| Artefact ID | 1368 |
| TM ID | - |
| Findspot (DEChriM ID) | 12 (Ismant al-Ḫarāb) | Class | Textual |
| Material | Papyrus |
| Writing medium | Sheet/roll |
| Text content | Documentary |
| Language | Greek |
| Description | Gardner and Worp 2018: Letter addressed to church officials in ancient Kellis A letter remarkable for its size, literary style and scribal production, all of a very high standard and most unusual for a regular letter of this period but the ed. warn that it is problematic to provide a satisfactory context that will explain the content. The document, missing an approximate quarter of the papyrus sheet (lower left-hand side), is of an unusual squarish format (dimensions: H 26.5 x W. 23.7; with margins: at the left 2.5, at the top 1.7 and also at the right 1.0 cm). The writing runs parallel with the fibres on both sides (the recto preserves 43 lines, while 2 lines of an address are on the verso). It shows remarkable care and is the product of a well-trained scribe who must have been accustomed to producing literary texts; he uses lectional signs and spaces as separators. The letter was sent by a Theodoros to certain leaders of a church community in Kellis ("To my lords and most honoured fathers; and to father Psais, the katholikos and priest; and to father -- priest; and to father Psais the administrator, from Theodoros, greetings in God"), presumably from Egypt but whether from Alexandria or from the Nile valley is not evident. Theodoros has been stripped of status and property and includes a register of items that he seeks to recover. He writes extravagantly of his present distress, including a series of what appear to be scriptural quotations or allusions – but none of these corresponds to verses found in the canonical scriptures. As such, this raises several questions: what religious community did Theodoros belong to [apparently not Manichean], who are the church leaders he is writing to, what help did he expect to receive from a provincial village and its clerics? |
| Selection criteria | Mention of Christian cult officials/institutions, Mention of Christian individuals/communities, Christian terms/formulas/concepts, Biblical quote or paraphrase |
| Date from | 350 |
| Date to | 399 |
| Dating criteria | Palaeography: dated to middle or 2nd half of 4th c. in ed. pr. |
| Absolute/relative date | Relative date |
| Archaeological context | Kellis, House 4, Room 13, deposit 2. (Folded sheet of papyrus, found in compacted windblown sand, sterile of sherds). |
| Accession number | Excavations 1993, inv. P93.103 |
ARTEFACT IDENTIFIERS
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