| Artefact ID | 190 |
| TM ID | TM 10046 |
| Findspot (DEChriM ID) | 50 (Qaṣr Qārūn) | Class | Textual |
| Material | Papyrus |
| Writing medium | Sheet/roll |
| Text content | Documentary |
| Language | Greek |
| Archive/Dossier | Archive |
| Description | P.Abinn. 55; P.Lond. II 412: Petition from a deacon. A petition to Flavius Abinnaeus, formerly protector and commander of the cavalry (praefectus alae) at Dionysias, from Aurelius Heron, deacon from the village of Berenikis (Arsinoites). Heron accuses a certain Euporus of the village of Philagris of burglary. Euporus allegedly stole Heron’s clothing. He should be apprehended. Heron justifies his vehement tone by the fact that he is "a deacon of the principal church" (διάκων γὰρ τετύχηκα τῆς καθολικῆς ἐκκλησίας).
On the question whether Abinnaeus was a Christian and for his relationship with monks and clergy, see Bell et al. 1962: 32-33, Barnes 1985: 373-374, Choat 2006: passim, Luijendijk 2008: 35, n. 42, Kaiser 2015: 383, Choat 2017: 47.
Recto: large semi-cursive hand; final greeting and dating formula (added at the bottom) in a more cursive hand; text written along the fibres. |
| Selection criteria | Mention of Christian cult officials/institutions |
| Date from | 351 |
| Date to | 351 |
| Dating criteria | Text dated to February 11, 351 ("After the consulship of Flavius Sergius and Nigrinianus the most illustrious, Mecheir 17"). |
| Absolute/relative date | Absolute date |
| Archaeological context | Purchased as part of a lot comprising Papyri 401-447 from the Reverend Chauncey Murch (b. 1856, d. 1907) on 15 May 1893 (British Library website). While it was previously thought that Fl. Abinnaeus' archive was found in Philadelpheia where he went to live after his retirement, Gallazzi 2015 argued that Fl. Abinnaeus should have left his papers in his office (or in his lodgings), in Dionysias, when he left the army and handed over the command of the castra to others. The material would have been recovered in Qaṣr Qārūn, at the end of the nineteenth century, by antiquities seekers or sebâkh quarrymen and given to merchants of Medînet el-Fayûm, where they would have been intermingled with the documents recovered at Kharabet el-Gerza (Philadelphia), before reaching European collections. |
| Accession number | London, British Library, Pap 412 |
ARTEFACT IDENTIFIERS
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