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ARTEFACT IDENTIFIERS

Artefact ID	333
TM ID	TM 32417
Findspot (DEChriM ID)	34 (Ǧabal al-Ṭārif)
Class	Textual
Material	Papyrus
Writing medium	Sheet/roll
Text content	Documentary
Language	Greek
Archive/Dossier	Archive
Description	P.Nag Hamm. 77: Letter to Sansnos. Bottom part of a letter in two fragments. The address gives the names of the senders: three priests (Zaccheos, Kom-- and Pechenephnibis) writing to their "[beloved] brother" Sansnos ([τῷ ἀγαπητῷ] ἀδελφῷ Σανσνῶτι). The letter concerns the recommendation by "our father, the ... bishop" (ὁ πατὴρ ἡμ[ῶν ὁ ̣ ̣ ̣ ̣]ς̣ ἐπίσκοπος̣) to welcome some persons coming to cut down a few trees. The letter also mentions a boat, which “Besarion have to keep undisturbed”, probably the one that would use the persons to come and take away the wood. Recto: text written along the fibres. Verso: address, along the fibres. Sansnos is the same person as the priest in P.Nag Hamm. 78 and most likely also as the monk in P.Nag Hamm. 72 or the "beloved father" in P.Nag Hamm. 68, see M. Choat (in Choat and Giorda 2017: 35-36); about the letters addressed to him, see also Bagnall 2018: 80-85. About Zaccheos, see also P.Nag Hamm. 78 and M. Choat in Choat and Giorda 2017: 54.
Selection criteria	Mention of Christian cult officials/institutions, Christian terms/formulas/concepts
Date from	325
Date to	375
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 date	Relative date
Archaeological context	The leather covers of eight of the twelve Nag Hammadi codices, which were 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 18 - 19 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, 73-75: no. 77.

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.

• 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 333", 4CARE database - Fourth-Century Christian Archaeological Record of Egypt, https://4care-skos.mf.no/artefacts/333

Json data

External links

TM 32417 DDbDP (PN) Sansnos monk (TM Archive 616) Claremont Colleges Digital Library – Codex VII cartonnage fragments (PNH 75-77 recto, 1973) Claremont Colleges Digital Library – Codex VII cartonnage fragments (PNH 75-79 recto, 1975) Claremont Colleges Digital Library – Codex VII cartonnage fragments (PNH 75-77 verso, 1973) Claremont Colleges Digital Library – Codex VII cartonnage fragments (PNH 75-79 verso, 1975)

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