, imitation, other.
  
• Reconstruction: papyrology as puzzle working, sleuthing, and guesswork
• Decipherment: patterns, paleography, abbreviations, conventions, codes; mirror-writing and bleed-through.
  
• Transcription Conventions and Resources: Beta Code, Unicode, and inbetween.
• Editing & Publication: scholarly conventions, print publishers, electronic publishing.
  
• Recovery, Conservation & Display:  separating, mounting, storing, showing, preserving.
  

Group Project Suggestions:

• Describe and transcribe the brief Greek text of E16542C (easy to decipher; what date?);
  • Use of dieresis/trema, possible "indiction" symbol
• Try the same with the more challenging text of E16542A (long-range project; take it slowly!); see further below
• Describe and transcribe the Latin text of Lib0610.
• Describe the fragment E16450, and the "ouroboros" of E16448+16305 (check APIS for similar items).
• Try to decipher the names in Lib0306.
• Of historical interest? What do you make of POxy35 (E02749) -- how would you date it?
• Transcribe POxy344 (E02764) -- dated to late first century CE by G-H.
• A challenge -- POxy632 (E02811) is dated to 159 CE. Why? Transcribe?

Some Basic Introductory Works:

• E. G. Turner, Greek Papyri: An Introduction (2nd ed,; Oxford, 1980 [1968]) with its companion volume, Greek Manuscripts of the Ancient World (2nd ed.; London, 1987); see also his The Papyrologist at Work, GRBS Monograph 6, 1973.
• P.W. Pestman, The New Papyrological Primer (2nd ed; Leiden, 1994).
• Roger S. Bagnall, Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History. London and New York: Routledge, 1995 (see also this review)
• Edward Maunde Thompson, An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography. Oxford: Clarendon, 1912  [expansion of the Handbook (1893), with various reprints -- e.g. Oxbow] (see this old review)
• Traianos Gagos provides an extensive topical bibliography (to 1996) for papyrological research.
  

• PPenn http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/ppenn.html [Penn papyri and related materials]
• APIS http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/projects/digital/apis/index.html [APIS Project -- see especially "resources" list]
• General Info http://www.users.drew.edu/%7Ejmuccigr/papyrology/ [general, but not updated since Oct 2000]
• ABZU http://www.etana.org/abzu/ [search for authors, topics, etc. -- e.g. papyrology on the web]
• Roger Bagnall's Papyrology Course(Columbia University) --  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/classics/personal/bagnall/papyrology.html
• Malcolm Choate's "Papyri: Methods" course syllabus http://www.anchist.mq.edu.au/AHSTHonoursPapy.htm
  
• Leuven Lists of Archives and Collections --  http://lhpc.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/
• LDAB = Leuven Database of Ancient Books -- http://ldab.arts.kuleuven.be/
• HGV = Heidelberger Gesamtverzeichnis der griechischen Papyrusurkunden Ägyptens --
  http://aquila.papy.uni-heidelberg.de/gvzFM.html
• AIP International Archive  http://www.igl.ku.dk/~bulow/aipdescr.html
• Catalog of Paraliterary Papyri [neither strictly "literary" nor strictly "documentary"]  http://perswww.kuleuven.be/~u0013314/paralit.htm
• TM = Trismegistos [Egyptian materials in whatever language] -- http://www.trismegistos.org/
• Checklist of Greek, Latin, Demotic and Coptic Papyri, Ostraca and Tablets http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/papyrus/texts/clist.html
• PAPY discussion list:  PAPY at listserv.hum.ku.dk (by subscription, free)
  

Miscellaneous Comments on the online Museum Collection Images (05se2006)

• Move quickly from group to group by changing the address where it reads . . . papyri/browse.cfm?StartRow=26 (for items 26-50) -- thus changing the "StartRow=" number to 351 gets you to the items 351-400
• E02746-03079 are from the Oxyrhynchos, Fayyum, and Hibeh donations
  
• no images =  2770v 16388 16404A-C 16411A 16411C 16419 16474 16483c 16495a 16638+39 16674-16689
• paper (many) e.g 16637 (cop-arab) 16738 (cop)
  
• leather (many) e.g.16546D (arab cod)
  
• art work? 16503(pic?) 16450(design) 16449(pic) 16448(ouroboros) 16443(Arabic design)  16402(pics r&v) 16396(cop amulet)
  
• musical instruction = 16403 (grk, vertical flip format)
  
• amulets = 16393 16396
• developed codices = 16310(cop) 16394-16395(cop) 16387A(cop title) 16385+16386B(cop rubrication,pagination)
  
• lists16345(r&v) 02749
  
• documentary columns 16344
  
• imitation writing? 16257 16525-16526-16527
  
• enlarged writing? 16256
• palimpsest 16526 (over Hebrew, and Hebrew on the other side),  16527 (over Hebrew)
  

Possible Projects:

Transcribing and describing literary (and paraliterary) papyri:

PPenn Homer Fragments -- paleographical details, textual variations, diacritics, etc.

