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ARTEFACT IDENTIFIERS

Artefact ID1065
TM IDTM 64435
Findspot (DEChriM ID)12   (Ismant al-Ḫarāb)
ClassTextual
MaterialWood
Writing mediumCodex, Tablet
Text contentSubliterary
LanguageGreek
Archive/DossierArchive
Description

P.Kellis I Gr. 88: A prayer for the ritual of laying on of hands on the sick. The text is written on one side of a wooden board (ca. 9.8 cm x 23.8 cm), the other side contained text that is now illegible. Holes drilled into the board after the text was written suggests that it was intended as part of a small notebook.

Ed.pr. interpreted it to have been used as an amulet, but it has subsequently been interpreted as part of a handbook of liturgical prayers through the identification of an identical prayer for the laying on of hands in the Montserrat Euchologion (P.Barc. 155, 19–26). The first lines of P.Kellis I Gr. 88 are faded, but can be reconstructed through comparison with P.Barc. The prayer calls upon God to protect its wearer from sickness, drawing on Biblical allusions and language. The Kellis text lacks the final invocation of Christ found in P.Barc.

Selection criteriaSubliterary genre (Liturgical)
Date from301
Date to400
Dating criteria

Find context

Absolute/relative dateRelative date
Archaeological context

House 3, Room 8, level 4, North wall 

Accession number

Kellis, excavations Dakleh Oasis Project 1986-, inv. A/5/193 (previously T.Kellis 10)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Editio princeps

• Worp, Klaas, with contributions by J.E.G. Whitehorne and R.W. Daniel. 1995. Greek Papyri from Kellis I. (P.Kell.G.). Nos. 1-90. Dakhleh Oasis Project: Monograph 3. Oxford: Oxbow Books, no. 88, 220–22.

Additional bibliography

• De Bruyn, Theodore. 2017. Making Amulets Christian: Artefacts, Scribes, and Contexts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• De Haro Sanches, Magalie. 2008. “Les papyrus iatromagiques grecs de Kellis”. Lucida Intervalia 37: 79–96.

• Dosoo, Korshi. 2016. “Magical Discourses, Ritual Collections”. In Proceedings of the 27th International Congress of Papyrology, Warsaw 29 July – 3 August 2013, edited by T. Derda, A. Łajtar, J. Urbanik. Warsaw: University of Warsaw, 699–715.

• Maravela, Anastasia. 2014. “Christians Praying in a Graeco-Egyptian Context: Intimations of Christian Identity in Greek Papyrus Prayers”. In Early Christian Prayer and Identity Formation, edited by R. Hvalvik and K. O. Sandnes. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 291–323.

• Worp, Klaas A., Robert W. Daniel, and Cornelia E. Römer. 1997. “Das Gebet zur Handauflegung bei Kranken in P.Barc. 155,9–156,5 und P.Kellis I 88.” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 119: 128–131.

Authors
Håkon F. Teigen, 2022
Suggested citation
Håkon F. Teigen, 2022, "Artefact ID 1065", 4CARE database - Fourth-Century Christian Archaeological Record of Egypt, https://4care-skos.mf.no/artefacts/1065
External links
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