Artefact ID | 1275 |
TM ID | TM 17256 |
Findspot (DEChriM ID) | 23 (al-Šayḫ ʿIbāda) | Class | Textual |
Material | Papyrus |
Writing medium | Sheet/roll |
Text content | Documentary |
Language | Greek |
Archive/Dossier | Dossier |
Description | PSI XIII 1342: Letter to an anchorite. Letter sent by Humios and Origenes, two sitologoi from the village of Alabastrine (Hermopolites nome), to "our most holy father, the anachoretes Apa Sabinos" to remind him about some tax due in the name of Biktor, coppersmith. The deacon Paesis is mentioned as an intermediary. Recto: At the top of the letter, is the Christian cryptogram ΧΜΓ followed by the isopsephism ϙθ (= 99 = amen). Cursive handwriting running along the fibres. Verso: initial staurogram preceding the address, written along the fibres. The Apa Sabinos of this letter was identified by Jean Gascou as the founder of a monastery located in the mountain north of Antinoopolis – ἡ βορρινὴ πέτρα ἄπα Σαβίνου / ἡ βορρινὴ πέτρα τῆς Ἀντινοέων, now Dayr al-ʿAḏrāʾ (see Gascou 1994: 85; Fournet 2009: 120 and Gascou 2011). |
Selection criteria | Mention of Christian cult officials/institutions, Christian terms/formulas/concepts, Christian symbols/gestures/isopsephy |
Date from | 400 |
Date to | 450 |
Dating criteria | Dated to c. 330-340 in ed. pr. because of monetary content (= BL VIII 410), but palaeographically reassigned to 5th c. by Claire Préaux (Préaux 1954: 335), a date confirmed by Rémondon 1970: 434 who inclines toward the first half of 5th c. (= BL IX 321). |
Absolute/relative date | Relative date |
Archaeological context | - |
Accession number | Florence, Istituto Papirologico “G. Vitelli”, PSI inv. 1342 |