• E2815 (POxy 762) on || side, Il 7.1-30, 32-35 ; untranscribed list of names on --
• E2816 (POxy 782) codex, Od 17.137-48, 182-93 [reconstruct page?]
• E2817 (POxy 776) on -- side, Od 4.520-29; blank ||
• E2818 (POxy 778) [no online image yet] on -- side, Od 10.26-50; letter on ||
• E2819 (POxy 781) codex, Od 16.243-56, 288-301 [reconstruct page?]
• E2821 (POxy 775) on -- side, Od 4.388-400; blank ||
• E3076 (POxy 948) 2 frgs, on -- side, Il 10.233-243, 250-255 [reconstruct page?]
• Lib001 on || side, Od 4.803-817; traces of different hand on --

PPenn Biblical and Related

• E2746 (POxy 002) Greek codex, Matthew 1 [reconstruct pages?]
• E3074 (POxy 846) Greek codex, Amos 2 [reconstruct page?]
• E16261(+E16528) Coptic-Sahidic paper codex, Psalms 1-49
• E16262 Coptic vellum codex, Homily on Lazarus
• E16287 Coptic parchment codex, Psalm 17.26-29, 42-45
• E16287.2 Coptic parchment codex, Psalm 28.2-4
• E16288E Coptic papyrus codex, 2 Corinthians 6.11-12, 7.12
• E16290 Coptic paper sheet (one side only), Prayer?
• E16291 Coptic papyrus, mentions Jesus, Baptist
• E16292 Coptic papyrus codex, Gospel of John fragments
• E16310 Coptic vellum codex, Shenoute Homily ?
• E16355 Coptic papyrus, Prayer ?
• E16388 Coptic paper sheet (one side), Hymn praising St. Stephen
• E16399 Coptic papyrus codex, Saint's Life ?
• E16403 Greek papyrus page (vertical flip), Hymn praising Michael [also]
• E16598 Coptic papyrus page (vertical flip), Psalm 79.1 ?
• E16636 Coptic paper codex, Psalms ?
• E16690 Coptic-Sahidic vellum codex, Acts 27.4-13
• E16694.2 Greek papyrus codex, John Chrysostom In Matthew
• E16694.3 Greek papyrus codex, Marcellus/Athanasius, On the Incarnation

Article(s): "A Hitherto Unnoticed Document from the 18th year of Ptolemy III Euergetes"

1. The Dating Formula of our E16542A Ptolemy III Euergetes (247/6-221 bce) papyrus: see Bevan on the Ptolemies and their dating formulas (especially chapter 6, on Ptolemy III, and 4.7, on religious formulae)

• compile list of all similar formulas in Greek papyri, with format and subject matter noted [begun by RAK]
• compile list of dates in such documents, with attention to the year numbers [especially "year 18" (230/229)]
• get information about the named priest KOKKALOS son of EUELQWN, and priesthood of Alexander's cult (see W. Clarysse and G. van der Veken, The Eponymous Priests of Ptolemaic Egypt (P.L.Bat.24): Chronological Lists of the Priests of Alexandria and Ptolemais with a Study of the Demotic Transcriptions of their Names (Brill 1983)
• get similar information for the "basket bearer" at that time, and the associated cult [Christine]
• compile list of months and days from this corpus [begun by RAK]
• compile list of location identifications from this corpus [Jessica, with Amanda]
• compile list of opening lines for the document's contents following the dating formula

2. Transcription and Additional Notes

• transcription
• paleography

RELS735-401-06C Classlist [10 for credit]

• Seth BERNARD                 -- WIKI 21; 052.6; transcription of E02777
• Allison FANDL [mail]
• Doug FINKBEINER [aud]                   ;
• Christina C. GIESKE          -- WIKI 22; 052.5; letter from Sabinus to his father (E02778)
• Dan HARRIS [aud]                              ; ??
• Caroline KELLY [aud]                         ; 052.7 ; transcribe E02765
• Marian MAKINS               -- WIKI 23; 057.6 + 066.4; PAmh 196 ; PPenn ourobouros (E 16305+)
• Andrew MIHAILOFF        -- WIKI 28; 052.1; and Jessica Sisk, women's wills (E02795-E02796)
• Matthew V. NOVENSON -- WIKI 26; 052.8; Gospel of Matthew fragment (E2746 = POxy002)
• Amanda REITERMAN       -- WIKI 25; 048.3 [received, in process]; transcribe/check E02764
• Jessica SISK                       -- WIKI 29; 066.8; and Andrew Mihailoff, women's wills (E02795-E02796)
• Emlen SMITH                     -- WIKI 20; 048.2;
• Christian TEUCHTLER       -- WIKI 27; 057.9; Thucydides (E02747 + E02814)
• Alison TRAWEEK              -- WIKI 24; 052.4; pictures and designs in the Penn papyri , Homer
• Virginia L. WAYLAND [aud] --            ; 030.2

//end -- created 07au2006; latest update 13no2006//