4care-artefacts – 4care

4CARE-ARTEFACTS

ARTEFACT IDENTIFIERS

Artefact ID	1646
TM ID	TM 31771
Findspot (DEChriM ID)	28 (al-Bahnasā)
Class	Textual
Material	Papyrus
Writing medium	Sheet/roll
Text content	Documentary
Language	Greek
Description	P.Oxy. XII 1592, P.Oxy. 12 1592: Letter from a woman to her “father” This damaged remnant (5 x 10.3 cm) of a papyrus sheet is the response to a letter the writer had previously received. Addressing the recipient as κ(ύρι)έ μου π(άτε)ρ (line 3), the sender profusely expresses the deep honor felt by having been remembered. Lines 6-7 (αὐτὰ γὰρ δεξαμένη) reveal the author to be a woman. The recipient can be assumed to have been an ecclesiastic figure of high rank, due to the formulations and unusual use of nomina sacra. The writer herself seems to show knowledge of scripture (in line 4, μεγαλύνθην καὶ ἠγαλλείασα, reminiscent of Luke 1:46-47), see Luijendijk 2008 and Overcash 2018. Due to the letter being broken off at the top and bottom, no names have been preserved. π(ατ)ὴρ is contracted differently in line 5. Nomina sacra: κε, πρ, πηρ
Selection criteria	Christian terms/formulas/concepts
Date from	300
Date to	399
Dating criteria	Palaeography. The ed.pr. considered this letter (alongside P.Oxy. XII 1492, 1493, and 1494) to be among the oldest Christian documents from Egypt.
Absolute/relative date	Relative date
Archaeological context	Found in al-Bahnasā (Oxyrhynchos) during the excavations of Bernard Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt between 1896 and 1907.
Accession number	Sydney, Macquarie University 615

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Editio princeps
• Grenfell, Bernard P. and Arthur S. Hunt. 1916. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri. Part XII (P. Oxy. XII). London: Egypt Exploration Fund. 285, No. 1592.

Additional bibliography
• Bagnall, Roger S. and Raffaella Cribiore. 2008. Women's Letters from Ancient Egypt, 300 BC–AD 800. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. A14.13, Nr. 90. [https://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb90014.0001.001]
• Blumell, Lincoln H. 2012. Lettered Christians: Christians, Letters, and Late Antique Oxyrhynchus. Leiden/Boston: Brill. 51n114, 222. Plate 9.
• Ghedini, Giuseppe. 1923. Lettere Cristiane dai Papiri Greci del III e IV Secolo. Milano: Presso l'amministrazione di Aegyptus e la società editrice Vita e Pensiero. 131-133, No. 14.
• Koskenniemi, Heikki. 1956. Studien zur Idee und Phraseologie des griechischen Briefes bis 400 n. Chr. Annales Academia Scientiarum Fennicae Ser. B, Volume 102,2. Helsinki: Finnish Society. 76.
• Leclercq, Henri. 1929. "Lettres Chrétiennes." In Dictionnaire d'Archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie (DACL) 8(2), fasc. 90–91, edited by Fernand Cabrol and Henri Leclercq. Paris: Librairie Letouzey & Ané, col. 2683-2885: col. 2785, No. 14.
• Luijendijk, AnneMarie. 2008. Greetings in the Lord. Early Christians and the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 74-78.
• Naldini, Mario. 1968. Il Cristianesimo in Egitto. Lettere private nei papiri dei secoli II-IV. Firenze: Le Monnier. 159-160, No. 31.
• Overcash, Benjamin R. 2018. “Revisiting the Unknown Female Sender of P.Oxy. XII 1592: An Early Example of Female Asceticism?” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik (ZPE) 207, p. 199-205
• Tibiletti, Giuseppe. 1977. "Proposte di lettura." Aegyptus 57: 164-165.
• Wessely, Carl. 1924. “Les plus anciens monuments du christianisme II.” Patrologia orientalis 18(3). 387-388, no. E.
• Zilliacus, Henrik. 1949. Untersuchungen zu den abstrakten Anredeformen und Höflichkeitstiteln im Griechischen. Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum XV(3). Helsingfors [Helsinki]: Societas Scientiarum Fennica. 41.

Authors

Victoria G. D. Landau, 2023

Suggested citation

Victoria G. D. Landau, 2023, "Artefact ID 1646", 4CARE database - Fourth-Century Christian Archaeological Record of Egypt, https://4care-skos.mf.no/artefacts/1646

Json data

External links

TM 31771 DDbDP (PN) HGV atla Digital Library

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