| Artefact ID | 1177 |
| TM ID | TM 33228 |
| Findspot (DEChriM ID) | 28 (al-Bahnasā) | Class | Textual |
| Material | Parchment |
| Writing medium | Sheet/roll |
| Text content | Documentary |
| Language | Greek |
| Archive/Dossier | Dossier |
| Description | PSI III 208: Letter of peace. Small sheet of parchment conserving a short letter written by Sotas to his "beloved brother Petros", with "greetings in the Lord". The letter introduces a certain Herakles, "according to custom" and ends with salutations from Sotas' community to Petros' own Christian community and prayers in God. This letter is categorised as a "letter of peace" rather than letter of recommendation in Teeter 1997: 960. The letter is, like the one from Sotas to Paulos (PSI IX 1041), written on parchment, but here on the flesh side. Although the left side of the sheet is broken, it probably had the same kind of layout with indentations in opening and closing. The handwriting is different, more angular and pointy, and the letters "lack the elegance of the hand that wrote the letter to Paul". Use of nomina sacra (description in Luijendijk 2008: 84-85). For a close parallel, see also P.Alex. 29. About the use of parchment as a writing medium (very rare for letters) suggesting "involvement in the production of Christian codices, for which parchment was the standard material", see Sarri 2018: 86; and about the use of leftover scraps from the production of codices, see Blumell and Wayment: 469-470. |
| Selection criteria | Mention of Christian cult officials/institutions, Mention of Christian individuals/communities, Christian terms/formulas/concepts, Nomina sacra, Writing medium suggestive of Christian context |
| Date from | 250 |
| Date to | 325 |
| Dating criteria | Dated 4th c. in ed. pr. but Luijendijk 2008: 94 reassigned the letter "in the mid- to latter-half of the third century" on palaeographic grounds and dossier connexions (Sotas, bishop of Oxyhrynchos under Maximus (bishop of Alexandria 264-282). See also W. Clarysse's comment on TM 33228, readapting the date. |
| Absolute/relative date | Relative date |
| Archaeological context | - |
| Accession number | Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, inv. 13833. |
ARTEFACT IDENTIFIERS
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