Artefact ID | 1098 |
TM ID | TM 33702 |
Findspot (DEChriM ID) | 30 (al-Ašmūnayn) | Class | Textual |
Material | Papyrus |
Writing medium | Sheet/roll |
Text content | Documentary |
Language | Greek |
Description | P.Lips. I 43; FIRA 3 183: Arbitration by a bishop Sentence of an arbitration taking place in the entrance of the catholic church under the bishop Plousianos. The quarrel, between "the heirs of Besarion" and Thaesis aeiparthenos, concerns "Christian books" which, according to "the heirs", would have been part of the inheritance and which Thaesis would have appropriated before the division. The judgement arbitration was delivered by the bishop Plousianos as arbitrator in the presence of a town-councellor and of a deacon. The document is interesting because it illustrates the growing role of church authorities as arbitrators and also for the use of the "title" of aeiparthenos, "ever-virgin", a cult epithet of Mary, denoting women who had in some sense devoted themselves to religious life: see Elm 1989. Other women with the same title in P.Lips. I 60 (first dated attestation in 371) and SB XVI 12620. |
Selection criteria | Mention of Christian cult officials/institutions, Mention of Christian individuals/communities |
Date from | 300 |
Date to | 399 |
Dating criteria | Note that a bishop Plousianos is known as officiating in Lykopolis in 325-347 (Worp 1994: 286, n. 10 and 302). |
Absolute/relative date | Relative date |
Archaeological context | Purchased in 1902. The ed. assigns this document to Hermopolis on the grounds that it was acquired together with papyri which certainly came from Hermopolis, but it was possibly written in Lykopolis and transferred later to Hermopolis (see Worp 1994: 286, n. 10 = BL X 95). |
Accession number | Leipzig, Universität 8 |