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ARTEFACT IDENTIFIERS

Artefact ID325
TM IDTM 32415
Findspot (DEChriM ID)34   (Ǧabal al-Ṭārif)
ClassTextual
MaterialPapyrus
Writing mediumSheet/roll
Text contentDocumentary
LanguageGreek
Archive/DossierArchive
Description

P.Nag Hamm. 75: Letter to Sansnos.

Top portion of a letter written by a certain Besarion to "[his] lord father Sansnos" including instructions that an adelphos be given five artabas of wheat.

Recto written along the fibres; Verso blank.

Sansnos is very likely to be the same person as the priest in P.Nag Hamm. 77-78, the monk in P.Nag Hamm. 72 or the "beloved father" in P.Nag Hamm. 68, see M. Choat (Choat and Giorda 2017: 35-36); about the letters addressed to him, see also Bagnall 2018: 80-85.

Selection criteriaChristian terms/formulas/concepts
Date from325
Date to375
Dating criteria

Palaeography. Also, other waste papyri recovered from the same cartonnage used to construct the Nag Hammadi codex VII include contracts dated 341, 346 and 348 (P.Nag Hamm. 65).

Absolute/relative dateRelative date
Archaeological context

The leather covers of eight of the twelve Nag Hammadi codices found in a sealed jar by Egyptian agricultural workers in 1945 (see ID 23) had been strengthened by cartonnage made of waste papyri. This papyrus comes from the richest of these cartonnages, codex VII.

Accession number

Cairo, Coptic Museum Nag Hamm. VII 16 c

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Editio princeps

• Barns, J.W.B., G.M. Browne and J.C. Shelton (ed.). 1981. Nag Hammadi Codices. Greek and Coptic Papyri from the Cartonnage of the Covers. Nag Hammadi Studies XVI. Leiden, 71-72: no. 75.

Additional bibliography

• Bagnall, R. 2018. "The Educational and Cultural Background of Egyptian Monks." In Monastic Education in Late Antiquity, L. Larsen and S. Rubenson (ed.), Cambridge, 75-100 (esp. 80-85).

• Choat, Malcolm and Maria Chiara Giorda (ed.). 2017. Writing and Communication in Early Monasticism. Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity 9. Leiden-Boston, 33-36.

Authors
Valérie Schram, 2021
Suggested citation
Valérie Schram, 2021, "Artefact ID 325", 4CARE database - Fourth-Century Christian Archaeological Record of Egypt, https://4care-skos.mf.no/artefacts/325